New Zealand police open homicide inquiry after at least six die in Loafers Lodge blaze
A fire that erupted in a Wellington hostel, killing at least six people, is being investigated as arson by New Zealand’s police, who have started a homicide inquiry.
Nobody has been arrested, Inspector Dion Bennett said on Wednesday. He would not say why officers believed the fire was deliberately lit, or whether accelerants were used.
Continue reading...Emergency services called to 92-room Loafers Lodge hostel just after midnight and a number of people remain unaccounted for
New Zealand was in shock on Tuesday after a “worst nightmare” fire at a hostel in the capital Wellington left at least six people dead and 11 others missing.
The Loafers Lodge hostel in Newtown, in Wellington’s south, caught alight just after midnight on Tuesday. By dawn, the top floors of the building were charred black.
Continue reading...The former actor, drag performer, sex worker and radio host pulled off a surprise victory as a Labour MP and later played a pivotal role in decriminalising prostitution
Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark has led tributes to Georgina Beyer, the world’s first openly transgender MP, who has died.
Friends announced “with the heaviest of hearts” on Facebook on Monday that the 65-year-old had died at a Wellington hospice.
Continue reading...New Zealand city council says ‘you would be seriously injured or killed’ by lamps weighing up to 15kg, like a microwave or bulk sack of rice
New Zealand’s capital is being plagued by hundreds of potentially deadly street lights that have begun dropping without warning and smashing on the footpath below.
Wellington city council spokesperson Richard MacLean said the council was aware of the problem. The lamp heads weighed up to 15kg (33lb), he said – about equivalent to a bulk sack of rice, full-grown border collie or a microwave oven. They were falling from heights of 4-6m.
Continue reading...New Zealand’s anti-vaccine protesters have been evicted from parliament grounds after days of protests, with a number arrested after clashes with police. The protesters, inspired by the 'siege of Ottawa', in which truckers paralysed the city and caused a state of emergency, led a convoy of several hundred vehicles to parliament. A number stayed overnight, pitching tents on the lawns
At first I was full of dread but as I pressed on I noticed things I had never seen in daylight
I’m scared of getting lost in the bush. This is unusual for an essayist. Most of us like to go for a walk in disorienting landscapes and get completely lost so that we can write about it.
Rebecca Solnit wrote that getting lost is “a voluptuous surrender” but this sounds to me like walking in increasingly frantic circles, getting cold and hungry as night closes in, until you have no option but to dig yourself a little hole and cover yourself in leaves.
Continue reading...NSW urgently investigating four mystery cases overnight as premier Gladys Berejiklian announces Sydney restrictions. Follow all the latest updates, live
Question time ends.
There is one more of those before the winter break.
‘I’m sure there are blokes that dislike me’ - Barnaby Joyce’s response to the concerns of Nationals women.
The serious concerns these women have about Joyce’s return to a leadership position are worthy of a serious response - not one that deliberately minimises them.
Wellington’s plan to boost urban density has set off a predictable cycle of conflict and outrage – but there is a way out
It’s like a slow-moving nightmare, in which the same battle is fought over and over again, without resolution.
The city council in Wellington, New Zealand’s capital, has announced plans to house an extra 74,000 people – plans that would require some low-rise inner-city villas to be replaced by dense modern apartments.
Continue reading...City councillor says capital’s water issues may be ‘tip of the iceberg’ for rest of country
Wellington City Council has alerted Island Bay residents to another burst water pipe, frustrating the city’s residents who are weary of harbour pollution, streets filled with brown sludge and some homes with no water at all.
Since the start of the year the capital has had one water set-back after another. The iconic Oriental Bay was closed to swimmers on some of the hottest summer days due to dangerous levels of pollution, two major city wastewater pipes burst, dozens of homes lost water access, and streets were flooded due to worn-out infrastructure.
Continue reading...The Flight of the Conchords star, who is guest curating the New Zealand festival, reflects on his career and the cost of compromise
Although he’s one of Wellington’s best-known pop cultural exports – as a musician, songwriter, actor and comedian – nobody makes a fuss when Bret McKenzie arrives in a central city cafe.
Fuss wouldn’t be entirely unwarranted. McKenzie’s portrayal of a particular type of socially awkward, deadpan New Zealander helped put the country’s dry humour on the map. And the comedy duo Flight of the Conchords – in which he performs with Jemaine Clement – so enraptured Hollywood that he could still be there if he wanted to, churning out season after season of the acclaimed TV show of the same name.
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