Today, the minimum wage has increased by 25c from $12.75 to $13 an hour. For young people who are still being trained for the job, their pay has increased by 20c from $10.20 to $10.40. At $13 an hour, this comes to $520 for a 40-hour week. The median

发表于:2018-12-05 / 阅读(74) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

During the last week, three major murder trials came to an end. The first one to end, last Wednesday, was a trial of an immigrant from Zimbabwe, George Gwase, for the murder of his niece, 10-year old Charlene, in Christchurch. He was found Not Guilty

发表于:2019-01-27 / 阅读(74) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The agricultural company PGG Wrightson Ltd signed an agreement today with Silver Fern Farms Ltd for the two companies to join together. Silver Fern Farms is a meat processing company which kills farm animals for meat and sells the meat in NZ and over

发表于:2019-01-27 / 阅读(71) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

A Maori, Gerrard Otimi, has been arrested by the police for selling false visas to Pacific Island people. He offered to adopt them into his hapu, or tribe. They paid him $500 for this and he put a stamp in their passport which he said gave them a vis

发表于:2019-01-30 / 阅读(67) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

50 years ago this week, television was introduced to New Zealand. Then there was only one channel available, in black and white, and New Zealanders with tv sets had to pay the government an annual licence fee of £4. There have been many changes sin

发表于:2019-02-02 / 阅读(63) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

On Thursday night, in Christchurch, two people were killed by a car which was being chased by a police car. Around 8pm, the police saw a car travelling at about 90kmh in a 50kmh zone. They followed the car. Thirty seconds later, the driver drove thro

发表于:2019-02-03 / 阅读(66) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

There may be some disruption to bus services in Auckland tomorrow as NZ Bus intends to lock out bus drivers. This is in response to a strike that the unions had organised. The unions want pay increases for their drivers who currently earn between $14

发表于:2019-02-05 / 阅读(57) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The Marine and Coastal Area Bill passed its third reading in Parliament today. Next the Governor-General has to sign it. Then it becomes the Marine and Coastal Act and is the law. The voting in Parliament was 63 to 56. The Maori Party joined the Nati

发表于:2019-02-06 / 阅读(59) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The Prime Minister, Mr Key, announced that a Maori flag was chosen for Waitangi Day. It will fly on the Auckland Harbour Bridge and Parliament along with the New Zealand flag. The Maori flag is black, red and white with a koru design. The koru is a y

发表于:2019-02-07 / 阅读(63) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

New Zealand is experiencing a hot summer this year. The East Coast of both the North and South Islands have had temperatures in the 30s. Central Otago has also had a heat wave and even Northland has had higher temperatures than normal. While Auckland

发表于:2019-02-07 / 阅读(115) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Last night at 8.30pm on 28th March 80 countries took part in Earth Hour by turning off lights and other things which use electricity. The idea began in Sydney in 2007. Last year, Christchurch was the only New Zealand city to observe Earth Hour but th

发表于:2019-02-09 / 阅读(99) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

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

发表于:2019-02-17 / 阅读(76) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Last week, Shell celebrated the discovery of gas in New Zealand 40 years ago. In 1969, gas was discovered off the coast of Taranaki on the west coast of the North Island. At that time, it was one of the biggest gas discoveries in the world. Ten years

发表于:2019-02-17 / 阅读(48) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Today was the beginning of New Zealand music month. Every May for the last 10 years, New Zealand has celebrated our own music. The Auckland band, Opshop, decided to do something different to celebrate 10 years of New Zealand Music month. They hired a

发表于:2019-02-18 / 阅读(177) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

On October 1st, GST will increase from 12.5% to 15%. This is a 2.2% increase. At the same time, we will have tax cuts on our pay. Benefits will also increase a little to help with the higher GST. Listen to May 20th 2010 for more about tax cuts and th

发表于:2019-02-18 / 阅读(64) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

The Big Day Out is a Rock Music Festival that lasts 12 hours, starting at 11am tomorrow. It is held once a year towards the end of January in Mt Smart Stadium in Auckland and then in some of the bigger cities in Australia. There are about 40 acts. Th

发表于:2019-02-18 / 阅读(63) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

In April, the Law Commission gave the government a report on alcohol problems in New Zealand. The report recommended 152 changes. The government now has decided to accept 126 of these recommendations. The main changes affect young people under the ag

发表于:2019-02-18 / 阅读(57) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Listen again to July 18th 2009 . The earthquake of July 16th caused only minor damage. One effect though, that scientists have learnt is that the southwest of the South Island has now moved 300mm closer to Australia. New Zealand, like Japan, sits on

发表于:2019-02-20 / 阅读(60) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Tomorrow afternoon, the Minister of Finance, Bill English, will read the Budget in Parliament. The Budget tells us how much money the government expects to have next year and how the government plans to spend it. The Prime Minister has already talked

发表于:2019-02-22 / 阅读(81) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语

Listen first to yesterdays podcast, What is the Budget? There were only a few surprises in todays Budget. One was about tax cuts. All workers, the rich and the poor, will pay less income tax. People earning less than $14,000 a year will pay 10.5% inc

发表于:2019-02-26 / 阅读(158) / 评论(0) 分类 新西兰英语