Politics Central

There are hopes a new bill will fix confusion around the Easter trading rule. Online businesses can trade without restrictions over Easter while traditional shops cannot. The regulations also vary from city to city, further adding to confusion for both retailers and customers.  Act Party small business spokesperson Chris Baillie has introduced a new member's bill which would change all that. Party...

Christopher Luxon "tested the waters" this week with his maiden speech in Parliament.  The former Air New Zealand CEO turned Botany MP told Parliament: "It seems it has become acceptable to stereotype those who have a Christian faith in public life as being 'extreme', so I will say a little about my Christian faith. "It has anchored me, given my life purpose and shaped my values – and it puts me i...

The Finance Minister's earned fresh ire from the Opposition for his comments about capping rent rises. Grant Robertson has not ruled out limiting how much landlords can raise rents, saying it isn't on the Government's agenda, but they'll keep an eye on what happens. National Party leader Judith Collins told The Weekend Collective any sensible person would have ruled it out straight away. "The fact...

Pressure from Australia is likely to be behind the move from our Government to make a move on the trans-Tasman bubble.  Anticipation is building ahead of Cabinet's discussion around a two-way trans-Tasman travel bubble with Australia. Ministers are expected to meet tomorrow to talk about a potential start date, and it is understood it could be put in place between mid to late April. Public pressur...

U.S. relations with its two biggest geo-political rivals are facing severe tests as President Joe Biden tries to assert America's place in the world and distinguish himself from his predecessor. Airing myriad complaints, the Biden administration took an extraordinarily tough line with China and Russia this past week. Public spats between the countries erupted as  Biden characterized Russian Presid...

An intelligence expert has questioned if police are doing enough to screen right-wing extremists on social media. The police promised they would keep an eye out for extremist activity on known websites after the Christchurch mosque attacks two years ago. Expert Paul Buchanan told The Weekend Collective a specialist unit was set up, yet it took a public tip for them to find a man who made threats t...

Queenstown's Mayor is struggling with the injustice of tourist operators being denied a bailout. Jim Boult says dairy farmers would've had Government assistance a long time ago, but tourist businesses are treated differently. He told The Weekend Collective they've asked the Government for a trans-Tasman bubble after no luck seeking an assistance package. "If this was the dairy industry and we coul...

The Emergency Management Minister says there are clearly things to sort out, following Friday's earthquakes and tsunami alerts. Major quakes off the East Cape and Kermadec Islands forced mass evacuations in parts of the east and west coasts of the North Island. Minister Kiri Allan says most people heeded the warnings and did the right thing. But she told the Weekend Collective there are some thing...

A vaccine expert says most New Zealanders will accept a Covid-19 vaccine when they have the information they need. The Government has revealed it's actively involved in international discussions about vaccine passports -- and expects the passports to be in place by this time next year. But it's still unclear how many people will take up Covid vaccines, when it become available to the New Zealand p...

ACT Party leader David Seymour has attacked the government's Covid-19 response. Auckland moved to Alert Level Three this morning, while the rest of the country moved to Level Two.  It comes after a new case - a 21-year-old man in South Auckland - was announced last night. He was meant to be self-isolation but had gone to tertiary and the gym while infectious.  Seymour says the government has been...

It's essential for the whole of Auckland to go to alert level 3 according to one epidemiologist. Auckland went to level 3 this morning, while the rest of the country went to level 2. Otago University epidemiologist Micheal Baker told The Weekend Collective it's important to prevent the spread of the virus no matter where in the country you are. He says that while it wasn't impossible to have small...

A law expert has condemned Australia's revoking of the passport of a woman accused of being a terrorist. Suhayra Aden was born in New Zealand and moved to Australia when she was six. She was arrested at the Turkish border alongside her two children and was accused of being affiliated with Islamic State. International Law expert Al Gillespie told The Weekend Collective that Australia revoking her p...

National is calling for the Government to move Covid-19 quarantine and managed isolation facilities away from central Auckland as a way to safeguard New Zealand largest city from future lockdowns. Chris Bishop, the party's spokesman for Covid-19 response, says this could be in the form of a purpose-built facility on the outskirts of Auckland. There are currently 5583 people in managed isolation fa...

For 13 years, lawyer Megyn Kelly was one of Fox News' most prominent hosts, including hosting the primetime news show The Kelly File for just over three years. She left in early-2017 after tense moments for Donald Trump on the election campaign pushed her further into the global spotlight. After speaking out on sexual harassment at Fox and a tenure with NBC, Kelly now hosts her own podcast - The M...

New data suggests that it may be seven years before the world is normal again after Covid. The research from Bloomberg says that because of unexpected disruptions the timeline is hard to pin down exactly. Another factor to consider is that different countries will take different amounts of time to gain herd immunity. The US, for example, is predicted to have herd immunity just in time for the New...

The Government's handling of managed isolation and visa processes has been described as "inconsistent". A last-minute flip by managed isolation officials has given hope too the family of a New Zealand man stuck in Japan with brain cancer. 46-year-old Trev Ponting had his application for emergency spots in MIQ turned down on Friday. But after media interest in his case, his family found out last ni...

Contradicting his secretary of state and other top officials, President Donald Trump on Saturday suggested without evidence that China — not Russia — may be behind the cyber espionage operation against the United States and tried to minimize its impact. In his first comments on the breach, Trump scoffed at the focus on the Kremlin and downplayed the intrusions, which the nation's cybersecurity age...

The Government has been criticised for leaving two major announcements to the week before Christmas.  On Thursday, the Government announced it is buying the land at Ihumātao from Fletchers for $30 million under a deal that will see it used for some housing – and could eventually see it passed into the ownership of tangata whenua. Then on Friday, a prepared by the COVID-19 Surveillance and Testing...

The hopes of millions of Britons that Covid-19 restrictions would be eased over Christmas were dashed on Saturday, after scientists warned a new strain of the virus is spreading more quickly than others. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a series of stricter coronavirus restrictions, tightening rules around household mixing that were due to be relaxed over Christmas in England, while leade...

US Covid-19 hospitalizations hit a record high for the seventh day in a row Saturday with 108,487 patients in hospitals around the country, according to the Covid Tracking Project. And the number of Covid-19 cases reported in the United States reached more than 16 million after the country added 1 million cases in just four days, according to Johns Hopkins University data. It took the nation more...

At the same time Speaker Trevor Mallard was being sued for defamation, he changed the rules so other MPs could also have theirs covered by the taxpayer without disclosing it publicly. National and Act leaders yesterday said they no longer had confidence in the Speaker after he revealed he'd cost the taxpayer more than $330,600 settling a case after incorrectly calling a former Parliamentary staffe...

The delays on a Cook Islands travel bubble is causing a headache for the country. Quarantine-free travel between our two countries is hoped to be set up by the end of March next year. Before the pandemic more than 160-thousand people visited the island each year - most of them Kiwis. The head of the Cook Islands Chamber of Commerce and Private Sector says the wait is frustrating. Fletcher Melvin t...

There is concern over growing number of firearms incidents, after a dispute ended in a firearm being discharged at a crowded Auckland night spot. A gun was fired at Dr Rudi's Rooftop Bar in the Viaduct just before 3 this morning. Police received reports of an altercation after people who were asked to leave the bar became annoyed. The group became aggressive, with one person pulling out a gun and...

It's a waiting game to see how Iran reacts to the killing of one of that country's leading scientists. Iran's blamed Israel for the slaying of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was gunned down in a car near Tehran on Friday. His death has raised fears of reignited tensions across the Middle East. Otago University international relations expert Robert Patman says it plays into the wider relations of the Iran...

The opening day of Parliament generated a number of headlines, as the Government announced plans for a climate emergency, Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins clashed on house prices, and Ibrahim Omer delivered a powerful maiden speech.  However, it was also the first day of the new Māori Party, and their two MPs have walked out of the House in protest during Parliament's Address and Reply debate. Un...