Author: Press Room

Communities have been cut off in parts of the central North Island today with torrential rain causing widespread flooding, slips, and road closures.The New Zealand Transport Agency said sections of State Highway 3, State Highway 4, State Highway 30, State Highway 31, and State Highway 43 had been closed by slips and surface flooding.The agency said closures on State Highway 30 and State Highway 31 would remain in place overnight.Several state highways closed by floodwaters and slips after downpours hit harder than anticipated.  (Source: 1News)”Crews are actively working on SH31 with diggers, trucks and arborists onsite. Work will resume tomorrow…

Doctors at a private hospital in Gisborne took too long to transfer a woman to higher level care when she started deteriorating after weight loss surgery, a coroner says.Janet Milner, 50, died in Waikato Hospital on 18 July, 2021, after bariatric surgery at the private Chelsea Hospital in Gisborne.In his report, Coroner Bruce Hesketh also found Milner had a type of mechanical heart valve that was recorded incorrectly by her GP to her surgeon and anaesthetist, and this affected her post-operative care.He found Milner was not an appropriate candidate for bariatric surgery on the date she had the surgery due…

Far-right politicians in Poland have expressed their outrage at an alleged plan to give Ukrainians with Polish citizenship their own representation in Poland’s parliament. Politicians from different far-right parties decry any notion of Ukrainians having their own representation in the Sejm, the lower house of Poland’s parliament, with some even calling for a total halt to granting Polish citizenship to Ukrainians. “Ukrainian media are announcing that Ukrainians in Poland will have their own representatives in the Polish Parliament,” Włodzimierz Skalik, MP for the far-right party Confederation of the Polish Crown, said in a Facebook post. “This is a very dangerous…

The Government has locked in a Chinese state-backed shipbuilder to construct two new Cook Strait ferries, Rail Minister Winston Peters has announced.Peters said this afternoon that Guangzhou Shipyard International (GSI), a Shanghai and Hong Kong Stock Exchange-listed enterprise, would complete the vessels by 2029. But final details on the agreements remain under wraps as the Government-owned Ferry Holdings Limited was still negotiating with GSI, along with port agreements with Port Marlborough and Wellington’s Centreport.GSI was the “largest modern integrated shipbuilding enterprise in Southern China, founded in 1954,” Peters boasted in his media release. “We want the best deal possible for…

Te Pāti Māori has gone on the offensive against a former ally and leader of the hīkoi movement, revealing security staff at Parliament allegedly accused him of using offensive, racist and intimidating language towards them.In an email to members, obtained by 1News and other media, the party gave a scathing response to claims from Eru Kapa-Kingi last week that the party was operating a “dictatorship model”. It denied claims of a toxic leadership style and made allegations of its own against him.In the message, Te Pāti Māori said Eru Kapa-Kingi’s claims are “part of a larger issue with his behavior”.It…

ADVERTISEMENT Europe’s coastal landscape could be completely reshaped in less than 100 years. Sea levels are rising at an increasingly faster rate, the European Environment Agency (EEA) has warned in one of its latest reports. It said that, between 2006 and 2018, levels rose by 3.7 millimetres a year, more than twice as fast as during the 20th century. If emissions remain high, sea levels could reach between 0.63 and 1.02 metres by 2100. EEA simulations also considered the worst-case scenario: a rapid disintegration of the polar ice sheet. This would lead to an increase in sea levels of up…

Council hopefuls are enduring a nervous wait in some centres as several races remain too close to call under provisional results.In Invercargill, the final seat at the table is currently held by a razor thin margin of seven votes.Westland’s mayoral race is separated by just four votes, while further north, Kaipara’s mayoralty is a three-horse race with 31 votes in it.Local authorities are still working their way through special votes and final results are not expected until later this week.So what happens if it’s a dead heat?Invercargill City Council has provided some clarification, saying the winner would be determined by…

The Speaker has set out plans to crack down on standards in Parliament after Oriini Kaipara’s maiden speech last week went well over time and was followed by an unsanctioned haka.Gerry Brownlee suspended Parliament for about 10 minutes and left the chamber last Thursday after Kaipara’s speech was followed by first a waiata from her supporters, then the haka.He delivered a ruling on the disruption caused as Parliament began sitting again on Tuesday afternoon.Supplementary questions would now be entirely at his discretion, he would make more use of the punishments Parliament’s speaker can hand down to MPs and he would…

The Reserve Bank is planning to relax lending restrictions that could help more first-home buyers get into the property market.It’s proposed from December 1 that banks will be able to lend to more people with smaller deposits, the central bank announced earlier today.Under the planned changes, banks would be allowed to give 25% of their new home loans to owner-occupiers with deposits of less than 20%, up from the existing 20% limit.The Reserve Bank has also proposed allowing an increase in lending to property investors with deposits of less than 30%, going from 5 to 10% of new loans.Reserve Bank…

The South Island’s largest supermarket was officially opened in Rolleston, in Canterbury, this morning. The 8100sq m Pak’nSave Rolleston cost about $50m to build and will be the largest retail outlet in the South Island. The Levy Rd supermarket has 485 car parks and employs about 250 staff.  The new supermarket is owned by Phill and Sarah Blackburn. The Blackburns have managed New World Wānaka, New World Balclutha, New World Ilam in Christchurch and Pak’nSave Riccarton. “We’re incredibly proud to welcome our community and customers through the doors today,” Phill Blackburn said. “Our team has worked tirelessly to get ready and…