Author: Press Room

Te Papa has been named in the top 1% “Best of the Best attractions worldwide” in the TripAdvisor 2025 Travellers’ Choice Awards.The museum in the capital was also labelled the best attraction in New Zealand, and the fifth best attraction in the South Pacific.Its recognition was backed by exceptional visitor feedback, with the museum maintaining a 4.7-star rating out of 5 based on over 14,415 reviews, with 11,127 five-star reviews contributing to the museum’s outstanding reputation.Visitors frequently highlighted the museum’s Māori taonga, its Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War exhibition, and the Te Taiao Nature immersive natural history area, according…

New Zealanders are losing millions of dollars a year to “subscription traps”, one bank says.Westpac said it had helped to stop more than $25m in unwanted charges being processed on to the cards of unwitting customers.Westpac NZ head of customer care operations Peter Barnes said many overseas-based websites were selling goods and services that hooked customers into recurring subscription payments.The bank implemented a block in April 2024 and had stopped 20,000 customers from making these sorts of payments within the past three months.Barnes said the block was implemented after a spike in customer complaints and feedback on overseas subscriptions. Many…

ADVERTISEMENT The European Union needs to “do more and faster” to project its influence against an increasingly dominant China, former European Commission President José Manuel Barroso has told Euronews. “Europe should not be a kind of geopolitical teenager. We have to become adults responsible for our own future,” Barroso, who helmed the EU executive between 2004 and 2014, said in an interview ahead of the EU-China summit taking place on Thursday in Beijing. “Instead of criticising others, what we have to do is our own homework,” he went on, adding that “it’s not because of China or the US” that…

By Susan Edmunds of RNZ People working in hospitality have been getting paid a rate that is closer and closer to the minimum wage over the years. The Restaurant Association has produced its latest remuneration report, which shows what people are being paid on average around the country. But economists say it also highlights how little many hospitality jobs are paying. A bar manager is now being paid an average $32.20 an hour, a barista $26.91, a breakfast chef $29.23. Café managers are earning an average $29.86, chef de partie $29.63, and duty managers $29.16. General managers are earning $44.85,…

A coroner is calling for legislation to control corporate boxing events after Christchurch man Kain Parsons died after receiving 30 blows to the head in a charity bout.Coroner Heather McKenzie’s findings and recommendations following Parson’s death come as the Government considers repealing the law governing the sport.The coroner’s 140-page report, released on Wednesday, comes almost seven years after Parsons died as a result of severe head injuries sustained during the Fight for Christchurch event.His family has previously called for corporate boxing to be banned and, while their view has not changed, they largely support the coroner’s recommendations for tougher controls.Coroner…

By Anan Zaki of RNZ The head of dairy giant Fonterra says the co-operative cannot and will not have different butter prices for local and overseas customers. It comes amid soaring prices for the household staple, with Stats NZ data showing the price of a 500g block of butter rising 46.5 percent in the year ended May. Other dairy products such as milk and cheese have also recorded steep price increases amid global demand. Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell fronted the media in Christchurch on Thursday, after a highly publicised – but regular – meeting with Finance Minister Nicola Willis on Tuesday,…

The founders of the collapsed Du Val companies will continue to have their assets frozen and their passports held by the court, the High Court has ruled.Du Val is in statutory management, owing more than $300 million, and its main owners, Charlotte and Kenyon Clarke, are in receivership, with a preservation order on their assets.The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) obtained the interim order last August and the couple fought back against that at a hearing last month but the court has agreed with the FMA.In laying out the background to her decision, Justice Anderson said the High Court had the…

Amid concerns around the behaviour of some homeless people in central Nelson, one charity is renewing calls for a night shelter in the city.Earlier this month, Simon Duffy from business promoter Uniquely Nelson told Nelson City Council that there had been an “escalation” of people living on the street over the past 2 years.He was joined by Lucinda Blackley-Jimson, chief executive of the Nelson Provincial Museum – the “epicentre” of homeless issues in the city.She described incidents of smoking, taking drugs, public urination and threatening behaviour impacting the safety and well-being of museum staff and visitors.“While we have absolute sympathy…

The government is calling the controversial ‘Everyone Must Go’ campaign a winner for attracting Australian tourists to New Zealand shores. The campaign was ridiculed when it was launched. Media in the United States and United Kingdom called it tone-deaf, while opposition MPs said it made New Zealand sound like a clearance-sale item. But Tourism New Zealand stats show it delivered 7981 additional visitors between March and May. Tourism and Hospitality Minister Louise Upston said that was more than 1000 additional visitors than expected. She described the campaign as a winner, aimed at grabbing people’s attention – and it did. “We…

Philip Morris allegedly pitched draft legislation to NZ First as part of a lobbying campaign for its Heated Tobacco Products, according to documents released in litigation against a US vaping company.The documents claim Philip Morris corporate affairs staff “reached out to NZ First to try and secure regulation to advantage IQOS” — the Heated Tobacco Product (HTP) with a monopoly in the New Zealand market.RNZ searched through more than 10,000 documents relating to New Zealand, mostly from 2018 and 2019, which were released as part of legal action in the US against vaping company JUUL.The documents shed new light on…