新西兰英语 239 Farmers buy shares in Fonterra

Fonterra is the biggest company in New Zealand and also the biggest export dairy company in the world. It is a co-operative which means that farmers own it. In fact, 10, 500 dairy farmers in New Zealand own Fonterra. Each farmer has one share for eac

新西兰英语 15 Building Codes

The government announced today some changes to building which might help to make houses cheaper. House prices have risen sharply in recent years, making it hard for young people to buy their own house. Mortgage rates have gone up too. It has been a l

新西兰英语 16 Senior Doctors

A month ago, senior doctors in New Zealand hospitals said they would go on strike at the end of March to get more pay. It now looks as though they will not go on strike after all. The Minister of Health, David Cunliffe, has worked hard in the last mo

新西兰英语 26 Price Rises

We all know about price rises in the last few months. Petrol continues to increase, mostly because of the price of a barrel of oil on the international market. Mortgage interest rates have been increasing for some time although last week there was a

新西兰英语 34 Cell Phones

Do you think talking on a cell phone while driving is dangerous? What about texting or reading text messages while driving? It is amazing that some people do that but its true. Last year, a driver who was texting killed two teenage sisters and this y

新西兰英语 28 The Budget

Today, the Minister of Finance, Dr Michael Cullen, announced his budget. Every year, at about the same time of year, the Minister of Finance announces a budget which tells us how the Government plans to spend our tax money in the next year and in the

新西兰英语 36 IVF Sex Selection

A report to the government suggested that New Zealand could allow parents to choose the sex of their children who are born using IVF (in-vitro fertilisation). This is a process where the egg from the woman is fertilised by sperm from the man outside

新西兰英语 50 Olympic Successes for NZ

Saturday was a golden day for New Zealand at the Beijing Olympics. New Zealanders won two gold medals, a silver and two bronze medals. The first medal was won by the rowing twins, Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell. This is their second Olympics go

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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