Don’t have time to read the headlines? Watch the Focus Morning Bulletin presented by Chereè Kinnear above.
MPs are back in the capital after the summer break and the Government’s ready to pick up where it started late last year.
The House agenda is packed with maiden speeches this week, with a raft of National MPs ready to address Parliament for the first time.
Between speeches, they’ll squeeze in some lawmaking, including an urgent motion to let the Government start the process of scrapping the Productivity Commission.
Local council decisions are set to be scrutinised by the Government, in the wake of Wellington’s water issues.
Local Government Minister Simeon Brown met with two of the region’s mayors yesterday.
Wellington is at level two water restrictions, partially to compensate for water lost from leaky pipes.
Upper Hutt Mayor Wayne Guppy says everyone’s long-term plan will be under scrutiny.
Residents of the country’s wealthiest suburb are rolling up their sleeves for a fight with Watercare over the temporary loss of a prized parkland.
Herne Bay locals are upset a sewage project to protect beaches will require a portion of Salisbury Reserve to be taken over for two years.
They support a tunnel to improve beach water quality, but don’t want to lose most of the local reserve.
Residents say the park isn’t critical for the project and the two-year closure would cause considerable noise and nuisance.
The carcass of the whale that stranded off the coast of Christchurch has been transported to a burial site.
Crews were alerted on Sunday that the juvenile fin whale had become stuck near Redcliffs.
It couldn’t be refloated and died after low tide about 3am yesterday.
Ngāi Tahu has confirmed the carcass was transported out of the bay yesterday afternoon.
A warning for ANZ customers to be vigilant.
The bank says customers are receiving phone calls from scammers pretending to be from ANZ, and in some cases, the calls appear to come from ANZ numbers.
It says people should not follow any instructions, transfer money or share their personal or banking information.
ANZ says it would never ask customers for their banking passwords, pins or two-factor authentication codes.
It's understood a NZDF aircraft and multiple helicopters are involved.