Author: Press Room

The Associate Agriculture Minister has defended his decision to consult only the pork industry and give them a decade to transition to new pig welfare reforms, during a grilling from opposition MPs.Andrew Hoggard appeared before the Primary Production Select Committee on Thursday, which was hearing a limited number of oral submissions on the Animal Welfare Amendment (Regulations for Management of Pigs) Bill after the process was fast-tracked.The Government’s bill reverses a planned ban on farrowing crates – which stop a sow from turning around in order to avoid crushing her piglets – and instead keeps them in use until 2035…

Europe should forge a deeper strategic partnership with Turkey in response to emerging global challenges, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday on his first official visit to Ankara, which has played a crucial mediating role in the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza. Merz was speaking alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, just days after Turkey and the United Kingdom finalised a multi-billion-euro deal for the sale of 20 Eurofighter Typhoon jets. Germany, part of the consortium that manufactures the advanced fighter aircraft, recently lifted its longstanding objection to their export to Turkey. Merz’s visit also comes amid reports of…

Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand has granted consent, under the Overseas Investment Act, for Delmec Unlimited — part of the Dawn Meats Group — to take a 65% stake in Alliance Group. Earlier this month, the co-operative’s farmer shareholders voted in favour of the $270 million transaction. Once the final regulatory and legal steps required have been completed, the new joint venture will become operational. The OIA decision said the acquisition of the shares would give Dawn Meats an indirect freehold interest in about 1285.471ha of land and a leasehold interest in about 387ha. The land mainly comprised…

Auckland chef Henry Onesemo took his Samoan flag to Milan for the Best Chef Awards, proud to represent his roots on the world stage.”I even took my little Samoan flag and I busted it out every chance I could,” he says. “It was very humbling… meeting the Mount Rushmores of cooking… it was such an amazing experience.”His restaurant TALA, which he co-owns with his wife Debby Onesemo, was awarded a “knife” at The Best Chef Awards in Milan, making Onesemo the only Samoan chef to receive that honour.”It reinforces that Sāmoan food has a place on the world stage,” he…

A “poor economic climate” has resulted in the closure of a nearly 40-year-old Dunedin motorcycle business. MCR Motorcycle Replacements, which supplied new Yamaha and Royal Enfield models, has had a presence in Dunedin since the mid-1980s. The current owner, who declined to give his name, confirmed the business officially closed last Friday. He had operated it for the past two and a-half years and it closed “due to a poor economic climate”, he said. The motorcycle retailer started out in North Rd, was later based in Hillside Rd and Maclaggan St, before settling at the Crawford St premises — next…

Netflix’s new thriller, A House of Dynamite, shows how the US might respond were a nuclear strike imminent. Mark Lacy asks, how far are we from this terrifying situation becoming a reality?As a teenager in the 1980s, I was shown a BBC drama in school called Threads that depicted the impact of a nuclear strike on a city in northern England. Threads is a brutal vision of a terrifying reality that I imagine haunted many people in the years before the end of the cold war.For younger generations who have so far experienced a world with pandemic lockdowns, wars in…

Stopping leachate from an old dump site entering a Tauranga stream will cost the council nearly $1.5m to fix.Tauranga City Council must carry out infrastructure upgrades to an old Cambridge Rd landfill site to comply with an abatement notice issued in July 2024 by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.The notice related to unauthorised discharges of leachate and stormwater from a historic overflow landfill area at 278 Cambridge Rd into the Kopurererua Stream.The stream runs through the Kopurererua Valley, one of Australasia’s largest urban wetlands home to native birds and fish.Kopurererua Valley is one of Australasia’s largest urban wetlands. (Source:…

Fonterra is no different from any other business — if any part of it is not performing, then it needs to be fixed or sold, Otago Federated Farmers chairman Luke Kane believes. Mr Kane was responding to yesterday’s shareholder vote which saw farmer shareholders overwhelmingly vote in favour of the sale of household brands such as Mainland and Anchor to French dairy giant Lactalis. While the threshold required to approve the sale was more than 50%, 88% of the votes cast backed the $4.22billion sale. Fonterra is targeting a tax-free capital return of $2 per share to shareholders and unit…

A “traitor” soldier with links to far-right groups and who tried to spy on New Zealand should be sent to prison, the Crown says.The soldier, whose name is for now suppressed, was at a court martial at Linton Military Camp near Palmerston North in August, and was sentenced to two years of military detention after admitting a charge of attempted espionage.At the Court Martial Appeal Court in Wellington on Thursday, the Crown argued the soldier should instead serve a sentence in a civilian prison.The defence said the soldier’s sentence was appropriate.RNZ was also seeking permission to appeal against the ruling…

People have been urged to stay inside their homes as firefighters tackle a large fire which broke out at a former tavern in Palmerston North this evening.Fire and Emergency NZ crews were called after the blaze broke out at the old Fitzherbert Tavern on Ferguson St, between Fitzherbert Ave and Linton St, around 5.15pm.Thick smoke billows from a fire at a liquor store in Palmerston North. (Source: Supplied / Greg Olsen) (Source: Supplied)Eight fire trucks, a command unit and a support unit are at the scene, a Fire and Emergency spokesperson told 1News.”The fire is producing a large amount of…