The official results for the election were announced on Saturday. 270,000 special votes were counted and all other votes were re-counted. Special votes were votes by people who were not in their own electorate on Election Day. Some of these people we...
Today a new geo-thermal power station was opened in Kawerau, in the eastern Bay of Plenty. Geo means earth and therm means heat. The power station uses hot steam from the earth. Like the geo-thermal power station at Wairakei, which opened in the 1950...
Now that the National government has chosen the Cabinet ministers, Phil Goff, Leader of the Opposition, has chosen his Shadow Cabinet. These are the people who shadow or mark the government Cabinet ministers. For each department, there is a minister...
John Key announced five new Cabinet Ministers yesterday from the minor parties. Today, he announced another 23 from the National Party. This makes 28 Ministers. Bill English will be Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Infrastru...
The slowing global economy has affected tourism in New Zealand with tourist numbers falling this year. There were 11,100 fewer international visitors to New Zealand in September 2008 compared with September 2007. Visitor numbers are down across most...
After talks with John Key, the co-leaders of the Maori Party, Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples, have agreed to hold many hui (meetings) throughout New Zealand. It is likely that John Key has offered the Maori Party a chance for one or two of their mem...
It was not a surprise last night to learn that the National Party won the election. The telephone polls had been telling us for a long time that National would get around 45% of the vote and Labour about 34% and that was exactly right. National has 5...
Barack Obama has become the first black president of the United States beating John McCain who conceded just over five hours after the first polls closed. Speaking in Chicago to a crowd of more than 100,000 people, Mr. Obama said, Change has come to...
A southerly blast swept through the south of New Zealand yesterday, bringing snow, sleet, hail and freezing temperatures. Southland had the worst of the front as it headed north, with up to 30cm of snow in Fiordland, 15cm in inland Southland and up t...
The forestry industry in New Zealand is in trouble. Forestry has always been one of our major export industries but in recent years, it has been declining. Nineteen sawmills closed this year, two in the last month. New plantings of trees reached the...
