Government announces social housing shake-up; Prison guards allegedly took cash to smuggle drugs, phones to inmates; Falling tree branch kills man, leaving newly arrived wife alone in NZ.
Budget 2026: Government announces social housing shake-up
The Government has announced a proposed shake-up of New Zealand's social housing system, including increasing the proportion of income tenants have to pay.
The "multi-year reform" was outlined in a pre-Budget announcement this morning, made by Minister for Housing Chris Bishop and Minister for Social Development & Employment Louise Upston. They outlined three "key shifts" as part of the reform.
Prison guards allegedly took cash to smuggle drugs, phones to inmates
Twenty people have been charged after mobile phones allegedly supplied to prisoners by prison staff were used to run drug importation and contraband trafficking operations from inside correctional facilities, police say.
Detective Inspector Colin Parmenter said police began an investigation, dubbed Operation Jasper, into alleged criminal activity at the Mount Eden Corrections Facility in July last year.
Falling tree branch kills man, leaving newly arrived wife alone in New Zealand
A woman who recently arrived in New Zealand has been left without family or financial support after her husband was killed by a falling tree branch.
Paradeep Singh, known to those close to him as Deep, died while carrying out yard work at the couple's Cambridge property yesterday.
Watch: UK radio station mistakenly announces King Charles' death
Radio Caroline blamed a computer glitch for the premature broadcast.
ONE AI JOB INTERVIEW
More than 2500 AI-led job interviews were carried out by a single company last month by a New Zealand company — a sign of how rapidly artificial intelligence is reshaping recruitment.
Claudia Toxopeus gave it a test run — interviewing for a fictional reporter role at TVNZ through an AI recruitment assistant.
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