新西兰英语 733 Christchurch starting to re-build

It is nearly two years now since the earthquake destroyed so many buildings in the Christchurch city centre and killed 183 people. In those two years, nearly 1,000 city buildings have been demolished. Only another 48 buildings are waiting to be demol

新西兰英语 773 No changes to MMP

Last year, the Electoral Commission reviewed MMP and reported to Parliament. The Commission recommended two small changes to MMP: to reduce the party threshold from 5% to 4% and to take away the electoral seat threshold. When we vote for Members of P

新西兰英语 772 Housing in the Budget

Yesterday, the Minister of Finance, Bill English, read the Budget in Parliament. One important matter in the Budget was a plan to bring down house prices, especially in Auckland. In the last year, house prices have increased by 8% throughout the whol

新西兰英语 771 Budget money for water storage

First, listen to March 4th 2013 to hear about drought on farms this past summer. The Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy said that in the long term the government wants to invest $400m in regional water irrigation. In the short term, the Budg

新西兰英语 770 House demolitions in Christchurch

CERA (the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority) started demolishing houses in the Christchurch residential red zones last year. Already 2,074 houses have been demolished and demolitions are speeding up now. More than 6,000 house owners have now s

新西兰英语 769 Bluff Oyster Festival

Today was the annual Oyster Festival in Bluff, Southland. More than 4,000 people attended to eat oysters raw or cooked and to watch competitions: to see how fast someone can open 50 oysters or how fast someone can open and eat 6 oysters. Bluff oyster

新西兰英语 768 Open-Cast Coal Mine

Last week, the Minister of Conservation, Nick Smith, gave permission for a new open-cast coal mine on conservation land on the West Coast. The Environment Court last month said it would probably give permission for the mine. Now the Forest and Bird o

新西兰英语 767 60 years since Mt Everest success

Sixty years ago today, two men reached the summit of Mt Everest, the highest mountain in the world. They were the first people to do this and return alive. The men were New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Tensing Norgay from Nepal. They were part of a B

新西兰英语 766 Deadline for red zone homeowners

5pm today was the deadline for Christchurch owners of homes in the residential red zone. They had to accept CERAs offer for their property by 5pm today. Home owners had two choices: accept CERAs offer for their home and land at 2007 value, or take th

新西兰英语 765 Aluminium Smelter

The aluminium smelter at Tiwai Point near Invercargill opened in 1971. It had a contract to buy cheap electricity, generated by hydro-electricity from Lake Manapouri which is not far away. Now in 2013, 13% of all electricity generated in New Zealand,

新西兰英语 764 South Island lakes need rain

This morning, New Zealanders had an extra hour in bed because we turned our clocks back. Summer time is finished. Already, we can feel the mornings and evenings are colder. In most of the South Island, the day time temperatures are cold too. However,

新西兰英语 763 Law to stop protests at sea

Parliament is discussing a new Crown Minerals Bill at the moment. The Crown (which means the government) owns any oil, gas or other mineral resources in the sea around our country. The government wants to make it easy for overseas oil companies to dr

新西兰英语 775 Name change for Christchurch Women’s Refuge

Forty years ago, two Christchurch women started a safe house for women who were in violent relationships. They were surprised at the large numbers of women who needed help to escape from a violent partner. Usually the women who came for help had chil

新西兰英语 774 A List MP resigns

Aaron Gilmore has been a list MP in the National Party. Today he resigned. A list MP comes from a list of people chosen by the party. He was not elected. He was number 59 out of 59 National Party MPs in Parliament. National won 42 electoral seats in

新西兰英语 776 New Zealand music month

May is New Zealand music month. It is a month when we celebrate music written and performed by New Zealanders. Every day this month, there are performances by New Zealand musicians live in gigs, in public libraries and in concert halls or recorded on

新西兰英语 777 Power prices

Labour and the Greens announced a policy in April to cut power prices. If Labour and the Greens become the government in 2014, their government would buy electricity directly from the generating companies, like Mighty River Power. They say this would

新西兰英语 792 Breakfast in Schools

Last week, the Prime Minister, John Key, said that the government would give some money for free breakfasts in some schools. Already Sanitarium provides Weetbix and Fonterra provides milk for breakfast in some schools twice a week. Now there will be

新西兰英语 791 Tuhoe Treaty Settlement

Today the Crown which means the government signed a treaty settlement with the Tuhoe people for $1.7m. This is the third biggest treaty settlement. The Tuhoe land is in the Urewera area which includes the National Park, Lake Waikaremoana. The area is

新西兰英语 790 May weather

New Zealand is a long country, ranging from 37 degrees latitude in the far north to 47 degrees latitude in the far south. It is not surprising that we have very different weather in different parts of the country. More North Westerly winds affected t

新西兰英语 789 The cost of housing

A new OECD report shows that New Zealanders pay more for their housing than most other developed countries. On average, New Zealanders spend 26% of their income on a place to live either paying rent or paying a mortgage. The average for all OECD coun