The Front Page

For eight months, New Zealand Rugby’s biggest test has been happening behind the scenes. NZR has been at loggerheads with the provincial unions about how to reform governance for the country’s most popular sport. The battle could be nearing an end, with a meeting to take place in the coming weeks that could resolve it, but will the two sides reach an agreement, and will it be enough to help rugby...

Rarely a week goes by without some sort of headline proclaiming the woes of New Zealand’s ‘low productivity’. It’s a phrase that has been discussed by economists and politicians for years, and was a particular bug-bear of Sir John Key. The Herald’s very own Liam Dann is the latest columnist to highlight it as a potential cause for some of our economic problems. But what exactly does low productivi...

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has spent the last week in South East Asia. His first overseas trip beyond the Tasman Sea saw Luxon visit Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines, joined by several MPs and a delegation of business leaders for a trip largely focused on “reinvigorating” New Zealand’s relationships across Southeast Asia. So did he make much of a splash there, and does he have any win...

Our Minister for Space has been working overseas promoting New Zealand’s space industry over in the US. Judith Collins has returned from the US where she spoke at the Space Symposium -- putting us on the global stage – and she met with senior US government space officials. According to Deloitte, in 2018 and 2019 New Zealand's space industry contributed $1.7 billion to the economy – but, our Space...

"Unproductive and unwilling to change" - a scathing report from outgoing Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has slammed our country’s prison system. He told the government’s Justice Committee he’ll “leave the job with disappointment” that he hasn’t made “any impact in having the Department of Corrections as an organisation we can be proud of.” A report from the Office of the Inspectorate released just...

There are growing fears the Middle East could be on the brink of war. Over the weekend, Iran launched hundreds of missiles towards Israel, in retaliation for what is believed to have been an Israeli strike on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Syria last week. It comes after six months of fighting in Gaza, which has drawn the ire of Muslim-majority countries in the region. With no end in sight for t...

Today, US time, marks the beginning of Donald Trump’s slew of criminal trials.   In what’s been coined the ‘hush money’ case, the former President is being accused of falsifying his company’s business records in connection to a payment to an adult film star in the run-up to the 2016 election. After a judge just last week dismissed Trump’s motion to toss out the indictment altogether, or delay the...

At least six people are dead and many more injured after a lone attacker stabbed shoppers at a Westfield shopping mall in Sydney’s Bondi Junction on Saturday.  40-year-old Joel Cauchi was killed at the scene by Police but not until he had upended countless lives in his brutal attack.   In this bonus episode of The Front Page, Sydney-based ABC News reporter Penny Timms joins to give an update on th...

A new docu-drama has revisited the horrors of Dilworth. The Auckland boarding school was intended to help disadvantaged boys, but over the decades multiple teachers have been charged and found guilty of sexual abuse – with the number of victims believed to be more than 200. On The Front Page, Open Justice editor Elizabeth Binning joins to discuss the background to this shocking abuse, and co-direc...

School holidays kick off tomorrow, and hundreds of families are set to take to the roads and skies to head off on vacation. For those of us travelling internationally though, the main hope is that the ongoing renovations at Auckland Airport won’t lead to the usual ‘travel chaos’ many of us have come to expect. So how are those developments going, and is the travel industry as a whole on the road t...

Newshub is officially closing down.   Despite hopes of a last-minute lifeline, Warner Bros Discovery has confirmed all news operations will shut up shop from July 5th.   It comes as TVNZ also confirms its Midday and Tonight bulletins will end in mid-May, while Fair Go will shift to digital only.   So, with so many jobs going over the next three months, what does the future hold for news in New Zea...

Government ministries are on a mission to cut spending by 6.5 to 7.5 per cent before the coalition Government’s first Budget next month. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has asked all departments to look for savings to “restore discipline” to taxpayer spending. For some agencies, cutting costs means cutting jobs – and that number is already at about a thousand roles, give or take. Today on The Front...

The coalition Government’s signalled “everything’s on the table” when it comes to a major shake-up of New Zealand’s gun laws.   The world praised us when we took swift action following the Christchurch terror attack – banning semi-automatic firearms and assault rifles. But now a coalition agreement between National and Act could see semi-automatics make a return to gun ranges. In the US, this mont...

A new social media policy is being described as having a chilling effect on politics, and by extension the health of democracy. Meta, the global behemoth that owns Facebook and Instagram, is putting a stranglehold on recommendations in user feeds that contain political content. The move, signalled in February, applies to Instagram and Threads, and will eventually extend to Facebook. Today on The F...

I’ve never met a person who actually knows anything about Daylight Saving Time, just that at some point we lose an hour, and at another point of the year we gain one. And no, it’s not Daylight Saving s Time, either. We first introduced it nearly a hundred years ago in 1927 – and the current times have been fixed since 2007. In spring, we change our clocks forward 1 hour to New Zealand Daylight Tim...

Since its inception, it’s safe to say the Three Strikes law has faced its fair share of criticism.  Academics have condemned it for promoting penal populism and disproportionately targeting Māori and Pasifika communities.  Despite this, the return of the controversial law has made its way onto the Government’s next action plan. So, does Three Strikes only stand as a symbol of a Government’s ‘tough...

The Government has honed in on rebuilding the economy as a priority for the coming months.  Amongst several promises in a new action plan, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has promised to deliver a budget that reduces wasteful spending, delivers tax relief to hardworking New Zealanders, and invests in frontline services.  Yet this promise comes days after his Finance Minister once again highlighte...

CEOs in New Zealand continue to get paid more than ever. While not as high as the 15 per cent increases seen in 2022, remuneration packages for NZX-listed chief executives increased on average by 3.58 percent in the 2023 financial year. And despite a stagnant local share market, one CEO has set a new record for the largest ever pay packet in the history of the Herald’s CEO pay survey. To run us th...

The Government’s flicking the off switch on EV owners. From today, road user charges will have to be paid for light electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. Bringing EVs in line with other vehicles has been a priority for this government, but little else in the plans so far have suggested what their strategy is for the environment and climate change. Today on The Front Page, Newstalk ZB political an...

The financial year is coming to an end.   While that may not mean a lot for the average Kiwi, when the new financial year kicks off on April 1st, many of us could see a little more money in our back pockets.  This is when the Annual General Adjustment takes place, with things like benefits and the minimum wage rising to account for inflation or wage growth.  It’s also one of the dates when tax cha...

Today marks 40 years since Ernie Abbott went to work at Wellington’s Trade Hall, and never returned home. On March 27, 1984, the caretaker was locking up for the day when he spied a discarded light-green suitcase on the ground behind a wall. Curious, he picked it up by its cloth-wrapped handle - triggering a mercury switch hidden inside. He was killed instantly as the force tore through the passag...

Labour is going back to the drawing board - and tax is on the table. Party leader Chris Hipkins has delivered his first major speech in Opposition, six months after Labour were kicked out of government. He has taken aim at the country’s tax system as being inequitable, and laid blame for the current financial woes at National’s feet. Today on The Front Page, Hipkins joins to discuss what his party...

For over 50 years, the secretive Christian community of Gloriavale has fascinated New Zealanders. While the community has long been discussed by former members who have left Gloriavale behind, in the last few years, multiple official investigations and Employment Court proceedings have shone more light on what's happening behind the scenes. Now, a new TVNZ documentary, Escaping Utopia, is looking...

Catherine, the Princess of Wales, has been diagnosed with cancer.  She revealed the news in a video released this weekend, after months away from the public eye following abdominal surgery.  The public was told that surgery was not related to cancer – but subsequent tests revealed the Princesses condition, and she is now undergoing chemotherapy.  So what does this mean for the Royal Family that’s...

The Government earlier this month made it through its first 100 days after a few ups and downs, but the months ahead could be a little rougher. Questions continue to be asked about how the coalition can fund its much-promised tax cuts amid reports of a growing fiscal hole and criticism from international financial agencies, with just two months left until this National-led government delivers its...