新西兰英语 156 David Bain Not Guilty

Over the past three months, TV news has shown the David Bain re-trial. This is his second trial. David has spent 13 years in prison for murdering five members of his family, his mother, father, two sisters and his brother in 1994. David Bain said tha

新西兰英语 133 More Problems in Fiji

Problems in Fiji affect New Zealand. Many New Zealanders go to Fiji on holiday, many Fijians live in New Zealand and we are part of the Pacific Islands Forum. (see January 27th 2009) The countries which belong to the Pacific Islands Forum want Fiji t

新西兰英语 135 Boat people try to enter Australia

Last week, a boat with 49 Afghan men on board, caught fire off the coast of Australia. The people on board the boat were asylum seekers. An asylum seeker is someone who wants to live in another country but is not an official refugee. This is an illeg

新西兰英语 137 ANZAC Day

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day, a day when New Zealanders and Australians remember soldiers who died in Gallipoli on 25th April 1915. See April 25th 2008 . 1915 was during the First World War. ANZAC Day, however, is a day to remember all New Zealand soldiers

新西兰英语 139 Drop in Official Cash Rate

Today the Governor of the Reserve Bank, Dr Alan Bollard, lowered the official cash rate (OCR) to 2.5%. This is down 50 points from the 12th March. It is also a huge change from July last year when the OCR was at a high point of 8.25%. In July 2007, t

新西兰英语 145 Parliament “in urgency”

Parliament is in urgency when the government wants to pass a law in a hurry. In this case, the government is in a hurry to set up the new Auckland super-city council before the local body elections in November next year. The government wants to set u

新西兰英语 146 Limit to Jury Trials

The Minister of Justice, Simon Power, wants to limit trial by jury to serious crimes. At the moment, anyone who is accused of a crime which could bring a sentence of three months in jail, can choose to have a jury trial. The problem is that this take

新西兰英语 119 Petrol Tax will Increase

The government has decided to add 3 cents a litre in October this year and another 3 cents next year to the cost of petrol. This 6 cents will be used for more roads and mostly in Auckland. Last year, the Labour government allowed regions to add a tax

新西兰英语 131 John Key in Thailand

The Prime Minister, John Key, is on his way to Thailand for the Asean conference which will be held this weekend in Pattaya, 100km south of Bangkok. Ten Asian countries including Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and China, will be represented at

新西兰英语 130 Michael Cullen to resign

Michael Cullen was Deputy Prime Minister for nine years under the Labour government led by Helen Clark. He has announced that he will leave Parliament at the end of April. Like Helen Clark, he has been an MP since 1981. He was Finance Minister during

新西兰英语 103 Waitangi Day 2009

See Waitangi Day 2008 Today, Waitangi celebrations were held as usual but it was not a day of protest. It was a day for celebrating that Maori and Pakeha people are united in this country. Thousands of families came to celebrate. They enjoyed the foo

新西兰英语 105 Australian Bush Fires

New Zealanders are shocked at the disastrous fires in Australia. We now know that more than 100 people have died. The hospitals are filled with people who have burns; some have minor burns to the soles of their feet while others have major burns and

新西兰英语 117 ACC in financial trouble

The Head of the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) was fired from his job on Monday because the ACC was in debt. The costs are more than the income. Our ACC means that we cannot sue anyone who causes an accident. This is different from countries

新西兰英语 431 Energy efficient house

If you live in Wellington, go to Frank Kitts Park on the waterfront to see the Kiwi bach called First Light. It will be there from today until May 24th. Four Victoria University architecture students designed this small house like a Kiwi bach for a c

新西兰英语 240 New Air NZ planes

Air NZ showed what their new planes will look like inside. The CEO of Air NZ said that there have been many improvements for Business class passengers in the past few years but nothing for Economy class. The new planes, the Boeing 777-300 model, will

新西兰英语 238 Mike Moore US Ambassador

The government announced our new ambassador to the United States will be Mike Moore. This is an interesting choice as Mike Moore was a Labour Party MP and also, very briefly, the Prime Minister in 1990. The present government is a National government

新西兰英语 115 Workers lose their jobs

Each week now we hear of more workers who are losing their jobs. This week, Sealord will lay off 180 workers from their Nelson fish processing factory but they will employ another 50 on the fishing boats. These days it is cheaper to process fish on t

新西兰英语 109 Scholarship Results

On Wednesday, high school students who sat scholarship exams at the end of last year, found their results on the NZQA website. By now, all students will have their results by mail too. Scholarship exams are for the top students in schools. They are e

新西兰英语 392 World Buskers’ Festival

What are buskers? They are street performers. They perform circus acts like acrobatics or juggling, or singing and dancing, and they are always very clever and very funny. They get paid at the end of their show when the audience throws money in the h

新西兰英语 423 Schools share sites in Christchurch

Thirty-four schools in Christchurch have a red sticker which means the school is badly damaged and not safe. Nearly all schools are now open but for most of those 34, it means sharing with another school one in the morning and one in the afternoon. T