Category Archives: New Zealand

Good thing for small packages: tiny homes movement wins big in New Zealand

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Owner of a home that measures just 8m by 3m wins high profile three-year legal battle with government over rates and regulations

Yachts and caravans have all served as home for Alan Dall but it is his tiny house in Canterbury that has finally claimed his heart and where he’s firmly put down roots after 25 years of transient living.

Measuring just eight metres long and three metres wide, Dall’s tiny home has become something of an inspiration for the movement, with his fight to retain its status potentially having lasting ramifications around the country.

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Taika Waititi to make two Charlie and the Chocolate Factory series for Netflix

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New Zealand Oscar winner to develop animated show based on the beloved Roald Dahl book

The Academy Award-winning director Taika Waititi has signed a deal with Netflix to write, direct and produce two animated series based on the works of the children’s author, Roald Dahl.

The entertainment giant said Waititi’s collaboration with Netflix would be “based on the world and characters of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”, while the second series would be a “wholly original take” on the Oompa-Loompas, the diminutive and mysterious workers who dispense chocolate, and sometimes cautionary advice, at Willy Wonka’s factory.

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After the Christchurch shooting politicians promised tolerance. It didn’t last | Morgan Godfery

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Ahead of the first anniversary, New Zealand First’s Shane Jones goes into election mode and stokes racial tensions

Isn’t it astonishing that, not even two weeks out from the Christchurch shooting’s first anniversary, the senior cabinet minister Shane Jones – an MP for New Zealand First, a party you could arguably describe as our local Ukip branch – is basing his re-election campaign on stoking anti-immigrant racism.

In a television sit-down last weekend the “retail politician” – Jones’s words – went after the Indian community, blaming its students for “ruining” New Zealand universities and arguing the country was opening the doors too widely to immigrants from “New Delhi”. He guaranteed that only New Zealand First would cut immigration. Labour, in Jones’s telling, is too “PC” to make the necessary cuts, and National are apparently in the pocket of Johnny foreigner taking big-money donations from overseas contributors. They won’t follow through either.

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‘The best thing about Wellington’: Mittens the cat has paws all over New Zealand capital

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Turkish Angora roams tattoo parlours, office towers and churches, posing for social media snapshots along the way

A feline that roams New Zealand’s capital city and is welcomed into tattoo parlours, hairdressers and office towers has become a social media star, with 30,000 followers who track his every movement online.

Mittens first came to attention in 2018 after repeatedly wandering inner-city dwellings, including the university, the post office, and a Catholic church. Mittens was also reportedly taken to the police station by concerned locals.

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New Zealand records second coronavirus case in woman arriving from Italy

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The partner of the woman, who flew to Auckland via Singapore and is now in isolation, is also showing symptoms and is being tested

A second case of coronavirus has been confirmed in New Zealand, with the infected woman having recently arrived in the country from Italy.

The latest infection is a New Zealand citizen, a woman in her early 30s who recently returned from a trip to northern Italy and rapidly became ill.

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Jacinda Ardern brushes off criticism from Peter Dutton on deportation stance

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Australia’s home affairs minister had linked New Zealand prime minister’s comments to her upcoming re-election bid

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has brushed off criticism from Australia’s home affairs minister Peter Dutton, saying his policy decisions are “regrettable”.

At her weekly news conference in Wellington on Monday, Ardern was scathing about Dutton’s criticism of her recent meeting with Scott Morrison, saying it was not her plain-talking that was to blame for increasing tensions between the neighbours – but Australia’s policy decisions on immigration matters which were hurting Kiwis.

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Jacinda Ardern blasts Scott Morrison over Australia’s deportation policy – video

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The New Zealand prime minister said the Australian government's policy of deporting NZ citizens, no matter how long they had spent in Australia, was “testing” the friendship between the two nations, at a joint press conference in Sydney on Friday.

Jacinda Ardern lashes Scott Morrison for 'testing' friendship over deportations to New Zealand


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Not much love actually: Jacinda Ardern was right to call out Australia’s ‘corrosive’ policies | Ben Doherty

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The New Zealand prime minister was justified in taking Scott Morrison to task over a policy that is both spurious and damaging

We’ve seen this movie before.

Then, in Love Actually, Hugh Grant played the unlikely prime minister of Britain, standing up to an oleaginous Billy Bob Thornton as president of the US.

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Jacinda Ardern lashes Scott Morrison for ‘testing’ friendship over deportations to New Zealand

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New Zealand PM says Australia is deporting ‘your people and your problems’ using unfair policies

The New Zealand prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has lashed Scott Morrison for “testing” the friendship between the two nations, accusing Australia of deporting “your people and your problems” using “unfair” policies.

Ardern took her strongest stance yet opposing Australia’s policy of deporting New Zealand citizens, no matter how long they had spent in Australia, if they had committed a crime.

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Lie-flat beds in economy class: Air New Zealand unveils bunks for budget travellers

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Airline which operates some of world’s longest flights is considering ‘Skynest’ sleep pods with pillows, sheets and blankets

Air New Zealand has announced it could have flat beds in economy for some of its long-haul flights, but it will be more than a year before customers could get the chance to sleep in one of the new pod beds.

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Why are New Zealanders still not allowed to know the identity of Grace Millane’s killer? | Andrew Geddis

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We have had a history of suppressing information about those facing trial, but it is unclear if it can survive in the era of Facebook, Google and Instagram

British backpacker Grace Millane’s murderer was last week sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

However, the killer’s identity has not been published in New Zealand. When convicting Millane’s killer, Justice Simon Moore extended an existing suppression order that not only prohibits his naming, but also the reasons for making it.

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Deportees and a climate crisis: what’s on the agenda as Ardern meets Morrison

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Thorny issues await the two prime ministers when they meet in Australia this week

As gang violence in New Zealand soars – partly fuelled by Australian deportees, police say – prime minister Jacinda Ardern is heading to Sydney for her annual bilateral with Scott Morrison.

The issue of New Zealanders with only distant links to their home country being summarily shipped back to Aotearoa will again be on the agenda, but experts say it is unlikely Ardern will take as tough a stance as last year, when she said the issue was having a “corrosive” affect on trans-Tasman relations.

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‘You’ve ripped a hole in my heart’: Grace Millane’s mother speaks to court – video

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The mother of the murdered British backpacker says she is tormented over 'the terror and pain she must have experienced at your hands'. Gillian Millane was speaking to a court via video link. Her daughter was killed in New Zealand in 2018. 

A 28-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years for Millane’s murder.

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Grace Millane’s family will ‘forever have a life sentence’, say police – video

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The New Zealand man found guilty of murdering the British backpacker Grace Millane has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

Speaking outside the high court in Auckland after the sentencing, DI Scott Beard said the killer's sentencing ended a 'long and difficult period' for the Millane family, but that they were the ones who had been given the life sentence.

Millane, 22, from Essex, arrived in New Zealand in November 2018 as part of a round-the-world trip. She died by manual strangulation on 2 December during sex in the man’s hotel room in central Auckland. The pair had met on the dating app Tinder.

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Grace Millane murder: man jailed for life for killing of UK backpacker

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Man, who has name suppression, to spend at least 17 years in prison after murder of British backpacker that shocked New Zealand

The New Zealand man found guilty of murdering British backpacker Grace Millane has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years.

The man appeared in Auckland’s high court on Friday morning, and his sentencing was overseen by Justice Simon Moore.

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Wellington’s water crisis deepens as pollution, leaks and flooding take toll

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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.

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Peter Singer event cancelled in New Zealand after outcry over disability stance

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Venue says Singer’s beliefs – which include that parents should be allowed to euthanise disabled newborns – ‘do not reflect our values’

An event with Australian philosopher Peter Singer has been cancelled in New Zealand after outcry over his public stance on the morality of killing some disabled newborns.

Singer, best known as a proponent of the “effective altruism movement”, has previously written that parents should be allowed to euthanise disabled babies if they wish to.

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‘They allowed the perfect storm’: UN expert damns New Zealand’s housing crisis

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Special rapporteur says successive governments have contributed to what she called a ‘human rights crisis’

When Leilani Farha touches down in a new city, the first thing the UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing does is look up.

In Melbourne, Toronto, London and Dublin, the skies above are filled with cranes, Farha says, soaring across the skylineto construct new homes for their booming populations.

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Elton John cuts short New Zealand gig after catching pneumonia

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Singer ‘deeply upset and sorry’ for cutting short farewell concert in Auckland

Sir Elton John has said he is “deeply upset and sorry” for cutting short a concert in New Zealand after being diagnosed with a mild form of pneumonia.

The musician, 72, was performing at Auckland’s Mount Smart Stadium on Sunday when he lost his voice and broke down in tears on stage.

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‘I’m over it’: will disillusioned voters spell trouble for Jacinda Ardern?

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With seven months to go, the internationally acclaimed PM must tackle queries over whether she has done enough at home

It’s time for morning tea at the Allen Bryant retirement home in Hokitika, New Zealand, and a rattling tea cart is doing the rounds as the 50 residents talk politics. The South Island district is a Labour party stronghold, and the party was born up the road at the Blackball pub 100 years ago.

The residents who live at the home in the West Coast region are overwhelmingly Labour supporters, with backgrounds in mining and lifetime union affiliation. It was on the west coast that the party celebrated its centenary. And it is here that it is beginning to alienate its once-loyal fans.

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