The Front Page

Abuse from the sidelines. Media blackouts. Legal battles to keep players on the bench.  This is the level of drama you’d expect from sports on an international level, but these are all headlines that have involved rugby at the high school level in New Zealand over the last year.   So how is it that schoolboy rugby has become so controversial?  NZ Herald editor at large Shayne Currie joins Damien o...

The Government has stepped in to announce a $128 million funding package to assist our struggling universities.   This comes after a proposal to cut more than 200 jobs at Victoria University of Wellington, which would have seen entire courses removed from the syllabus and others folded into neighbouring departments - just one of many universities that have had to take this measure amid growing bud...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine took a stunning turn over the weekend, when the leader of the Wagner mercenary force threatened a coup against President Vladmir Putin. Yevgeny Prigozhin’s long-brewing pushback against Russia’s military establishment was short-lived. Within 24 hours, Belarus had negotiated a deal that saw the man once dubbed Putin’s chef allowed to leave the country without any blood...

Winter is well and truly upon us now, and with it has come a steady stream of news articles offering advice on how to keep your house warm during the cold months while saving on energy bills.  Cost cutting is an extra priority this year with the inflation crunch. In a two-week period, Trade Me saw three hundred and forty thousand searches for heaters.  However, a recent report from the UK has sugg...

Over the last week, the world has been captivated by the story of a group of five wealthy people trapped in submarine on a voyage to visit the wreck of the Titantic.    This story has now ended in catastrophe with the submarine imploding and killing everyone on board.  The US Coast Guard confirmed that it had detected a debris field at the bottom of the ocean and that no one had survived?   So, ho...

Our economy has slipped into a technical recession, and Kiwis around the country are feeling the pinch of high inflation and rising mortgage rates.  Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you that everything feels more expensive at the moment. It’s become easier than ever to question whether we’re even getting a fair deal anymore.  After conducting a study of the supermarket industry, the Government has now...

It’s only a few weeks until the opening ceremony officially announces the start of the Fifa World Cup in both Australia and Aotearoa.   While preparations are well underway, there have been a few hiccups along the way. There was a major dispute over television rights in Europe, ticket sales in New Zealand haven’t moved quite as fast as expected and there are concerns about how inconvenient our tim...

News that Auckland surgeons are now being required to consider a patient’s ethnicity when deciding who should get an operation first sparked sharp debate around the country.    Politicians and medical professionals quickly weighed in, with some saying that Health New Zealand’s new Equity Adjuster Score was indefensible. Supporters have, however, pointed out that ethnicity is just one of a number o...

Kāinga Ora is getting bad press once again, following the publication of the harrowing story of a Hamilton woman who for years lived next door to disruptive and disrespectful tenants. This is just the latest in a string of stories, stretching back years, that tell of neighbours enduring abuse, aggression and anti-social behaviour. So how widespread is this issue across social housing in New Zealan...

As the world’s eyes have been fixed on Ukraine, another conflict on a different continent has seen more than a million people displaced from their homes.  Fighting in Sudan has ripped families apart amid a mass migration among those looking to escape the bloodshed.   New Zealander Phil Johnstone recently visited South Sudan as part of his work with World Vision. What he saw there has left an indel...

Rising interest rates and dropping house prices have seen most of our attention focused on New Zealand mortgage holders.   But we are also a nation of renters, with many Kiwis not able to get onto the property ladder. Now, with the latest data confirming this week that Aotearoa was in a technical recession earlier this year, what effect has the current economic strain had on renters around the cou...

Kiwi rower Robbie Manson has found a unique way of promoting himself in the lead up to next year’s summer Olympics. The world record holder has signed up for fan subscription service OnlyFans, a site most associated with pornography. This is not a sudden career change for Manson though – and in fact, it highlights the financial difficulty many athletes in New Zealand face, even if they’ve represen...

As political parties look to shape the debate ahead of October’s election, the Green Party have made a bold statement when it comes to tax.  Their policy would see the wealthiest 0.7 per cent of households targeted by a new tax, plus higher trust and corporate taxes, while cutting taxes for lowest earners tax cuts for New Zealand’s lowest earners.  The Greena say it’s to lift those struggling the...

Last week, 34-year-old Xavier Valent was sentenced to life in prison for importing drugs into New Zealand.   It is only the third time someone has received a life sentence in this country for meth-related charges – but Valent was not your ordinary drug dealer.  His six-week-long trial revealed details of the major global drug syndicate he sat at the head of, with dozens of ‘minions’ working for hi...

Everyone in Auckland has an opinion on what should happen to the city's port.   Businesspeople want its ownership structure to change, the mayor wants it to move and citygoers complain that it’s an eyesore.   To make matters worse, the workers have faced years of safety issues and even deaths onsite. This has led to often tense relations between the union and management.   The man at the centre of...

David Seymour isn’t one to mince his words.     That much was clear at the ACT Party annual conference, where Seymour used the opportunity to rally the party faithful ahead of this year’s election.     As well as taking aim at other parties for their lack of action, Seymour announced a new policy if they make it into government in October – a Ministry of Regulation to reign in government spending....

Michael Wood is the latest minister to lose a portfolio under Chris Hipkins.  He has been stood down from the Transport portfolio after revelations he owns shares in Auckland Airport – and has failed to sell them despite several reminders.  It’s the latest problem to engulf the government at a ministerial level, heaping more pressure on Prime Minister Chris Hipkins to right his ship ahead of this...

Aotearoa’s population is getting older, which means more people are entering aged care every year.  The problem is that our care facilities are already overburdened and understaffed, heaping pressure on the nurses taking care of New Zealand’s elderly.     NZ Herald investigative journalist Nicholas Jones recently won a Voyager award for best individual investigation in recognition of his work look...

We’re being watched every single day. Our every online move is recorded, jotted down and then sold on to bidders who want our eyeballs.    This is how tech giants like Google, Meta and TikTok make billions of dollars in ad revenue every year. It’s an incredibly effective system but also comes with some serious consequences.     So what price are we actually paying for “free” access to these servic...

The country woke up this morning to news that former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had been declared a Dame.   She is just one of 182 people from across a range of industries being recognised in today's Kings Birthday Honours, on a list that includes rugby coaches, armed service personnel, medical pioneers, and Queen Camilla.   But how does the honours system work and who gets to make the call abo...

Parliament’s major parties are both leaning heavily towards the political centre, in order to attract the coveted middle New Zealand vote.   But in doing so, they’re leaving an opportunity for the minor parties to pick up voters on the fringes. The thing is that as society becomes more polarised, those fringes are becoming larger and larger.   This leaves some uncomfortable choices for both Nation...

Few issues have attracted as much media attention in the last year as crime. Ram raids, street violence and burglaries have grabbed headlines time again, creating a sense that New Zealand is no longer a safe place to live – and a narrative that crime has got worse under the Labour government.   Now, new insights from the NZ Herald data team reveal whether this perception is actually reflected in t...

Name suppression is one of the most contentious parts of the New Zealand legal system.   Many high-profile criminals in recent years have received name suppression for months or years on end – with the five year suppression for the Mama Hooch rapists being one of the recent examples of how long suppression can last.  That can cause tension with the general public, as it often seems as though it's...

The Labour Party's key focuses for Chris Hipkins' first party congress as leader were keeping the age of superannuation static and continuing an apprenticeship scheme. But the National Party also made a grab for the spotlight by pulling its support for bipartisan joint housing accords. Who came out looking stronger? And do the would-be governing parties have their eye on the minor parties who may...

Trusts have hit the headlines in recent weeks.     First, a major IRD report revealed that extremely wealthy people were earning most of their money through trusts. Then, shortly afterwards, the Government announced an increase in the tax rate on trusts.  So what exactly is a trust? How do you earn money from it? How many New Zealanders will be impacted by this tax hike? And is there a risk that a...