Author: Press Room

It is somewhat ironic that a young Michelle Findlater did not want to go to university. Next year, Ms Findlater, who is dealer principal at Southern Automobiles in Invercargill, will travel to Boston to study at Harvard, one of the most prestigious universities in the world. She is this year’s recipient of the Janet Lane MNZM Scholarship, awarded by the Motor Industry Training Organisation (MITO) and the Inspiring Futures Foundation in their annual scholarship awards. She will complete the Harvard Division of Continuing Education’s certificate of leadership excellence in strategy and innovation, doing three of the required courses online and…

Police had to deploy road spikes five times to finally end a 75km-long fleeing driver incident in Waikato today.At about 11am, police received reports of a Subaru vehicle driving “dangerously”, and overtaking vehicles through road works in Te Kuiti.Police said the vehicle was located and officers signalled for it to stop, but the vehicle fled and was not pursued.”It continued to drive in a dangerous manner on State Highway 3 towards Hamilton, where more members of the public called to report its erratic driving,” police said. “These updates of the vehicle’s location greatly assisted the police response, by allowing resources…

Shareholders of long-standing Dunedin oat miller Harraway & Sons are preparing to vote on investing millions of dollars to increase capacity in the business. Speaking at an oat industry field day near Gore this week, chief executive Henry Hawkins said shareholders would vote at the company’s annual meeting on Tuesday on whether to contribute $3 million of the $10m required “to do a pile of capital expenditure and refurbishment projects”. The investment project would include buying new milling gear to increase capacity and installing a new grain intake facility to improve the process of delivering oats to its Green Island…

An Auckland school principal has expressed concern at the suitability of the new school lunches programme for Muslim students after being told they were halal-friendly but not halal-certified. Papatoetoe Intermediate principal Pauline Cornwell told 1News she had been asking for certification for the halal meals from the new provider since the beginning of the term. She received a note two days ago, saying the meals were “halal-friendly” rather than halal-certified.”I’ve had to notify our Muslim community and give them the option to opt out of the programme; or to take vegetarian meals; or continue with meals that aren’t certified,” she…

Most job-seekers are open to the use of AI, but are concerned it won’t judge their skills fairly. ADVERTISEMENTMost workers think AI can help them in the job hunt, but seem much more sceptical when artificial intelligence is supposed to assess their skills in the selection process.In 19 industries out of 22 surveyed, job seekers value human judgement more than AI when it comes to assessing non-traditional skills and experience, particularly in the manufacturing (+18%), healthcare (+17%), and legal (+17%) sectors.Furthermore, the Adecco survey on 30,000 workers in 23 countries – including US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy – shows…

Some speed-safety cameras around the country — particularly in the Wellington and Otago — are temporarily out of action, as police hand them over to the NZ Transport Agency.NZTA is taking over camera management, after a 2019 Cabinet decision.As part of that rollout, most fixed speed cameras in Wellington, and all of them in Otago and Southland have stopped issuing infringements — for now. Fines were still being given out from two fixed speed cameras in Wellington.”Before cameras go live on our network, they go through a rigorous testing process,” NZTA said. “Other organisations complete the tests and issue certificates.”Cameras…

The EU Commission will propose to activate the escape clause for defence investments, Ursula von der Leyen announced in Munich. “This will allow Member states to substantially increase their defence expenditure,” she said. ADVERTISEMENTEuropean Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday that she will propose to activate the escape clause in the bloc’s fiscal rules in a bid to “substantially” boost member states’ defence investment. The measure, von der Leyen told the Munich Security Conference, would be done in “a controlled and conditional way” and will be followed by “a wider package of tailor-made tools to address the specific…

Doors slammed as representatives of a post-settlement entity stormed out of a Hawke’s Bay Regional Council meeting over a claim its opposition to a flood spillway of the Wairoa River through Māori land could be a breach of tikanga.The meeting in Wairoa confirmed Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s support for the spillway, which is in the path of 16 homes, six hectares of Māori whenua and 18ha of general title land.The decision advances the $70 million Central Government-funded infrastructure project to the next stage, which will construct comprehensive flood mitigation measures including a spillway and strategic stop bank placements.Three organisations –…

A drug supplier based in Wellington has had nearly $340,000 in assets seized – and could stand to lose more than $2.5 million more.Included in the seized items is a 42-foot yacht, high-end art, bank accounts totalling nearly $168,000, three motor vehicles, a lithograph by New Zealand artist Ralph Hotere and jewellery – including a Hubolt watch estimated to be worth $50,000.Police said the seizure was the result of a “long-running” investigation by the asset recovery unit into the activities of Kenny Leslie McMillan – which were brought to halt in 2019.“The forfeiture orders were issued by the High Court…

A massive project upgrading Auckland’s water quality is a step closer to being finished.The central interceptor is a supersized tunnel running from Mangere Pump Station, through Mount Roskill, Western Springs, on to Point Erin in Herne Bay.When completed next year, it would be more than 16km long.With a capacity for 250,000 cubic metres of wastewater, its seven-year construction has come at a cost of $1.6 billion.It is expected to improve clean waterways and open spaces, reduce stormwater overflows, and ensure capacity for homes and people.The southern half of the tunnel was now completed, and a new pump station opened. The…