Suspect, 48, was earlier charged with arson for allegedly setting fire to a couch and the hostel in Wellington
New Zealand police have filed five murder charges against the man they say lit a deadly fire at a Wellington hostel two weeks ago.
Police had earlier filed arson charges against the 48-year-old, accusing him of setting fire to a couch and to the hostel itself. He has remained in jail since his arrest two days after the fire.
Continue reading...Move called ‘historic’ but agreement with Australia forecast to raise Britain’s GDP by only 0.08% by 2035
The UK’s post-Brexit trade deals with Australia and New Zealand have come into force, a moment lauded by the government as “historic” despite critics arguing they give away “far too much for far too little”.
The trade agreements – the first of those negotiated after Britain’s EU exit to enter into force – come after George Eustice, who was the environment secretary when the UK-Australia trade pact was struck in December 2021, admitted it was “not actually a very good deal” for Britain.
Continue reading...Phillip Mehrtens, who has been held hostage since February, makes the claim in a new video released by the separatist group
Rebels in Indonesia’s Papua region have threatened to shoot a New Zealand pilot being held hostage if countries do not comply with their demand to start independence talks within two months, a new video released by the group shows.
Guerrilla fighters in Papua’s central highlands, who want to free Papua from Indonesia, kidnapped Phillip Mehrtens after he landed a commercial plane in the mountainous area of Nduga in February.
Continue reading...Intellectual Property Office rules that New Zealand beekeepers’ attempt to stop Australian producers using the name did not meet necessary requirements
New Zealand honey producers have lost their latest battle to trademark mānuka honey, the latest blow in a years-long fight to stop Australian beekeepers using the lucrative name.
The Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand ruled on Monday that New Zealand mānuka beekeepers’ attempt for a trademark did not meet necessary requirements, and the term mānuka was descriptive.
Continue reading...Move to power Glenbrook steel plant with electricity from renewables rather than coal will reduce emissions by 1% – or the equivalent of taking 300,000 cars off the road
New Zealand has announced its largest emissions reduction project in history, transitioning from coal to renewable electricity at the country’s major steel plant in a move that the government says is equivalent to taking 300,000 cars off the road.
The government will spend $140m on halving the coal used at Glenbrook steel plant to recycle scrap steel, replacing that generating power with an electric-powered furnace. The plant will contribute $160m to the project’s cost.
Continue reading...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...Record-breaking rainfall hit Auckland in January, only to be followed by Cyclone Gabrielle ravaging the North Island in February
The New Zealand government is allocating NZ$1.1bn to help communities recover from Cyclone Gabrielle and flooding.
The funds from the 2023 budget are to cover “basics” of rebuilding roads, rail and schools, as well as flood protection, the government announced on Sunday.
Continue reading...Group reportedly got into difficulty as torrential rain hit during outing in Northland region
Searchers in New Zealand have found the body of a teenager who died on Tuesday as torrential rain fell during a school trip into caves in the Northland region.
The deluge swamped parts of the North Island, including Northland, where damage from record floods in February was still evident. In New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, inspections of 120 water-damaged buildings began on Wednesday morning as the weather cleared.
Continue reading...Hāmiora Bailey says wall to wall Charles III coverage is unappealing to Indigenous people and has devised a solution
A Māori artist has designed a way for the masses to tune out of royal coverage, with a web browser plugin that replaces all monarchy and coronation stories with Indigenous news.
Despite a distance of more that 18,000kms from the palace, New Zealand news headlines have featured a steady flow of royal family gossip: the latest potential snubbing, deep-dive analysis of the new king’s conduct, invitation list scandals and features on the coronation quiche.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Aboriginal Olympian Nova Peris says ‘change begins with listening’ as campaigners from 12 countries ask for ‘process of reparatory justice to commence’
Australians have joined Indigenous leaders and politicians across the Commonwealth to demand King Charles III make a formal apology for the effects of British colonisation, make reparations by redistributing the wealth of the British crown, and return artefacts and human remains.
Days out from Charles’s coronation in London, campaigners for republic and reparations movements in 12 countries have written a letter asking the new monarch to start a process towards “a formal apology and for a process of reparatory justice to commence”.
Continue reading...Liaison office plans likely to attract criticism from China which has warned against the western alliance extending into Asia
Nato is reportedly planning to open a liaison office in Japan to coordinate with close partners across the Indo-Pacific region including Australia, South Korea and New Zealand.
The plans are likely to attract criticism from the Chinese government, which has previously warned the western alliance against extending “its tentacles to the Asia-Pacific”.
Continue reading...New Zealand group Half/Time to perform alongside artists who sing in Cymraeg as part of musical cultural exchange
They will bring heavy riffs, pounding drums and lyrics delivered with a growl – but a punk band from New Zealand arriving in Wales this week is also hoping to spark important conversations about what it means to create pop songs in “minority” languages.
The band Half/Time, which perform in Māori as well as English, is to appear alongside artists and groups who sing in Cymraeg as part of a cultural exchange organised by the universities of Cardiff and Waikato in the south Island of New Zealand.
Continue reading...Prime minister welcomes move to let New Zealanders apply for Australian citizenship without becoming permanent residents first
A “historic” agreement allowing New Zealanders a faster pathway to Australian citizenship is the biggest change “in a generation” and will help the two countries forge even closer ties, the New Zealand prime minister, Chris Hipkins, has said.
Hipkins visited Australia on Sunday for talks with the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, after the decision to give New Zealanders the right to apply for Australian citizenship without becoming permanent residents first.
Continue reading...Anthony Albanese hails discovery of Montevideo Maru shipwreck after 80 years. This blog is now closed
Deer populations surge to pest level, experts say after animal crashes into home
Experts say deer populations are surging across Victoria, which may explain the incident on Thursday in which a deer crashed into Alexander Hill’s Alphington home in Melbourne’s north-east after the animal spotted itself in a window and thought it was another deer.
Continue reading...In a move that restores reciprocity to rights of expats, about 380,000 New Zealanders living in Australia will no longer have to become permanent residents first
About 380,000 New Zealanders will gain the right to apply for Australian citizenship without becoming permanent residents first, under sweeping changes restoring reciprocity to the rights of expats of the two countries.
On Saturday the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, home affairs minister, Clare O’Neil, and immigration minister, Andrew Giles, will announce the changes ahead of a visit by New Zealand prime minister Chris Hipkins.
Continue reading...Foreign secretary cancelled plans in Samoa and New Zealand due to crisis in Sudan, his office said
The British foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has skipped planned meetings to New Zealand and Samoa to focus on coordinating the UK’s response to the crisis in Sudan.
Cleverly had been scheduled to join the New Zealand foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, in Samoa on Wednesday for a series of trilateral meetings with the Samoan government, and then travel on with Mahuta to New Zealand.
Continue reading...Separatist rebels confronted Indonesian army troops as they searched for New Zealander who was taken hostage in February
Separatist gunmen attacked Indonesian army troops who were deployed to rescue a New Zealand pilot taken hostage by the rebels in Indonesia’s restive Papua province, leaving at least six dead and about 30 missing, officials said on Sunday.
Initial information from army reports said there were about 36 soldiers at a post in the hilly district of Nduga, when attackers from the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, opened fire on Saturday.
Continue reading...Residents of New Zealand’s largest city say people are ‘heartbroken’ at fresh damage wreaked by storm
Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, has been hit by a tornado, two months after the wider region was devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle and three months after the city was struck by deadly flooding.
Auckland Emergency Management said it began receiving reports of “localised havoc” around 9pm on Sunday, according to the NZ Herald. Authorities received more than 30 calls, with roofs lifted off homes and trees toppled.
Continue reading...Pest numbers are booming and the annual cull has been called off, forcing one rural council to look at other ways to control the rabbit boom
In New Zealand, Easter is usually a time for killing rabbits. But, faced with a ban on the annual slaughter this year, one region is hoping to deploy a deadly virus instead.
Wild rabbits are considered a serious pest in New Zealand, particularly in rural areas, with major impact on agriculture and native landscapes. In parts of the South Island, the boom is reaching “plague” proportions, a spokesperson for Otago regional council (ORC) said on Wednesday.
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