新西兰英语 112 A Meeting about Jobs

Today, 200 business and community leaders met in Auckland to talk about saving jobs. The Prime Minister, the Minister of Finance and the Governor of the Reserve Bank all spoke to the meeting. They are worried about unemployment and say that many peop

新西兰英语 111 Green Party Co-Leader will retire

The Green Party co-leader, Jeanette Fitzsimons, announced that she will step down from her position as co-leader in June, and leave politics altogether at the next elections. She has been co-leader of the Greens for 14 years. The Green Party must hav

新西兰英语 11 District Health Boards

District Hospital Boards (DHBs) have been in the news lately. New Zealand has 21 DHBs. The job of the Board is to meet the health needs of the community. The Board is responsible for governing hospitals and health services in their own areas but they

新西兰英语 388 Clean-up in Queensland

Water levels dropped quickly after the terrible floods last week, leaving thick layers of smelly mud. About 50,000 volunteers are helping to clean up. They bring spades, brooms, buckets and rubbish bags. They scrape mud off the floor with a spade or

新西兰英语 89 New Government, New Laws

During the past two weeks, Parliament has been in urgency. That means they sit every day until late in the evenings and they even had a session last Saturday. Usually Parliament sits Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, although MPs meet for committee

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 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 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 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 270 ANZAC Day

Listen to other items on ANZAC Day April 24 2009 and April 25 2008 April 25th is ANZAC Day, the day when we remember New Zealand soldiers who died in wars. April 25th, 1915 was the day when Australia and New Zealand soldiers (they were called ANZACs)

新西兰英语 192 Climate Change Bill

Today, the Minister for Climate Change, Nick Smith, introduced an ETS Emissions Trading Scheme bill into Parliament. This will change the ETS that the Labour government passed. Dr Smith said that it was important not to be too tough on industry becau

新西兰英语 167 “Treelord” settlement

See June 26th 2008 for background to this news. On Saturday, eight Maori iwi celebrated the Treelord settlement in Turangi near Lake Taupo. It is called Treelord because the fishing settlement with another iwi was called Sealord. The celebrations at

新西兰英语 185 Referendum on MMP

New Zealand has had MMP voting for our Members of Parliament for the last 16 years. MMP means Mixed Member Proportional. The system we had before MMP was called First Past the Post, like horse racing, where the winner was the one with the most votes.

新西兰英语 306 Should the police be armed?

Yesterday two police officers were shot and injured in Christchurch. A police dog was shot dead. The police officers did not have guns because they did not expect trouble. They were looking for a missing mental health patient and went to a house next

新西兰英语 293 Ministers’ credit cards

Cabinet Ministers like the Minister for Foreign Affairs, or the Minister for Trade or the Minister for the Environment have to travel overseas as part of their job. They have a credit card to pay for expenses such as hotels, taxis and food. They are

新西兰英语 356 Earthquake Insurance Claims

Chris Ryan, Chief Executive of the New Zealand Insurance Council, said today that Canterbury earthquake claims will probably be more than $3bn. This will be the biggest payout in New Zealands history for any natural disaster. The second biggest payou

新西兰英语 256 New Zealander arrested in Japan

When the anti-whaling ship, the Ady Gil, collided with the Japanese whaling ship the Shona Maru 2, the Ady Gil was badly damaged and later it sank. Listen to Jan 7th 2010 for more about this collision in the Antarctic. Three weeks ago, the New Zealan

新西兰英语 362 Kiwi Fruit Disease

One kiwi fruit grower in the Bay of Plenty has discovered a disease in his orchard which has frightened all kiwi fruit growers in the area. Tests have shown that the disease is PSA although they dont yet know which type of PSA it is. This disease is

新西兰英语 211 MPs travel spending

MPs get money to travel around New Zealand and overseas on important business. However, if they take their family overseas and expect the taxpayer to pay, this can cause trouble. Two MPs are in trouble for this. The first one, Rodney Hide, from the A

新西兰英语 187 Capital Gains Tax

The Labour Party, at their annual conference last weekend, said that they will discuss a capital gains tax. Many countries have a capital gains tax so if you buy a house then sell it at a profit, you pay tax on the profit. Some people buy houses as a