新西兰英语 73 Barack Obama

Barack Obama has become the first black president of the United States beating John McCain who conceded just over five hours after the first polls closed. Speaking in Chicago to a crowd of more than 100,000 people, Mr. Obama said, Change has come to

新西兰英语 72 Southerly Blast

A southerly blast swept through the south of New Zealand yesterday, bringing snow, sleet, hail and freezing temperatures. Southland had the worst of the front as it headed north, with up to 30cm of snow in Fiordland, 15cm in inland Southland and up t

新西兰英语 71 Forestry

The forestry industry in New Zealand is in trouble. Forestry has always been one of our major export industries but in recent years, it has been declining. Nineteen sawmills closed this year, two in the last month. New plantings of trees reached the

新西兰英语 70 MMP

MMP may be responsible for a delay in deciding whether National or Labour gets to form the new government. With 120 seats in parliament, the winning party needs 61 to have a majority. After the last elections, Labour had 50 seats while National had 4

新西兰英语 69 Inflation

New Zealand inflation is up by 5% for the year ending September 30th. This is the highest increase for 18 years, but Australia is reporting the same increase. The Governor of the New Zealand Reserve Bank has to keep inflation between 1% and 3% so thi

新西兰英语 68 Labour Promises Student Allowances

Last Monday, Helen Clark talked to the students at Otago University and promised that the Labour government would pay all university students an allowance in the future. It would happen over the next four years. In the past, students at university re

新西兰英语 67 The Economy

The economy continues to be a major concern globally but also to New Zealand. We are especially affected by what happens in Australia, partly because our major banks are Australian owned. In the last few days, the US and European countries have moved

新西兰英语 66 Fonterra Donates to Chinese Charity

The New Zealand dairy company, Fonterra, which has a 43% share in the Chinese SanLu dairy factory, is donating $8.4 million to charity in China. SanLu baby milk formula was contaminated with melamine. Other baby milk formula has also been contaminate

新西兰英语 65 National Party’s Tax Cuts

On Monday, the present government had to open the books before the election to show how much money the country has. Just as we expected, it was bad news. Last year the books showed the government had more money than expected but things are very diffe

新西兰英语 58 Contaminated Baby Milk Powder in China

New Zealand discovered this weekend that a milk powder factory in China, partly owned by the New Zealand dairy company Fonterra, has been selling contaminated baby formula. One baby has died and more than 400 are suffering from kidney problems. Fonte

新西兰英语 59 Global Financial Problems

Financial problems in the US have been going from bad to worse. Last week the US Government took over the mortgage investment companies, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. On Monday this week, Lehman Brothers, the 4th biggest investment bank, went bankrupt.

新西兰英语 45 The Weather – again

Once again, New Zealand has suffered from a low pressure system coming from northern Australia. Again a sub-tropical storm hit Northland first and has created havoc. Streams and rivers broke their banks, flooding low-lying land. Highway One was close

新西兰英语 46 National Party Conference

The National Party held their annual conference this weekend in Wellington. This was an important conference because it was their last one before the elections in November. The National Party had not said very much about their policies before this we

新西兰英语 44 The Weather

This weekend, parts of New Zealand have experienced some very violent weather. A low pressure system coming from northern Australia hit Northland on Saturday and lasted for about 36 hours. The system moved south east to the Coromandel and the Bay of

新西兰英语 48 Olympic Games

The Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games was a most exciting event. It was full of breath-taking surprises like fireworks, and the opening welcome by 2008 Chinese drummers. Then there were fairies floating on wires, a giant spinning globe, c

新西兰英语 47 The Drug Herceptin

There has been a great deal of discussion and controversy about funding the drug Herceptin for women suffering from breast cancer. It is a very expensive drug made by the Roche company. Pharmac is the organisation which buys drugs and provides them f

新西兰英语 56 Paralympics 2008

The 2008 Beijing Paralympics opened Saturday night Beijing time, early Sunday morning New Zealand time. These Games will last 11 days, until September 17th. There are more than 4,000 athletes involved in 20 different sports. Paralympic athletes have

新西兰英语 55 Emissions Trading Scheme

The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) could become law later this week or early next week. This scheme is a plan to cut greenhouse gases by making businesses pay for their carbon dioxide emissions, that is the CO2 which they put into the air. There will

新西兰英语 53 Winston Peters

On Friday, Winston Peters, leader of the New Zealand First Party, announced that he was stepping down from his job as Minister. He said this is a temporary move because the Serious Fraud Office is checking on money that some people said they gave him

新西兰英语 52 End of the Beijing Olympics

The Beijing Olympics ended on the same high note as it began. The opening and closing ceremonies were amazing, finishing with a large display of fireworks that went on and on. During the Games, everything worked well too. That included the accommodat