Author: Press Room

Two teenagers have been arrested after a school staff worker was allegedly robbed on her way to work in Whangārei.Police said a laptop the believed had been stolen, which contained irreplaceable study material had also been recovered.It’s understood the Mandarin language assistant was threatened with a knife while walking through an alleyway near Onerahi School about 3pm on Friday.At the time, police said the offenders, who were clad all in black, made off with a bag containing the woman’s laptop, wallet and other items.The woman was not physically harmed but the daylight incident rattled the harbourside suburb of Onerahi.In a…

Westpac is now the fourth major bank to drop some of its fixed home loan rates this week.It comes after Kiwibank lowered some of its rates this morning – and ANZ and BNZ did earlier this week – ahead of next week’s official cash rate decision by the Reserve Bank. Effective from tomorrow, the bank’s one-year special rate for those with 20% equity would drop 10 basis points to 4.79%, its lowest rate on any term since June 2022. Its six-month and 18-month fixed special rates would drop to 5.09% (down 20 basis points) and 4.79% (down 16 basis points),…

A 28-year-old man and 38-year-old woman have been charged with defrauding more than $1 million over the past two years for cancer treatment that police say was never needed.Police said a search warrant was executed today at an address in Wānaka after an investigation into the pair.Detective Senior Sergeant Shane Dye said they had recently moved from the West Coast to Wānaka where “they had been living the high life with rented properties and high end European cars”.”Their lavish lifestyle has been funded with money allegedly defrauded from family, friends and associates, for cancer treatment that inquiries show was never…

By Felix Walton of RNZ The cruise sector hopes crisis talks at this year’s industry conference will help chart a course through rocky financial waters. The theme of this year’s NZ Cruise Association Conference – ‘This is Not a Drill’ – speaks for itself. Passenger numbers have fallen year on year, down 20 percent last summer and projected to fall another 20 percent this year, but NZCA chief executive Jacqui Lloyd maintains an optimistic outlook. “It is a little [like] crisis talks, but there is also a lot of positivity,” she told RNZ, between panel discussions from the conference in Napier.…

An Auckland dog owner has been sentenced to community service and ordered to pay reparations after her rottweiler attacked and seriously injured a passerby. The incident occurred in October 2023 in the Auckland suburb of New Lynn. The victim had stepped aside to let the dog pass as it was being walked by the owner’s 15-year-old son. However, the rottweiller attacked, leaving the victim with a 10-15cm wound on her arm that required surgery. The dog was put down at the owner’s request four days after the attack. The woman was charged and pleaded guilty at the Auckland District Court…

Critics of the Government’s decision to phase out nearly all Māori words from early reader books are describing the move as damaging.An education ministry report shows Minister Erica Stanford decided late last year to cut Māori words, except for characters’ names, from any new books in the Ready to Read Phonics Plus series.Some of those words include puku (stomach), ka kite (goodbye) and ka pai (good).Stanford says the decision will help children master English phonics, despite the ministry’s report saying there is “limited evidence” about the impact of using te reo and that expert opinion about the use of non-English…

The Commerce Commission has warned national retailer Kmart NZ over an environmentally friendly claim likely to mislead consumers. The commission said the national retailer might have breached the Fair Trading Act in making unsubstantiated claims in its “100% sustainably sourced cotton” advertising. Commission general manager Vanessa Horne said greenwashing was a real concern, as well-intentioned consumers were led to believe products were more environmentally friendly than they actually were. “Consumers have a right to clear and accurate information, and greenwashing makes it virtually impossible for a consumer to identify if a product is genuinely sustainable,” Horne said. “Kmart’s absolute claim…

A fine given to a person for starting a smoky burn-off near Hastings is being described by an advocate as giving them “an economic license to burn”.The fire in the Longlands area on July 27 was judged to have been a breach of Hawke’s Bay Regional Council airshed rules and led to a $300 fine.On the same day, a National Environmental Standard air pollution breach was recorded in Hastings, of 51 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic metre. The limit is 50 micrograms.Former Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chairman Rex Graham, who regularly sends photos to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council,…

Electric vehicles are often advertised with a range of 400, 500, even 600km. But don’t expect yours to get that far on one battery charge in the “real world”. Transport and sustainability expert Hussein Dia explains. Many electric vehicles (EVs) now come with range estimates of 400–500 kilometres, while some premium models claim ranges of more than 600km.Drivers new to EVs may look at the range figures given by the manufacturer and think that’s how far their new car will go on a single battery charge.But this isn’t quite accurate. In reality, an EV’s actual range is usually less. Recent…

Average home values across New Zealand have dropped by 13.1% since the market peaked in late 2021, according to the latest QV House Price Index.The national average now sits at $909,671, down from $1,047,132 at the height of the boom.The latest quarterly data showed a 0.5% decline in value over the three months to the end of the July with prices largely flat compared to the same time last year.Major centres including Auckland (-1.2%), Wellington (-2.3%) and Dunedin (-1.5%) saw further drops this quarter, but some cities bucked the trend, with Tauranga (1.7%), Queenstown (2.4%) and Invercargill (1.2%) posting modest…