Labour backbencher Louisa Wall, is looking at the possibility of drafting legislation that would impose a “duty of care” on media organisations. In June she told the Herald on Sunday she would like a “duty of care” clause added to the Bill of Rights Act, so people could be held accountable for their use of free Read more
Napier City Council has lost a court battle to retain Easter Sunday trading because it carried out public consultation while the Christian community was distracted with advent over the Christmas period. Justice Robert Dobson recently overruled the council’s decision to allow Easter Sunday trading following a High Court judicial hearing last month. Continue reading
A law that gives children more protection against forced marriage was enacted on Wednesday. The Marriage (Court Consent to Marriage of Minors) Amendment Bill aims to prevent forced marriages of mostly girls, aged 16 and 17 and considered minors by the state, by changing the requirement of consent from parents to a Family Court judge. Read more
Casino company SkyCity Entertainment said it has raised its normalised net profit by 10.4 per cent to $169.9 million for the year to June. Market expectations were for a normalised net profit of $162 million. Continue reading
The Māori sexual and reproductive health promotion organisation Te Whāriki Takapou (TWT) is critical of the decision by Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) to spend $18.4m on the Mates and Dates programme. Mates and Dates is a programme for secondary school students. It is aimed at teaching young people healthy relationship skills and behaviour to help prevent Read more
Six of the 11 charter (partnership) schools have a Māori roll of 87 percent or higher. High-profile Māori leader Lance O’Sullivan says self-serving interests and protectionism from the old establishment are at the heart of the move to close them down. He says such a move will force Māori youth back into a state system Read more
Professor Max Abbott says the way gambling has been set up in New Zealand has silenced the organisations, including churches, that would usually be expected to oppose the proliferation of opportunities to gamble In an interview on RNZ’s Nine to Noon programme on Monday, he said the profits from gambling are distributed to NGOs and Read more
It is time for New Zealand to restart the debate on genetic engineering says the Prime Minister’s former science adviser Sir Peter Gluckman. But the Government says there are no plans to change New Zealand’s cautious approach to genetic engineering, and any changes are many years away. Continue reading
Show people a way they can help the homeless and they’ll do it in a heartbeat. That’s the heartening discovery community workers have made as they set up Whangārei’s first-day centre for people with nowhere to call home. Continue reading
Rest homes are starting to lose valuable workers as stricter immigration rules bite, says the Aged Care Association. Kaitaia therapist, Juliet Garcia, has worked for 10 years but can’t get residence. She’s just one example of immigration rules affecting the sector, said chief executive of the Aged Care Association, Simon Wallace. Continue reading