A night shift worker pulled the device from a ‘potato reception area’ thinking it was a muddy stone
New Zealand’s bomb squad has been called into a chip factory after a suspicious-looking potato trundling down the production line turned out to be a grenade.
Grenades frequently pop up in potato fields in Europe, but are a highly unusual find in New Zealand.
Continue reading...Softly-spoken public servant who became a household name says the role had been challenging and complex
The understated doctor who became an unexpected star of New Zealand’s pandemic has resigned after two years leading the country’s Covid response.
Dr Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s director-general of health announced his resignation on Wednesday, and said that it had been “a huge privilege”.
Continue reading...Seedlings, apparently planted by anti-Covid mandate protesters, have been removed after speaker asked for ‘weed to be weeded’
After a weeks-long illegal occupation that ended in a riot, New Zealand’s parliament has a new unwelcome visitor to contend with: cannabis seedlings popping up among its rose gardens.
An eagle-eyed Wellingtonian spotted the tiny green leaves emerging from the soil this week and posted his find to social media. The man wished to remain anonymous, but a parliament groundskeeper confirmed to the national broadcaster, RNZ, that the plants were indeed “a few cannabis seedlings” thought to be left by the protesters.
Continue reading...Manasseh Sogavare says it is ‘utter nonsense’ that China’s presence is a threat to regional stability
Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has dismissed foreign criticism of the country’s security negotiations with China as “insulting” and called those who leaked the draft agreement “lunatics”, in his first comments to parliament on the proposed treaty.
“We find it very insulting, Mr Speaker, to be branded as unfit to manage our sovereign affairs,” Sogavare said on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Labor leader says inaction on climate change and cuts to foreign aid have broken trust, forcing Pacific nations to turn elsewhere
Australia has lost influence in the Pacific by failing to act on climate and cutting foreign aid, Anthony Albanese says, amid concerns about China’s proposed security deal with Solomon Islands.
Australia and New Zealand are worried the draft agreement could jeopardise regional stability, with China having the opportunity to base navy warships in the Pacific less than 2,000km off the Australian coast.
Continue reading...There is little sense keeping refugees on island at great expense following New Zealand resettlement deal, human rights groups say
The government must end the “moral and financial black hole” on Nauru by ceasing its contract with Canstruct and returning those on Nauru to Australia in the wake of the New Zealand refugee resettlement deal, human rights groups say.
Asked on Friday whether it would end the Canstruct contract for “garrison and welfare services”, the government declined to answer.
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Continue reading...Independent senator says deal with New Zealand to resettle 450 people could have caused some to turn down US program
Australia waited nine years to accept the New Zealand refugee deal out of fear asylum seekers would snub the option of the US, independent senator Jacqui Lambie and the Morrison government have claimed.
On Thursday Australia accepted an offer first made in February 2013 to take up to 450 refugees and asylum seekers, which Lambie then revealed had been a key commitment to win her casting vote to repeal legislation improving access to medical evacuation from offshore detention.
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Continue reading...Under the deal 150 refugees a year held on Nauru, or who have come to Australia temporarily, will be eligible for resettlement
Up to 450 refugees from Australia’s regional processing centres will be resettled in New Zealand over the next three years, after the Coalition belatedly took up a long-standing agreement struck more than nine years ago.
Up to 150 refugees a year will be able to go to New Zealand, under the deal announced by Australia’s home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, and the New Zealand immigration minister, Kris Faafoi, on Thursday.
Continue reading...PM Jacinda Ardern, who oversaw some of the toughest restrictions in the world, says rules will relax after Omicron peak in early April
New Zealand will do away with vaccine passes and vaccine mandates for some of the workforce in early April, in a major loosening of the country’s tough Covid-19 restrictions.
The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced the changes on Wednesday morning, citing high vaccination rates, better data to identify which environments are high risk, and modelling that suggests the country’s Omicron outbreak would peak in early April.
Continue reading...Rescue operation off North Island’s North Cape hampered by thunderstorms, swells and torrential downpours
A fishing trip in New Zealand has ended in tragedy, with four people dead and one passenger still missing after their boat sank during wild weather.
The rescue operation began on Sunday evening after a charter fishing vessel activated an emergency beacon off the North Island’s North Cape. A helicopter was first on scene at the remote location, arriving at about 11.40pm but by 2.30am the boat had sunk.
Continue reading...Couple who believed they had dug up the world’s largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton have had their dreams turned to mash
When is a potato not a potato? When it’s a tuber of a gourd, according to Guinness World Records.
A New Zealand couple who believed they had dug up the world’s largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton have had their dreams turned to mash after Guinness wrote to say that scientific testing had found it wasn’t, in fact, a potato after all.
Continue reading...After two years spent closed off by the pandemic, prime minister Jacinda Ardern says ‘we’re ready to welcome the world back’
New Zealand is re-opening its borders to the world, after two years spent closed off by the pandemic.
From 13 April, vaccinated tourists from Australia will be able to enter the country without isolating.
Continue reading...Door security error meant one of country’s largest city libraries was left open for hours, allowing hundreds to browse shelves
As New Zealand celebrated a national holiday, one of the country’s largest city libraries was closed, with staff and security given the day off. But an error with the automated door programming meant Tūranga’s doors opened to the public as usual – and the unstaffed and unsecured library was happily used by the public, who browsed and checked out books for hours before someone realised the mistake.
As well as its books, the library is home to a wide variety of artworks and sculpture – but staff say nothing was stolen, and there were no serious incidents to report.
Continue reading...Fare cut among measures Jacinda Ardern’s party has introduced to ease cost-of-living pressures
New Zealand is halving public transport fares to ease the pain of sharply rising petrol costs, as fuel oil prices soar following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced that the country would cut fares by 50% amid a suite of other changes to try to ease sharp increases in the cost of living. The government is also cutting petrol excise duties and road user charges by 25c a litre – changes that will come in at midnight on Monday.
Continue reading...Two weeks ago New Zealander Ryan Nixon created a social media poll for his fewer than 1,500 followers – the rest is history
The New Zealander who unwittingly sparked an agonising global debate over whether there are more doors or wheels in the world has come to his own conclusion – “I’m firmly team wheels”.
Auckland man Ryan Nixon, 37, was at home watching sport two Saturday nights ago when a friend posed the question to a group chat he shares with a bunch of mates. Unable to reach a consensus, he decided to create a poll for his fewer than 1,500 Twitter followers.
Continue reading...Jacinda Ardern remains preferred prime minister but her party records worst polling since 2017 amid Covid surge and rising living costs
For the first time since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Jacinda Ardern-led Labour party has slipped from being New Zealand’s most popular and been overtaken by the right.
A new TVNZ/Kantar Public poll found the centre-right National party had surged by seven points to 39%, compared with Labour’s 37% – making it Labour’s lowest result in the poll since it was elected in 2017.
Continue reading...World Health Organization says there are now just eight other countries that have not reported any cases of the virus
Niue has reported its first case of Covid-19, becoming the second island in the Pacific to lose its Covid-zero status within a week.
The Niuean government says the case arrived on a flight from New Zealand, with 26 other passengers on Monday. The travellers tested negative for the virus prior to departing.
Continue reading...An explosion at the mine killed 29 workers and police are still conducting a criminal investigation into the tragedy
The remains of two more men killed in the Pike River mine tragedy, one of New Zealand’s worst mining disasters, have been found more than a decade after the disaster.
The blast in November 2010 killed 29 workers and many of the families have been fighting to have the remains of their loved ones found ever since.
Continue reading...Bill would allow government to freeze assets and also prevent Russian yachts and aircraft from entering New Zealand
New Zealand will rush a bill through parliament this week that will significantly ramp up its sanctions against Russia and its oligarchs, in line with its western allies.
The Russia Sanctions Bill is the “first of its kind” in New Zealand, which has no legal framework for passing broader, unilateral sanctions and usually only does so when called on by the UN security council. As a permanent member of the body, Moscow has vetoed any action against it.
Continue reading...The islands, 800km east of New Zealand, had been among several other isolated nations and territories that had so far evaded the virus
After nearly two years of dodging Covid-19, one of the most remote inhabited places in the world has recorded its first ever cases of the virus.
Rēkohu, or the Chatham Islands, are just over 800km east of New Zealand’s mainland and are home to roughly 600 permanent residents.
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