Rising dairy prices continue to underpin gains in the ANZ Commodity Price Index, which has recorded its seventh straight monthly gain last month.

Business lobby groups welcomed proposed changes to the emissions trading scheme agreed by the Government and the Maori Party yesterday.

The Maori Party has come to the Government's aid to get a new emissions trading scheme (ETS) in place.

A Govt and the Maori Party deal on emissions trading legislation will halve the impact on power and petrol prices over the first two years of the scheme.

The primary production region of Gisborne is "feeling the pain" of the recession with another employer slashing staff numbers by half.