The Government is keen on making it easier to get more drivers on the road. If proposed changes announced this week go through, the second practical driving test required for a full licence will be scrapped, and the number of eyesight tests needed will be reduced, with new safety measures being introduced as well. It comes as the Government continues with its pledge to reverse Labour’s “blanket speed limit reductions” - something National campaigned on. But will a more affordab...
Apr 16, 2025•20 min
The severe storm barrelling towards the upper North Island has been upgraded to a tropical cyclone. The Fiji Meteorological Service has named the storm “Tropical Cyclone Tam”, and while its centre is expected to remain west of Cape Reinga, forecasters are still warning of severe wind and rain over the next 24 hours. Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald,...
Apr 16, 2025•5 min
New Zealand fashion has had a shake-up in recent years – with both well-known and home-grown brands shutting up shop. Kate Sylvester will shut their doors this year after 31 years of trade – and newer labels, Mina, Hej hej, and Nisa have all ended production. The struggles are perhaps best epitomised by New Zealand fashion week, which cancelled its 2024 season after cancellations in 2020, 2021 and 2022. And the issues show no sign of stopping, with global trade wars highlighting how ...
Apr 15, 2025•19 min
Pauline Hanna on a boat, sea breeze, big smiles. It’s the image filmmakers of a new three-part documentary into her death, and subsequent murder trial of her husband, decide to open on. Philip Polkinghorne was found not guilty of strangling his wife and making it look like she’d taken her own life. The Front Page covered the mammoth nine-week trial in the series: Accused: The Polkinghorne Trial. Today on The Front Page, executive producer Mark McNeill is with us to talk about the tri...
Apr 14, 2025•14 min
Artificial intelligence has been the hot topic of debate in the business world for the last few years. But increasingly, it’s an area that is encroaching in on the creative industries. The latest OpenAI update is so advanced, fans online have used it to eerily replicate the hand drawn art style of Japanese anime favourites, Studio Ghibli. It’s just the latest sign of AI coming for the arts, with recent headlines also highlighting concerns over entirely artificial models in ad campaig...
Apr 13, 2025•17 min
Politics is rarely quiet in New Zealand, but we’ve seen plenty of upheaval in the last few weeks. Notably, after over a year of protests and thousands of submissions against it, the Treaty Principles Bill has finally been killed off, after being voted down in its second reading in the House yesterday. But things are looking up for the Coalition, with two recent polls firming up support for National, Act and NZ First – even if it remains a tight race between the right and left blocs.&...
Apr 10, 2025•20 min
A week after announcing his Liberation Day tariffs and causing global market chaos, US President Donald Trump has done a 180. He has announced on social media that he has paused tariffs against 75 countries for 90 days – but has doubled down on a trade war with China, announcing a 125% tariffs on goods from the country. US stocks rocketed higher after the declaration – the S&P 500 posted its best day since 2008, and the Nasdaq its best since 2001. So what's behind the sudden back...
Apr 10, 2025•15 min
Cost of living has hit many families around the country hard – but what about the singles out there? From booking holidays to having a roof over your head, there’s often an additional cost of doing life alone. Research shows that, for people aged 25 to 49, those who are single spend 14% more than their coupled counterparts. It has been dubbed the ‘singles tax’, and while it is gaining more traction in the mainstream, lowering costs for the partnerless is not an easy task....
Apr 09, 2025•18 min
There’s no doubt about it, being a parliamentarian is a public facing, high-stress, demanding job. You’re exposed, scrutinised, and your decisions affect the entire country – for better, or worse. But, do the high-stakes constitute the abuse they face, some on a daily basis? Recently, we’ve seen Minister Shane Jones and his wife Dot accosted at an airport, increased security for Mayors Wayne Brown and Tania Tapsell, and death threats aimed at Green MP Benjamin Doyle &ndas...
Apr 08, 2025•15 min
Donald Trump’s Liberation Day has felt more like a bloodbath for the world economy. The US President last week announced what he called reciprocal tariffs on almost every country on Earth – as well as some islands uninhabited by human life. New Zealand was not as impacted as most – with just a10 percent tariff on our goods imported into the US – but the European Union has had a 20% bump on tariffs, while China has received an additional 34% tariff. More than 50 countries ...
Apr 07, 2025•20 min
The world can feel like a dark and gloomy place at times, particularly at the moment. With wars, economic uncertainty and certain politicians always generating headlines, its hard to avoid feeling down. But in amongst all this doom and gloom, there are plenty of stories worth celebrating in New Zealand – from stars on the rise to businesses making it work in a tough environment. The New Zealand Herald is spotlighting some of these stories in a new editorial campaign, On the Up. Today on Th...
Apr 06, 2025•16 min
You meet anyone overseas and say New Zealand, the first thing they bring up is hobbits. Lord of the Rings was a crowning achievement for film production in Aotearoa, and opened the door for more movies to be filmed here. A Minecraft Movie is just the latest overseas blockbuster to be produced on our shores, and that’s hitting cinemas around the world this weekend – while local film Tee-nah has been a box office sensation. But as the cost of film production soars around the world, wha...
Apr 03, 2025•19 min
Our primary healthcare system stands at a critical juncture - at least, that’s the latest from the New Zealand Initiative. The think tank has released a review this morning, into the country’s primary care system. It argues that the “current system faces mounting pressures that threaten its sustainability and effectiveness”. So with the vital role GPs play in our every day healthcare, what are the challenges facing our family doctors? Today on The Front Page, NZI research...
Apr 02, 2025•17 min
A war of words has erupted between the Green Party and NZ First this week. It comes after photos circulated on social from a private Instagram account belonging to Green MP Benjamin Doyle. The account, named ‘biblebeltbussy’, also featured photos of their child, including one with ‘bussy’ in the caption. The term originated as a euphuism for a man’s anus, and can be used colloquially by some in the gay community, but Doyle’s usage of it has sparked accusations...
Apr 01, 2025•21 min
The so-called ‘stadium wars’ in Auckland have been raging quietly behind the scenes for several years now. But last week, the battle popped up in public once again, with Auckland Council voting to throw its support behind a plan to upgrade Eden Park, over the proposed new stadium on the city’s waterfront. Eden Park may have won on the day, but questions remain over how the upgrades will be funded, while the Government still needs to weigh in on which project t...
Mar 31, 2025•19 min
In New Zealand, there are a number of tribunals and review boards you can go to when you feel things haven’t quite gone your way. Whether you’ve had a bad experience leaving your job, or something’s gone wrong in your healthcare journey, these committees are tasked with working out what has gone wrong and who – if anyone – should be held responsible. But some of them can be limited in how much they can hold people to account. The Human ...
Mar 30, 2025•14 min
The financial year is coming to an end, and that means from next Tuesday, a lot of Kiwis will be getting more money in their wallets. April 1st is when the Annual General Adjustment takes place – when benefits and minimum wage increase to account for wage growth or inflation. While benefits are getting a 2.22 percent rise, and Super and the Veterans Pension gets a 3.51 percent increase, minimum wage is only going up by 1.5 percent. As people continue to feel the sting of cost of living, wh...
Mar 27, 2025•17 min
New figures have revealed the assets of our ten biggest iwi stands at $8.2 billion. A recent report from consultancy firm TDB Advisory shows the assets only rose by $100m in the last three years, a slightly better return than 2023 – as the economic turmoil over the last five years continues to have an impact on their investments. Covering everything from property, to farming, to managed funds and offshore opportunities, many of these iwi own assets that have an impact on our day-to-day liv...
Mar 26, 2025•17 min
Since 1930, across 22 editions of the Fifa Mens World Cup, only two New Zealand teams have featured on the biggest football stage, in 1982 and 2010. Now there will be three. The All Whites have qualified for the 2026 Fifa World Cup – after a three nil win over New Caledonia in front of a home crowd at Eden Park. After a successful job co-hosting the womens tournament in 2023, and a strong run from new team Auckland FC in the A-League, what does the future of football look like in New Zeala...
Mar 25, 2025•19 min
At 11:59pm on March 25th 2020, New Zealand entered its first level four Covid –19 lockdown. To many, that moment may feel like it happened just yesterday, while others are glad its firmly in the past. Whatever your feelings are about New Zealand’s response to the Covid pandemic, that first lockdown was a life altering event for many of us. Five years on, did it change us for the better, or did it kickstart something else entirely? University of Otago epidemiologist Michael Bake...
Mar 24, 2025•21 min
School rugby has been under the microscope for several years now after controversies over poaching between schools and live broadcast of games. Those tensions have flared up again, with secondary schools pushing back against NZ Rugby’s plans for an Under-18 team to take on Australia. It’s not the only sporting code to face push back though. This week, our young rowers take to the waters for the Maadi Cup regatta, and for the first time ‘year 14’ students are barred from t...
Mar 23, 2025•21 min
There have been a number of headlines trending throughout 2025 so far. Tariffs, trade wars, geopolitical tensions... and romance scams. Fake online relationships – better known as catfishes – have existed as long as social media has been around. But the increasing prevalence of AI is making it trickier to tell fact from fiction. One woman in France was conned out of 800,000 Euros after believing she was in a relationship with Oscar winner Brad Pitt, while closer to home, US-based Kiw...
Mar 20, 2025•15 min
This week is seeing New Zealand’s highest-ranking politicians walking a tricky diplomatic tightrope. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has been courting his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to kickstart trade deal discussions – but their meeting took a twist when Modi raised concerns about ‘anti-Indian activity’ in New Zealand. Around the same time, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Winston Peters has been in Washington for his first face to face talks with the se...
Mar 19, 2025•18 min
Trump's tariff wars are officially on. Donald Trump’s first two targets are Mexico and Canada, imposing 25% tariffs on their products – and 20% on Chinese imports. These three countries accounted for more than 40% of imports into the US last year. He’s also introduced a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium products worldwide. On his social media site, Truth Social, Trump said if the EU doesn’t remove a proposed 50% tariff on US bourbon, the US will place a 200% tariff on...
Mar 18, 2025•20 min
Bowel cancer is the second highest cause of cancer death in New Zealand. 1 in 10 Kiwis diagnosed are under 50 and every day, around three New Zealanders die from bowel cancer. Now, keep these figures in mind when I tell you that Health Minister Simeon Brown has announced the Government is lowering the screening from 60 to 58 for all Kiwis – and canned plans to lower the age for Māori and Pacific men to 50. That might be a good fit for the Pākehā majority, but ...
Mar 17, 2025•17 min
A battle is underway for the future of one of New Zealand’s biggest media companies. Auckland-based Canadian billionaire Jim Grenon has in the last fortnight emerged as one of the biggest shareholders in NZME – the owner of the NZ Herald, Newstalk ZB and many music radio stations. And next month, he hopes to vote out the company’s current board members and install himself and three others at the company’s shareholder meeting. It’s the latest bit of turmoil to hit th...
Mar 16, 2025•18 min
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is heading to India, taking with him one of the largest delegations a New Zealand PM has ever travelled with. And, the fanfare makes sense, given we currently export $718 million worth of goods to India annually, but we don’t have a formal free trade agreement. With the world’s largest population and on track to become the world’s third largest economy by 2030 – starting negotiations on that deal has been a priority for Luxon,...
Mar 13, 2025•15 min
A brainchild of the previous Labour Government, the Healthy School Lunches Programme provides free lunches to about 242,000 students in greatest need. Since its initial launch in 2019, the programme has often been a target by politicians and commentators over the cost involved in the scheme. It’s now under the supervision of associate education minister David Seymour, and a cheaper alternative to it launched this year. It alone has faced a myriad of issues, notably incidents of unappetisin...
Mar 12, 2025•18 min
New Zealand Police continue to monitor knife crime trends worldwide while other jurisdictions introduce tough new laws, getting ahead of the curve before it’s too late. What they’re monitoring is reported offending involving knife crime – the likes of serious assaults and aggravated robberies. Between December 2023 and December 2024, there were 1,639 incidents involving a stabbing or cutting weapon – a 1.7% decrease from the year before. But, while New Zealand has not see...
Mar 11, 2025•16 min
The Government’s focus on economic growth and foreign investment is back in the spotlight this week. Later this week, the much-anticipated Investment Summit will take place in Auckland. Businesses from over 14 countries, with six trillion dollars of capital, will be in attendance across Thursday and Friday, with Government Ministers and Labour representatives in attendance. It comes at a critical time for the Government, with mixed poll results suggesting a difficult path to re-election ne...
Mar 10, 2025•17 min
