The Latest Breaking News from Newsroom.co.nz

Opinion: Critics wanted to change how cost-benefit assessment was undertaken so projects with up-front costs and long-term benefits would be easier. They were often thinking about environmental initiatives but have ended up with more road funding.

After a long legal fight the fuel giant, consumer and environmental groups find one thing to agree on: the Govt must step up to ensure NZ's emissions targets are achieved, they say. Jonathan Milne reports.

For many Pacific Island nations, climate change isn’t a distant threat or an abstract statistic – it’s an everyday reality reshaping homes, traditions, and futures. Rising sea levels, coastal erosion, increasing temperatures and severe weather events – from cyclones to drought to unpredictable deluges – all combine to threaten traditional…

The day will come when the big oil tanks on the headland south of Whangārei will no longer contain petroleum; when the site’s owner will get out of fossil fuels entirely, says Channel Infrastructure chief executive Rob Buchanan. But that day is still decades away and so, this month, he…

Ministers are set to announce a package of energy reforms tomorrow morning, based loosely on recommendations from a long-awaited report by international consultancy Frontier Economics. It’s understood the Government has stopped well short of the radical shake-up sought by NZ First and its associate energy minister, Shane Jones. At present…

Analysis: It’s only taken 13 years! But this afternoon, health ministers are expected to announce a compromise that shares responsibility for procuring $1.5b of medical devices a year. Simeon Brown and his associate David Seymour are seeking to stamp their authority on Health NZ and Pharmac, after the agencies and their predecessors…

This coming month, New Zealand could elect two Karen Morgans as mayor – one in Mackenzie District, one in Hutt City. But these aren’t the pejorative stereotype ‘Karens’; rather than complaining about the problems in their communities, they’re stepping up to make a difference. Mackenzie’s Karen Morgan, who’s been acting…

Ruapehu District Council was hailed a “ratepayer hero” by the Taxpayers’ Union lobby group last week. That was because the small North Island council managed an unexpected $700,000 overspend by cutting services and infrastructure investment, rather than hiking rates and fees.  But, highlighting the difficult balancing act between high rates…

The use of standardised, repeatable designs has become a Government mantra – and the education minister says that all started with her project to cut costs by building modular classrooms. "We've halved the cost of building a classroom," she tells Newsroom. "And I can see other ministers looking at us,…