Nearly two-thirds of New Zealanders want to lower the drink-driving blood alcohol limit, according to the latest Ministry of Transport figures. A private member’s bill by Labour MP Iain Lees-Galloway was drawn from the ballot this week, and Parliament is expected to vote early next year on whether to lower the drink driving alcohol limit Read more
Mega-rich people are flocking to New Zealand after immigration rules were relaxed for people with at least $10 million to spend. The change in 2009 has led to a surge in seriously rich people gaining New Zealand residency and most don’t need any business experience or English language expertise. More than 100 people have been Read more
THE PRESIDENT OF Papua New Guinea’s autonomous province of Bougainville, Dr John Momis, is calling on the United Nations to apologise and withdraw a survey on gender violence he says is flawed. The UN Gender Violence Survey was released last week and included assertions that some of the highest rates of sexual violence in the Read more
Thousands of Kiwi children are homeless, with many missing out on schooling and basic medical care. A new Otago University study has used 2006 census data to provide the first measure of homelessness, finding that 34,000 people suffer “severe housing deprivation”. Researchers say the problem has “inevitably” worsened since 2006, with a deepening housing shortage Read more
Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Martin Krebs as apostolic nuncio to Fiji, Samoa and Vanuatu. Archbishop Krebs was previously apostolic nuncio to New Zealand, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Palau, and the Federated States of Micronesia, and apostolic delegate in the Pacific Ocean. Source Vatican Information Service
Pope Francis on Saturday effectively demoted a highly conservative Italian cardinal who led theVatican’s department on clergy, while keeping in place a German prelate who wages the Catholic church’s crackdown on liberal U.S. nuns and helps craft its sex-abuse response. After six months on the job to study the workings of the Vatican’s curia, or Read more
After decades of glum trends — fewer priests, fewer parishes — the Catholic Church in the United States has a new statistic to cheer: More men are now enrolled in graduate level seminaries, the main pipeline to the priesthood, than in nearly two decades. This year’s tally of 3,694 graduate theology students represents a 16 Read more
Senior doctors say more patients with serious kidney disease will die waiting for a transplant unless organ donation rates are improved. They are calling for more discussion about how organ donation could be boosted, from both the living and the dead. However, the topic is a sensitive one, involving complex ethical issues. Read more
Research by a remuneration consultancy shows chief executives of charities in New Zealand are paid an average of $224,000 per year. Strategic Pay executive reward manager Jarrod Moyle says chief executives in the charitable sector are often motivated by a cause rather than the salary and many are paid a lot less than $220,000. Listen Read more