News

Three months out from the election, the government is clinging to a two-seat majority — and a new party just made things considerably more complicated. The latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll has the Opportunity Party breaking five percent in a mainstream public poll for the first time, landing on 6.1

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

The Southland Sharks are national basketball champions, beating the Wellington Saints 104-101 in overtime in Invercargill. Last year the Saints ended the Sharks' season at the same stage. Saturday's result was payback — hard-fought, down to the wire, and settled only in extra time. Sharks captain Sam Timmins

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

Parts of Southland's roading network are approaching a "tipping point", and the district mayor has put that warning in writing to the country's transport agency. Southand District Mayor Rob Scott has written a pointed letter to NZ Transport Agency (NZTA) chair Simon Bridges, questioning

Southland District Council will submit a merger proposal for local government reform — even though most of the people it asked said not to. Councillors voted on Wednesday to back a Head Start proposal for two councils to govern the region: a Southland-Gore unitary council and an Invercargill unitary council. The

Someone keeps turning Invercargill's Gala St fountain into a bubble bath — and it's costing ratepayers more than $5000 a year to clean up. The soap suds prank, a recurring nuisance at the city centre fountain, requires staff to neutralise the foam with vinegar around 50 times

A new-look Southerner Express breezed into Invercargill railway station yesterday afternoon at the end of a two-day promotional run from Christchurch. Local dignitaries and invited guests saw the new layout for the first time last night during a return trip to Bluff. The revamped servicer operated on an existing timetable,