Community

Southland District Council is spending its $1 million Milford Sound windfall on public toilets. Council agreed at its meeting on Wednesday to direct the money — received from selling its two percent shareholding in Milford Sound Tourism Limited — toward renewing and upgrading public toilets along the main tourist route through Southland

New Zealand's top one percent of earners pay more income tax than the entire bottom half of the country. That's the central claim in a new handbook from the Taxpayers' Union, released this week as the 2026 election campaign heats up. The group says its

Two of New Zealand's rarest birds have just got a very wealthy support crew. The kākāpō and the Chatham Island tāiko have been named in the Phoenix Species Project — a $200 million global initiative backed by Re:wild, the Bezos Earth Fund, Leonardo DiCaprio, and a handful of

Gore District Council is staying in the room on local government reform — but making clear it hasn't agreed to anything yet. Following an extraordinary council meeting today, Gore agreed to keep exploring reform proposals from both Invercargill City Council and Southland District Council under the Government's

Invercargill’s town crier Lynley McKerrow is bringing the Abbeyfield shared housing concept to the city. A public meeting on Friday night will reveal more details and the steering committee of just four is looking for more support to move the initiative ahead. There are currently 16 Abbeyfield houses in

A Winton-raised military chaplain has been recognised for building a support system for SAS families that the New Zealand Defence Force has now adopted across its operations. Chaplain Class 3 Rich Lander received a Chief of Army Commendation in Auckland last week, following four years attached to the 1st New

Hospice South is opening a new retail and community hub in Invercargill this weekend, and chief executive Pete Thompson says it signals the start of a broader rebuild of how the organisation connects with the region. The Reloved by Hospice South community hub opens officially at 9.45am on Saturday

Some kids at Invercargill Middle School now wait to see if their favourite resident is available before they'll start reading. That's not a bad outcome for a literacy programme. Enliven Southland has launched a pilot initiative — Enliven Literacy with Legends — pairing Walmsley House care home residents