Food prices continue to increase, with milk, butter and beef mince and steak contributing to the rise, according to new numbers from Stats NZ. Food prices increased 4.6% in the 12 months to June 2025. It followed a 4.4% increase in the 12 months to May. Higher prices for grocery…

A woman from Lower Hutt who won $1 million from a bonus ticket has become the 30th millionaire of 2025. The MyLotto player “couldn’t believe her eyes” on Sunday morning after receiving an email from Lotto NZ informing her of what she had won. “My first thought was ‘this can’t…

The Commerce Commission has moved to lower interchange fees paid by businesses to accept Visa and Mastercard payments.The regulator has issued a final decision, saying the cost was too high, and their decision would save businesses around $90 million a year.It said the average business would save around $500 each…

Too many people are still ending up sick and in hospital from contaminated fresh chicken meat, public health professionals say.New analysis released by the Public Health Communication Centre (PHCC) on Thursday shows hospitalisation rates for campylobacter infection have increased by almost 70% in 17 years. The study found contaminated fresh…

Two people have been charged with neglect, 10 years after the unexplained death of a four-year-old girl in Northland.Alestra Kepa-Hati died in Kaikohe in October 2015. The girl had suffered a broken arm, broken pelvis and two separate head injuries in the weeks leading up to her death.Detective Sergeant Natalie…

Slash and sediment polluted an important stream in Waihī for over a year and despite six inspections, and two abatement notices, a logging company refused to change its behaviour and continued to cause environmental damage.Forestry company Seaview Logging Limited and company director, Graeme Howard Savill, who carried out the harvest,…

A rural Western Bay of Plenty community is “in shock” as a controversial local industrial park is greenlit.Te Puna residents have been rallying against the development since 2021, as they say the culturally significant, flood-prone wetland is inappropriate for the business.Resource consents were granted for the industrial park by an…

A Waiuku woman who died in a crash alongside her daughter and niece has left behind three children, including an eight-week-old baby. The three died after their car left the road and landed in a creek on Masters Rd in Waiuku on Tuesday afternoon.Police formally named the three on Thursday…

Members’ bills from opposition MPs are more often than not doomed to fail, but there have been exceptions to the rule this term.Tracey McLellan’s Evidence (Giving Evidence of Family Violence) Amendment Bill received unanimous support at its second reading, with all six parties in Parliament voting in favour.Deborah Russell’s Companies…

The body of a man who went missing after his car crashed in the Whanganui River has been found by police. Twenty-year-old Kahukura Dilpreet Wati Woods Gill, also known as Kahu, was reported missing by his family on July 1. He was last seen on June 27, and a car matching the description…