Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Mahuta signals intent to replace Tauranga council with commissioner, Super Fund keen on local infrastructure, and Safety Warehouse panned for idiotic cash drop stunt. Local government minister Nanaia Mahuta has started the term with a big call. After months of dysfunction and infighting around the Tauranga … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Stories of the modern housing crisis, commerce commission to study supermarket industry, and Tauranga’s local government civil war deepens. The term ‘housing crisis’ featured a lot in NZ politics over the last decade, but it means different things to different people. In today’s Bulletin, I’m going … Read more
Two electorates, seven candidates (including two recent National leaders) and 100 spaced-out audience members. Josie Adams reports from Tauranga. There were two debates for the price of one last night in Tauranga: the battle for the Tauranga electorate and the battle for Bay of Plenty were fought on the same Baycourt Theatre stage before a … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Questions over testing of border workers, decision on delaying election to be made today, and concerns for educational progress with new lockdown. The first point to note about managed isolation facilities – we don’t necessarily know that was where this latest outbreak came from. Alternative theories … Read more
Good morning and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Tauranga’s “combative” mayor on ropes after texts revealed, former firefighters reveal multiple sexual assault and harassment complaints, and new report details serious climate risks to NZ. Tauranga’s mayor is embroiled in some chaotic infighting around the Council table, and it could get uglier now that … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Tauranga passes draft budget featuring massive rates rise, JLR makes further donation allegations, and more Covid-19 cases confirmed. We’ll start with a regional story today, because this is one that has implications for plenty of other places. Local body politics in Tauranga is getting absolutely steamed … Read more
A government announcement of more borrowing to fund infrastructure projects got us thinking – where should Grant Robertson splash the cash first? Cautious incrementalism on infrastructure has gone on long enough – it’s time to go shopping for some brand new toys. That was the message finance minister Grant Robertson gave the Labour Party conference … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Clayton Mitchell denies accusations around a night out, food insecurity on the rise, and UK PM Boris Johnson secures deal with dubious prospects. NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell has got himself in a spot of late night bother in a Tauranga pub. Newshub’s Tova O’Brien reports he was … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Meth prices drop to record lows, dozens of arrests at Extinction Rebellion protests, and an excellent data dive into land sales to overseas forestry interests. In a worrying sign for wellbeing, the price of meth in many parts of the country has plunged to new … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: BOP Regional Council to investigate upgrading train lines, PM Ardern in China, and dozens of schools stuck using coal for heating. Choo choo for train lovers: The Bay of Plenty Regional Council is investigating a passenger rail system in and out of Tauranga, reports the Bay of Plenty … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Social housing list balloons amid heavy demand, bizarre development in NZ-China relations takes in former PM, and another species of foreign fruit fly found. The social housing waiting list has cracked 10,000, and is steadily rising all the time. Newshub reports that is an increase of 73% on … Read more
All week this week we feature tangata whenua writings to mark Waitangi Day. Today: Vincent O’Malley reviews a new history of the battle of Gate Pā. Head up Cameron Road, one of Tauranga’s main arterial routes, a few kilometres out of the city centre and you drive over one of New Zealand’s most important historical sites. … Read more
Pipi beds die and algae blooms, but iwi are repeatedly told ‘there’s nothing to see here’, writes Graham Cameron. When the Tainui canoe entered Tauranga harbour a millennium ago, it had the misfortune to run aground on a then prominent sandbar called Ruahine that sat below the waterline between Matakana Island and Mauao. The Tainui … Read more
Good morning, and welcome to The Bulletin. In today’s edition: Glut of good news for sheep farmers, a new poll comes out, and education minister hammers teacher pay aspirations. It’s a good time to own a flock of sheep. NZ lamb prices have hit a record high, reports the NZ Herald. It’s not expected that they’ll go … Read more
Community activists and charity groups staged a hikoi in Tauranga today, outraged at a bylaw prohibiting beggars and rough sleepers in the CBD. But the hikoi is also about restoring mana and hope, explains Kai Aroha founder Tania Lewis-Rickard Two years ago I started our charity Kai Aroha because of the obvious growth of poverty … Read more
Competing North Island iwi groups Tauranga Moana and Pare Hauraki were on track to negotiate a tikanga process for Treaty settlement talks – face to face, on the marae, no lawyers. Then the government changed hands and tikanga talks went out the window, writes Graham Cameron. My daughter Hinengākau may have delayed your morning commute … Read more
New Zealand’s fifth biggest city is remarkably thin on culture, writes Rebecca Galloway, and it’s time to change that. Just like the real Miami. Tauranga is a beach city marked by an ever-expanding tidemark of homes under construction. Its low-rise downtown is studded by colourful shops with names like Tres Chic! and Fancy That, proving … Read more
Sell up and move to Tauranga for a better, more affordable lifestyle? Keri Welham finds Tauranga is still desirable, but housing and wages mean it may now be out of reach. The mass migration has ended. Gone are the convoys of removal vans thundering down the Southern Motorway, and the scenes of Aucklander vs Aucklander … Read more
Blockades barring people from using a wharf on Matakana Island in the Western Bay of Plenty have drawn the ire of visitors and tourist operations, with some accusing local hapū of “taking the law into their own hands.” Tauranga Moana local Graham Cameron defends their kaitiakitanga and challenges views on land use and ownership. I … Read more
Western Bay of Plenty district council already voted in favour of Māori wards, but one councillor, the partner of Hobson’s Pledge head honcho Don Brash, is demanding a rate-payers’ poll. Let’s vote for progress, writes Graham Cameron. In our balmy autumn months in Tauranga Moana, during the commemorations for Te Weranga (the 1867 Tauranga Bush … Read more
All the political parties say regional development is A Good Thing. But which of them has much of an idea how to make it happen? Simon Wilson suggests they take a good look at a brand new proposal for Regional Rapid Rail. Morrinsville has never known so much attention. Between a semi-automatic weapon callout and … Read more
The sudden appearance of two Banksy-style artworks on the walls of Tauranga buildings earlier this month ignited rumours that the mysterious graffiti artist could be in town. Don Rowe set off to uncover the truth. The first Banksy I ever saw was printed on a 100 baht t-shirt on Khao Sahn Road in Bangkok. I … Read more