Labour and the Greens announced a policy in April to cut power prices. If Labour and the Greens become the government in 2014, their government would buy electricity directly from the generating companies, like Mighty River Power. They say this would...
May is New Zealand music month. It is a month when we celebrate music written and performed by New Zealanders. Every day this month, there are performances by New Zealand musicians live in gigs, in public libraries and in concert halls or recorded on...
Forty years ago, two Christchurch women started a safe house for women who were in violent relationships. They were surprised at the large numbers of women who needed help to escape from a violent partner. Usually the women who came for help had chil...
Aaron Gilmore has been a list MP in the National Party. Today he resigned. A list MP comes from a list of people chosen by the party. He was not elected. He was number 59 out of 59 National Party MPs in Parliament. National won 42 electoral seats in...
Last year, the Electoral Commission reviewed MMP and reported to Parliament. The Commission recommended two small changes to MMP: to reduce the party threshold from 5% to 4% and to take away the electoral seat threshold. When we vote for Members of P...
Yesterday, the Minister of Finance, Bill English, read the Budget in Parliament. One important matter in the Budget was a plan to bring down house prices, especially in Auckland. In the last year, house prices have increased by 8% throughout the whol...
First, listen to March 4th 2013 to hear about drought on farms this past summer. The Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy said that in the long term the government wants to invest $400m in regional water irrigation. In the short term, the Budg...
CERA (the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority) started demolishing houses in the Christchurch residential red zones last year. Already 2,074 houses have been demolished and demolitions are speeding up now. More than 6,000 house owners have now s...
Today was the annual Oyster Festival in Bluff, Southland. More than 4,000 people attended to eat oysters raw or cooked and to watch competitions: to see how fast someone can open 50 oysters or how fast someone can open and eat 6 oysters. Bluff oyster...
Last week, the Minister of Conservation, Nick Smith, gave permission for a new open-cast coal mine on conservation land on the West Coast. The Environment Court last month said it would probably give permission for the mine. Now the Forest and Bird o...
