新西兰英语 74 National Party Wins

It was not a surprise last night to learn that the National Party won the election. The telephone polls had been telling us for a long time that National would get around 45% of the vote and Labour about 34% and that was exactly right. National has 5

新西兰英语 77 John Key’s New Cabinet

John Key announced five new Cabinet Ministers yesterday from the minor parties. Today, he announced another 23 from the National Party. This makes 28 Ministers. Bill English will be Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Minister of Infrastru

新西兰英语 78 Shadow Cabinet

Now that the National government has chosen the Cabinet ministers, Phil Goff, Leader of the Opposition, has chosen his Shadow Cabinet. These are the people who shadow or mark the government Cabinet ministers. For each department, there is a minister

新西兰英语 81 Universities want more money

The Vice-Chancellors Committee which represents the heads of the eight New Zealand universities, is asking the government for more money. They say that funding has not kept up with inflation and they need at least another $230 million on top of the $

新西兰英语 87 New Government

Note that there is no script for this recording. However, these are some of the words and phrases you will hear: swore an oath of allegiance to the Queen, alphabetically, Governor-General, speech from the throne, representative of the Queen, on behal

新西兰英语 80 Official Election Results

The official results for the election were announced on Saturday. 270,000 special votes were counted and all other votes were re-counted. Special votes were votes by people who were not in their own electorate on Election Day. Some of these people we

新西兰英语 368 Miners still trapped

There is still no news about the 29 miners trapped in the Pike River coal mine. The company is still testing the air quality every half hour but it is still not safe to send in a rescue team. They are also drilling a hole 150mm diameter into the tunn

新西兰英语 323 Fishing boat sinks

Early this morning, a fishing boat sank about 700km off the coast of Dunedin. 51 men were on board. 45 men in life rafts were rescued by another fishing boat nearby but three bodies were found. An air force plane searched for three more men today but

新西兰英语 253 Young drivers

The government is planning to change some of the driving rules for young people. This could happen by the end by this month. Some of the changes concern young drivers. The plan is to increase the driving age from 15 to 16. We are probably the only co

新西兰英语 366 MPs to lose travel perks

Now the Speaker of the House, Dr Lockwood Smith, has decided that all MPs and their partners will lose the right to have cheap international holidays. This is called a perk. Most workers do not get perks as part of their job. Most workers do not get

新西兰英语 193 Sir Howard Morrison’s funeral

Sir Howard Morrison was buried today. He died on Thursday at the age of 74. His tangi took place at Te Papaioura Marae in Rotorua. More than 6,000 people visited the marae to view the body and share the sadness with the family. A concert was held the

新西兰英语 301 ETS price rises

Prices for petrol, electricity, and gas for cooking went up today to pay for the greenhouse gas they put into the atmosphere. Petrol went up 3 cents a litre to $1.79 a litre for unleaded petrol. Electricity and gas prices went up 3.3%. This is becaus

新西兰英语 234 Weather for 2009

We now have a summary of our weather for last year. NIWA (the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) put this summary on their website. NIWA is a company which is owned by the government. Scientists at NIWA do research on climate, the

新西兰英语 189 Whanganui

Today, the Geographic Board decided that the town of Wanganui should be spelt with an h: Whanganui. This will make it the same as the river which flows through the town. The port is on the mouth of the river. The town is on the west coast of the Nort

新西兰英语 159 Swine Flu again

The H1N1 flu which is also called Swine flu is now causing some worry in New Zealand as well as the rest of the world. The World Health Organisation is now calling this a pandemic which means that it is now global and spreads within each country as w

新西兰英语 138 Swine Flu

After the news that more than 100 people have died from swine flu in Mexico, New Zealand is now worried about travellers who have just returned from Mexico. Swine flu comes from pigs, not from eating pork. It comes at first from the animals but after

新西兰英语 141 Mt Albert Electorate

When Helen Clark left Parliament, the Labour Party announced there would be a by-election in Mt Albert to find a replacement MP. Russell Norman, co-leader of the Green Party, and John Boscawen of the ACT Party both want to be the MP for Mt Albert. Th

新西兰英语 231 Paua Poaching

Paua poachers are fish thieves, says the Ministry of Fishing. They steal paua which should belong to everyone. Paua are shell fish which are called abalone in the US. You find them on rocks all around New Zealand, at low tide, usually in water just a

新西兰英语 376 ANZAC poppies

ANZAC poppies are made of fabric. They represent the red poppies that were flowering when so many soldiers from Australia and New Zealand were killed at Gallipoli during World War I. Listen to April 24th 2010 for more background to ANZAC day. These p

新西兰英语 310 Chinese company wants to buy farms

A Hong Kong company, Natural Dairy, wants to buy 16 dairy farms which belonged to the Crafar family. Thirteen of the farms are dairy farms and in total, the land is 8,815 hectares. The Crafar family went bankrupt and could not pay their debts of arou