Author: Press Room

Two marae along a dangerous stretch of State Highway 1 are calling for the return of the 80km/h speed limit after a crash that killed a motorcyclist on Tuesday.Wehi Wehi Marae and Tūkorehe Marae both sit on SH1 south of Levin, between Ōhau and Manakau.Emergency services were called to a fatal two-vehicle crash near Manakau on Tuesday.The road was closed for nearly four hours with Tūkorehe Marae opening its doors and providing water to waiting drivers.Changes to the speed limit on the stretch of highway came into effect on July 1, 2025, increasing from 80km/h to 100km/h.Alicia Miratana, a descendent…

Butter buyers flinching at $8.60 for a 500g block are unlikely to see this dropping any time soon as Fonterra glimpses more international demand ahead and dismisses talk of discounts or a two-tier system. The high cost of butter on supermarket shelves in a nation with 5million cows has perplexed shoppers struggling to afford the dairy product. The price of butter is about 60% higher than a few years ago. Finance Minister Nicola Willis quizzed Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell about high prices at a meeting on Tuesday. Yesterday in Christchurch, Mr Hurrell opened up on where the dairy giant…

Nanogirl Labs Ltd owes Inland Revenue more than $260,000 and is unlikely to be able to pay any of its unsecured creditors, its liquidators say.The company — founded by Michelle Dickinson and her husband Joe Davis — was placed into liquidation last November.Dickinson told RNZ at the time that a tough business environment was behind the decision.Government funding had also been cut.It had provided science live shows, education and STEM kits to children for eight years.Dickinson told RNZ last November that revenue sources had “dried up”.The biggest set back was the cut to MBIE’s $1.6 million Curious Minds funding, which…

Published on 24/07/2025 – 18:28 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT The former leader of the UK Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn said on Thursday that he is forming a new left-leaning political party to advocate for “mass redistribution of wealth and power” and take on his former colleagues at the ballot box. The new political entity has a website — yourparty.uk — but does not yet have a name. “It’s your party,” Corbyn said. “We’re going to decide (a name) when we’ve had all the responses, and so far the response rate has been massive.” Corbyn said he hoped the new party would have its…

More Dunedin businesses have slammed consultation on a central city cycleway, one describing the process as “a shambles”. Eureka Cafe and Bar owner Sharleen Smith also said explanations offered by the Dunedin City Council for why some Albany St businesses were not initially consulted about the Albany St Connection project included that paperwork “must have blown away in the wind” or was thrown in the rubbish. The project aims to provide a safe walking and cycling connection between the shared Te Aka Ōtākou harbour path, Dunedin’s tertiary area and the CBD. The council says it planned to contact the business…

The head of the NZ Stock Exchange (NZX), Mark Peterson, has resigned and will leave in April next year after close to a decade in the position.He said he was close to achieving certain projects aimed at developing and bringing growth for the company, and it was an appropriate time to be going.”The company is in a strong position financially, including NZX Wealth Technologies now being cashflow positive from external client activity.”NZX has an experienced and talented senior management team, is operating up-to-date and secure technology infrastructure and has a positive organisational culture and relationships with customers, stakeholders and shareholders.”This…

A Selwyn District Council meeting ground to a halt when a public speaker refused to leave the table.Peter Schnell fronted the council demanding answers over a pit on his Creyke Road property, near Darfield, in what is a longstanding dispute between his family and the council.At the meeting, Schnell presented in the public forum but refused to leave his seat until he had an answer from the council.Mayor Sam Broughton was forced to adjourn the meeting “due to the atmosphere in the room”.Schnell told the meeting there was a legal reserve on his property and claimed someone started an extraction…

Published on 24/07/2025 – 15:27 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT Twenty member states have flagged their interest in using loans issued by the European Commission to fund defence projects for an estimated total of over €100 billion, Andrius Kubilius revealed on Thursday. The Commissioner for Defence and Space said on X that he is “impressed to hear that already 20 member states will request the loans”. “More than €100 billion will be requested to ramp up European defence,” he added. The Commission’s loan programme, dubbed SAFE, is a key plank of the ‘Readiness 2030’ proposal that aims to see hundreds of billions of…

A low-level temperature inversion is to blame for parts of Dunedin recording the lowest temperature of the year so far, with the mercury plunging to -6.7C at the airport on Thursday morning.MetService meteorologist Lewis Ferris said the phenomenon was caused by a combination of clear skies, calm conditions, and Dunedin’s topography.”Cold air gets trapped near the ground, while warmer air sits above it.”Swampy Summit, at around 700m above sea level, recorded 8C, significantly warmer than Dunedin Airport despite its much higher elevation.”It’s a little bit backwards to how people would typically think about temperature, we typically think temperature declines with…

ADVERTISEMENT The European Union announced on Thursday a tentative agreement with China to alleviate restrictions the country had placed on critical exports of rare earths, which had caused alarm across the bloc and threatened to paralyse entire industries. The stringent curbs, which began in early April amid a trade spat with the United States, severely affected the global supply of seven rare earth elements and magnets needed for the defence, energy and automotive sectors. “These export controls have placed significant strain on some European companies,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, at the end of…