The National Party announced that one third of government-owned cars will be electric by 2021. The government owns about 15,000 cars so that means 5,000 will be electric. Right now, there are nearly 4,000 electric cars registered in New Zealand but the government is aiming for 64,000 by 2021. New Zealand is lucky enough to have 80% of our elect ...…

Watch this video to see the damage to the railway line near Kaikoura. After the 7.8 November earthquake in Kaikoura, the road and rail were very badly damaged. Railway lines were twisted, some (lines) were pushed into the sea, cliffs fell on top of lines, bridges and tunnels were destroyed. With both road and rail closed, access was difficult f ...…

Statistics NZ released their employment figures for the June 2017 quarter (i.e. for 3 months). Salaries and wages increased by 1.7%. The minimum hourly wage increased by 50c to $15.75. However, for those people working full time, the average paid per hour was $38.70. This includes people on a salary who probably earn much more than those on a w ...…

The Book Council survey of over 2000 adults found that 88% of those people had read a book in the past year. The average number of books read was 22.6 books in a year. 52% said they had read at least one book written by a New Zealander. Slightly more women than men had read a book in the past year (91% of women, 84% of men). Fiction was a littl ...…

She is the new leader of the Labour Party and hopes that she will be the new Prime Minister after the election. She is an Auckland MP, representing the Mt Albert electorate. She is spokesperson for Security and Intelligence; Arts, Culture and Heritage; and Children. She has been interested in politics since she was a teenager. She joined the La ...…

In a shock announcement this morning, Andrew Little said he had resigned as Leader of the Opposition. In his place, the Labour Party caucus had voted Jacinda Ardern as the new leader. She had been Deputy Leader. The new Deputy is Kelvin Davis from Northland. This was very surprising news as the general election is only 8 weeks away. The reason ...…

First listen to yesterday’s post The previous post focused on stepping stones to reach Paris target of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions. Our target is to reduce these emissions to 50% below the 1990 levels. Dr Jan Wright is the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and this is her last report before she retires. She has been in th ...…

Last week, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Jan Wright, released a report called Stepping stones to Paris and beyond. Paris here means the Paris Climate Change agreement. Stepping stones are steps or plans to reach our target. New Zealand has set a target to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 but we do not have stepp ...…

Boris Johnson is the British Foreign Secretary. He visited New Zealand for two days and has now left for Sydney. While he was here, he unveiled the UK War Memorial in Wellington’s Pukeahu National War Memorial Park. It is a very large structure which is part a New Zealand Pohutukawa tree and part an English oak tree. It was designed and made by ...…

The rain storm which caused flooding in many places on Friday and Saturday, affected only the east coast of the South Island. Farmers had to deal with flooded paddocks. They had to move animals to higher parts of their farms if that was possible. Some animals drowned. Rivers broke their banks in Timaru and Oamaru. Some houses were flooded and p ...…

We are experiencing some extreme weather at the moment with heavy rain causing flooding in some places like Timaru. Only a week ago, heavy snowfalls closed roads in both the North and South Islands. Strong winds stopped the Cook Strait ferries from sailing between the North and South Islands. NIWA, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheri ...…

The Greens have two leaders, Metiria Turei and James Shaw. Their focus is the environment. They want clean technology and they would like New Zealand to be carbon neutral by 2050. If they became the government, they would make more money available to the poor especially for those families with children. People on benefits like single parents, o ...…

The general election will be held on Saturday, September 23rd this year. That is just 10 weeks from yesterday and many of us have not yet decided who we are going to vote for. The National Party has been the government for the last 9 years, most of that time with John Key as Prime Minister. Now the Prime Minister is Bill English. National has t ...…

The storm which began two days ago in the far south of New Zealand is now travelling up the North Island. This is winter so a southerly storm from the South Pole is not surprising. Yesterday the America’s Cup Victory parade was held in the streets of Christchurch, in spite of the bad weather. The organisers said they would move the ceremony to ...…

Fifty years ago today, we changed our money from pounds, shillings and pence to dollars and cents. Before that we had a similar system to Britain’s system. There were 12 pence in a shilling, 20 shillings in a pound. Arithmetic was not easy with 240 pence to one pound. Children at school had to work out sums like this one: How many pennies in 14 ...…

Sir Peter Blake A listener to this podcast asked me about Sir Peter Blake because his name comes up in talk of the America’s Cup. Who was he and why is he still a hero to many New Zealanders? I used the past tense – was – because he was killed in 2001 by pirates when his boat was tied up beside the Amazon River in Brazil. But he is not forgotte ...…

Auckland held a victory parade for Team New Zealand which won the America’s Cup in Bermuda last week. The parade started at Aotea Square, then went down Queen St, and along the harbour. Finally, the team entered a boat on the harbour so that more people could see them. About 80,000 people lined the streets along the route, even though it was a ...…

New Zealand’s population is now 4,796, 237 people, or least that was the figure given by Stats New Zealand at 10 o’clock tonight. One person is born (on average) every 6minutes and 39 seconds, and one dies every 16 minutes and 57 seconds. One new migrant is added to the population every 10 minutes and 23 seconds. The latest figures given for li ...…

American billionaire, Peter Thiel, became a New Zealand citizen in 2011 after spending only 12 days in New Zealand. To become a New Zealand citizen, usually a migrant has to wait for five years after being granted Permanent Residence. However, Mr Thiel was granted citizenship under a special category of “exceptional circumstances”. The Minister ...…

Probably the whole country now knows that Team New Zealand won the America’s Cup. There has been widespread jubilation at this win. There will be a victory parade in Auckland when the team returns next week. The America’s Cup is the oldest sporting trophy. The race dates back to 1851 when the American yacht won in a race around the Isle of Wigh ...…

The holy month of Ramadan for Muslims ends tonight with the Eid feast. During Ramadan, Muslims fast between the hours of daylight. This year Ramadan started on June 25th and ends tonight in New Zealand. Listen to June 8 2016 for more about Ramadan. Also listen to Ramadan in New Zealand in 2012 when athletes competing in the Olympic Games had to ...…

Tonight was the first test match between the Lions rugby team and the All Blacks. It was held at Eden Park in Auckland and was won by the All Blacks, 30 to 15. There will be two other test matches between the Lions and the All Blacks – July 1st in Wellington and July 8th in Auckland again. A test match is a game between the teams of two differe ...…

Today is the shortest day of the year. In contrast to last year, the weather has been normal for this time of year although that varies from place to place in NZ. Usually July is the coldest month of the year so we can expect more cold, southerly weather in the next few weeks. Vocabulary vary (v) – to be different in different places Note pronu ...…

The new road tunnel in Auckland was officially opened today by the Prime Minister, Bill English. He was joined by two other Ministers and they all three cut the ribbon at the same time. However, the tunnel is not ready for vehicles yet. It was open for people to walk through. About 17,000 people walked through the 2.4km tunnel today. There will ...…

Agricultural Fieldays are held every year at Mystery Creek near Hamilton. These four days – June 14th to 17th – are a time for farmers to find out what is new in technology, in different methods of farming and different products to use in farming. It is also a time for farmers to look at new machinery and decide what they need and what they can ...…

A parasite is an organism which feeds on the oyster and finally kills it. The parasite, Bonamia ostreae, has been found in farmed oysters in Big Glory Bay, Stewart Island. There are 3 oyster farms in this area with millions of oysters. They will all be removed in the hope that the parasite will not spread to the wild Bluff oysters. Farmed oyste ...…

The government again apologised to the Maori of Parihaka for the violent attack on the community 136 years ago. This time, the apology was from The Rt Honorable Chris Finlayson, who is Attorney-General. He also signed a deed of reconciliation between the government and the community. Here is part of his speech: I now want to outline what happen ...…

Thirty years ago today, New Zealand Labour government said we were anti-nuclear. We told the US that we did not want nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships in our harbours. While we have always been friendly with the United States, we were worried about nuclear accidents which could affect our country. The US downgraded our relationship from ‘a ...…

Our previous Prime Minister, Mr John Key, became Sir John Key today. This is called a knighthood. His wife is now Lady Bronagh. It was not a surprise. It’s traditional for ex-Prime Ministers to become Sir if a man, or Dame if a woman. Under the previous Labour government, Prime Minister Helen Clark, abolished knighthoods and other honours which ...…

New Zealand’s native birds are in danger of becoming extinct. We have 168 different kinds of native birds, and 93 of those are found only in New Zealand. This is because we are an island nation. A new report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is called Taonga of an Island Nation: Saving New Zealand’s Native Birds. A taonga is ...…