The Government is leaving the door open to more tax incentives to keep the shooting of The Hobbit films in New Zealand.

Prime Minister John Key thinks The Hobbit movies can be saved and he is going to do his best to achieve that when Warner Brothers executives arrive next week.

An Actors' Equity meeting to be held in Auckland tonight has been canned over fears technicians and other workers in the film would picket.

Robyn Malcolm had to be escorted by police from an inner city Wellington restaurant last night after being threatened by technical workers worried the Hobbit won't be made in NZ.

A filmmaker and actor who worked on LOTR and Avatar says union demands to standardise pay rates could cripple dozens of NZ films.

Production of The Hobbit films moving offshore has raised the ire of many Herald readers. We asked where the blame should lie.

The Hobbit is slipping away from New Zealand despite the best efforts of its producers, the film's co-writer Philippa Boyens says.

Sir Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh's statement on The Hobbit and a release from the Council of Trade Unions in response.

The loss of The Hobbit film overseas is a "potential tragedy for the New Zealand film industry", Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Chris Finlayson said this morning.

Weta Workshop's boss Sir Richard Taylor last night said the New Zealand film industry was "at some level of peril".

Two Hobbit films, expected to cost about $669m to make, are in danger of being moved away from NZ because of "the actions of a very limited few", says Weta Workshop's Sir Richard Taylor.

There is no new money to offer teachers a bigger pay increase unless they wanted to burden their students with a future of paying off national debt, says Prime Minister John Key.

At least 15,000 workers from Kaitaia to Bluff attended stop work rallies this in protest against Government workplace changes.

District health boards have asked the Government to "review" the right of health workers to strike, saying patients are being harmed.

Thousands of workers to protest proposed new laws in 28 towns from Kaitaia to Bluff today.

As teachers reject the Govt's latest pay offer, the Education Minister says they simply don't have the kind of money being asked for.

France's govt yesterday admitted that the country's biggest airport might run out of fuel, as pension reform protesters blockade refineries.

First it was Paul Henry. Now it's Michael Laws. These are cruel times for shock jocks and the people who love them, writes John Drinnan.