Author: Press Room

Whakatāne District Council has confirmed that there is no Meet the Candidates event booked at the Whakatāne War Memorial Centre on Thursday.A Facebook post has been circulating on local community pages advertising a local government election event at the Whakatāne War Memorial Centre at 6pm.The event was first promoted two weeks ago on several community pages as being booked for the centre’s reception lounge and, in the past few days, it has been promoted as being held at the Whakatāne Little Theatre.The person who created the post said the council had been paid for the booking.However, the council confirmed that…

A teacher giving evidence at the trial of the woman accused of murdering her two children and leaving them in suitcases broke down in tears as she described to the court how they were adored at school.Warning: This story mentions suicide.It is the first week of the trial of Hakyung Lee, born as Ji Eun Lee, at the High Court at Auckland before Justice Geoffrey Venning, which is expected to last four weeks.The bodies of Minu Jo and Yuna Jo, aged six and eight at the time of their deaths in 2018, were discovered in suitcases almost four years after…

The mother of Tom Phillips’ children has voiced strong opposition to the production of a documentary about the disappearance of Phillips and the couple’s three children.Tom Phillips was fatally shot by police after they were called to reports of a burglary in the early hours of Monday morning. Phillips had been evading police since December 2021 with his three children – Jayda, Maverick, and Ember.A police officer was shot in the head and shoulder, and remained in a “serious but stable” condition in Waikato Hospital.One child was uninjured at the scene of the shooting, while the remaining two were found…

Increased flights between Dunedin and Auckland will give “a lot more choice” to southern travellers, Dunedin Airport says. Jetstar announced yesterday it planned to temporarily add three extra flights per week to its direct service between Dunedin and Auckland. They would operate Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, starting October 26, and provide an estimated 24,000 additional seats until May 17 next year. It also planned to add a new thrice-weekly service between Queenstown and Brisbane, in time for next year’s snow season. That seasonal service would provide more than 17,000 low-fare seats between June and October 2026, the airline said. Dunedin…

Jetstar is set to ramp up its presence in New Zealand, adding more than 660,000 new seats a year across domestic and trans-Tasman routes.Jetstar said it would add “close to” 500,000 seats across five of its most popular domestic and trans-Tasman routes, and was adding two new services – one domestic and one to Australia. Around 135,000 seats would be created with new daily flights from Hamilton to Christchurch, and 17,000 would be added with flights three times a week from Queenstown to Brisbane between June and October 2026.To support the changes, it said an additional A320 aircraft would be…

Police have taken a person into custody without incident after a Wellington building was cordoned off following a reported sighting of a firearm.Officers entered the Webb St building at 6.15pm at took the person into custody without incident.”Police will remain at the address conducting further enquiries this evening,” a spokesperson said.Loud bangs were heard earlier this afternoon, with footage captured by 1News showed two officers firing towards the Webb St property, which had been cordoned off in the suburb of Te Aro.Police have confirmed the bangs were not gunshots but “distraction devices”, and no injuries had been reported.Loud bangs could…

Published on 10/09/2025 – 17:36 GMT+2 ADVERTISEMENT Austria’s attempt to prevent the EU categorising nuclear power and natural gas as “sustainable” for the purposes of EU investment schemes was dismissed by the EU court on Wednesday.  Including the two sources of power within the EU taxonomy as sustainable was a “gradual” measure which would “allow security of supply”, judges found. A traditional anti-nuclear member state, Austria filed a lawsuit against the European Commission in October 2022 but the Luxembourg-based General Court backed the EU executive, arguing that it didn’t exceed its powers when including nuclear energy and fossil gas in the…

After fighting for 10 years to stop an eight-storey building being put at a strategic location at The Heads in Whakatāne, resident Linda Conning is devastated the council wants to sell an adjoining cottage property.The former Harbourmaster’s cottage at 1a Muriwai Dr is one of three properties Whakatāne District Council is proposing to sell as they are surplus to its needs.The other properties being proposed for sale are 21 Hodges Rd, Waimana, and 42 Te Tahi St, Whakatāne.The Muriwai Dr property was purchased by the Whakatāne Harbour Board in 1920 for harbour operations.For a short time, the house was used…

An urgent injunction preventing media, police, and Oranga Tamariki from publishing certain details about the investigation into Tom Phillips and his family will be heard at the High Court tomorrow.Tom Phillips was fatally shot by police after they were called to reports of a burglary in the early hours of Monday morning. Phillips had been evading police since December 2021 with his three children – Jayda, Maverick, and Ember.A police officer was shot in the head and shoulder, and remained in a “serious but stable” condition in Waikato Hospital.One child was uninjured at the scene of the shooting, while the…

Whanganui’s first Māori ward election is under scrutiny after an embarrassing blunder left Māori candidate profiles out of official voting packs.One candidate has called for the Māori ward referendum running alongside the election to be scrapped, saying the omission puts the integrity of the binding result in question.Voting papers delivered this week list the names of the five Māori ward candidates – Kiritahi Firmin, Julie Herewini, Geoff Hipango, Hayden Potaka and Phil (Bear) Reweti – but their official statements are missing from the candidate booklet sent to every voter.External electoral officer for the Whanganui District Council election, Warwick Lampp, of…