Author: Press Room
Embers from an overnight fire that wasn’t properly extinguished caused significant damage to a popular Auckland bush track, forcing its closure.Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) were called to a vegetation fire at Fairy Falls Track in the Waitākere Ranges Regional Park on November 2.Firefighters hiked 25 minutes into the track to reach the blaze, which scorched an area about 150 by 75 metres — larger than a football field or three Olympic-sized swimming pools laid end to end.FENZ said the damage was significant.Auckland Council has yet to confirm the cause of damages from the fire.The bridge that crossed the…
Lower interest rates may be saving first-home buyers more than $480 a month, and helping more people into the property market.Cotality and Westpac have released their latest First-Home Buyer Report, which shows first-time buyers accounted for 27.7% of property purchases nationwide in the September quarter.That is a record, up from a previous high of 26.9% in December.In the wider Wellington region, they were responsible for 36% of property purchases in the first nine months of the year. Rotorua was another area where they were strong, at 32%.The data shows they are buying houses with smaller deposits. Westpac said the average…
Analysis – Once a liberal darling and champion of progressive policing, former police commissioner Andrew Coster has gone to ground, his reputation and legacy in tatters.Coster is on leave from his role as chief executive of the government’s Social Investment Agency after a damning Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) report identified “serious misconduct” among the upper echelons of police.An employment process is now underway with the Public Service Commission.Speaking at Parliament on Tuesday evening, Attorney General Judith Collins said the IPCA report identified a massive failure of leadership: “If this was me being named in this report, I would be…
A third person has been charged with the murder of 29-year-old Tristan Oakes, who was shot in his Te Puke home last month. Oakes died in hospital after being admitted with a gunshot wound on the morning of Saturday, October 25. A few days later, two men, aged 39 and 40, were arrested and charged with murder. Today, Detective Senior Sergeant Natalie Flowerdew-Brown said police had arrested a 24-year-old Te Puke man, who was also charged with murder. It brought the total number of people charged with murder in the case to three. Flowerdew-Brown said three other Te Puke men,…
Shortly after 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani won the election to become mayor of New York City, various far-left-wing parties in Europe celebrated his victory as a blueprint for what could be possible for their agendas in Europe. “Whether New York or Berlin: We all want affordable rents and a good life for our families and friends,” Germany’s The Left party wrote in a post on X. In France, the leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, Manon Aubrey, declared Mamdani’s victory as “a lesson for the left everywhere: it is not by watering down economic liberalism that we win, but by…
Police Minister Mark Mitchell will be making a Ministerial Statement about the Jevon McSkimming situation ahead of question time at Parliament today.It comes after the release yesterday of a damning report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority, which spoke of “serious misconduct” among senior police relating to the handling of allegations against former deputy commissioner McSkimming.
Published on 12/11/2025 – 7:00 GMT+1 Since Russia’s full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine, the EU and its Member States are taking on the largest rearmament effort since the 1950s. Recent research says almost 8 in 10 Europeans are concerned about the EU’s defence and security in the next five years, but are they willing to pay for it? Tonight on Euronews’ brand new debating show The Ring, we will ask MEPs Martin Schirdewan from The Left and Riho Terras, a former army general from the European People’s Party what this investment in defence will mean for Europeans. Broadcasting from…
Rainbow sand from Educational Colours and coloured sand from Creatistics has been recalled because Tremolite (a naturally occurring asbestos in quartz) has been found in samples during lab testing. The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) said today that people need to stop using the products immediately. “We are taking immediate precautionary action, while we establish the extent and risk of the potentially contaminated product,” Ian Caplin, MBIE’s product safety spokesperson said. “We urge anyone who has bought these products, either for personal use or potential use in a school or other setting to act immediately. Stop using the…
For the past four years, economist and philanthropist Gareth Morgan has been working on a giant art project north of Wellington, which he says has cost “tens of millions” of dollars.Now, the well-known businessman and former political figure is ready to unveil his new sculpture trail, which features a 25-tonne feather, a giant seat and a rainbow bridge, among others – to the public.Morgan says public art brings joy to people of all ages. “It’s incredible to see it. I just thought, ‘wouldn’t it be cool to generate something on a far grander scale down in Wellington’?”The massive park bench…
A tiny West Coast community in one of New Zealand’s most pristine environments is challenging the need to chlorinate its drinking water supply.Haast resident Paul Elwell-Sutton says the remote township of about 80 people used to enjoy some of the purest water in the country, until the arrival of the new water regulator, Taumata Arowai.The Westland District Council moved promptly to chlorinate small water supplies up and down the coast to make sure they met new drinking water safety standards.“But our water testing records show we’ve always had pathogen-free water,” Elwell-Sutton said.“It comes from bores 11 metres deep under the…