The High Court has ruled Children’s Minister Karen Chhour cannot be compelled to appear before the Waitangi Tribunal. In a just-released decision, Justice Andru Isac granted the Crown’s application for judicial review, setting aside the summons issued by the tribunal. But he added the mana of the tribunal and the importance of its work was not diminished by his decision. The judicial review challenged an unprecedented request from the tribunal this month for Chhour to appear before an urgent inquiry about the Government’s decision to repeal section 7AA of the Oranga Tamariki Act. It summonsed ..read more

Melissa Lee is out of the Cabinet and stripped of the Broadcasting portfolio in a surprise reshuffle by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Luxon announced this morning that Paul Goldsmith would take on the Media and Communications portfolio. The reshuffle has also seen Penny Simmonds dropped as Disability Issues Minister, which Louise Upston will pick up on. It comes after Lee struggled to front on issues confronting the media sector, including the collapse of Newshub and cuts at TVNZ. “Melissa Lee is a good, hard-working minister,” Luxon said, claiming Lee was doing a “phenomenal job” in her o ..read more

The Ministry of Social Development has cut 200 jobs through voluntary redundancies and is proposing to axe more staff next month. The union representing public sector workers, the Public Service Association (PSA), has slammed the decision, saying it was reckless to reduce the welfare providers’ workforce at a time of increased job losses and economic strife. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r The Ministry of Social Deve ..read more

Several gang members and affiliates are heading to Parliament to have their say on the Government’s plans to limit public gang activity, but the Justice Minister is doubtful they’ll have any impact on the legislation.  Parliament’s justice select committee will spend about five hours today hearing from people representing legal, social welfare and free speech organisations on the Gangs Legislation Amendment Bill, which contains a raft of proposed powers aimed at targeting gangs such as banning patches in public.  Among the submitters is an individual speaking on behalf of Black Power ..read more

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee have unveiled a revised Three Strikes law, which was abolished under the Labour Government. Luxon said the Government has a target to have 20,000 fewer victims of violent crime by 2029. The new legislation would cover the same 40 serious violent and sexual offences as the former legislation, with the addition of the new strangulation and suffocation offence. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee have unveiled a revised Three Strikes law, which was abolished under the Labour ..read more

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has described the state of the world as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous as he seeks to strengthen Southeast Asia relationships.  He is returning on Sunday from a week-long tour of Southeast Asia, where he met with political and business leaders from the region.  Amid global tensions and escalating tensions in the Middle East, it was important that New Zealand stood up for its values and continued to push for diplomacy, he said.  "It's an incredibly disruptive time for everybody, and so making sure that we stand up for values ..read more

The mother of a transgender teenager says having her child come out at the age of eight let her and her family take "a deep collective breath".  However, as far as their daughter was concerned, they accepted it immediately, Kylie said.  "As soon she told us who she was, then we just went with that.  "And then behind the scene, we did quite a lot of gathering of information about what would be the best way to keep her safe and keep her well."  Responses from those around them were "mixed", some were supportive, others not.  "We had to educate the people around us at the ..read more

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will shortly speak from the Philippines where he is wrapping up his first extended overseas trip since taking office last year.   He visited Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines, where he was a guest of recently-elected President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Romualdez Marcos.   Strengthening trade ties was a focus of the trip, but so too was defence and the troubling security situation in Asia.   In a joint press conference, Marcos highlighted challenges in the South China Sea, where the Philippines is engaged in a bitter dispute ..read more

Police Minister Mark Mitchell has defended the Government's latest pay offer to the country's police force that was firmly rejected by staff, lamenting the $8.5 billion spent on interest from the previous Government's spending that would have significantly helped the ..read more

The Government's cutting of more than 1000 public sector jobs has been praised as "the right thing to do" by former finance minister Steven Joyce, as the latest inflation figures revealed non-tradeable inflation has barely budged. Meanwhile, the Opposition has ..read more