Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Business Canterbury welcomes the introduction of the Employment Leave Bill to Parliament – a long‑awaited and much‑needed replacement for the Holidays Act, which has been overly complex and unclear for decades.

Chief Executive Leeann Watson says, “The business community will be relieved to see progress on legislation that has been under formal review since 2018.”

“Businesses will be very pleased to see this Bill enter Parliament, and congratulations must go to the Government and Minister van Velden for taking a piece of legislation that has been stuck in review for years and delivering changes that will make it clearer and more workable for both employers and employees.

“The leave calculations in the Holidays Act required an advanced calculus degree to navigate, and too often left both employees and employers unsure about the fairest way to determine entitlements.

“Payroll legislation will always need to balance ease of use with fairness and practicality, but where the Employment Leave Bill has landed is lightyears ahead of the current Act. It removes another significant layer of red tape and will help businesses focus more firmly on growth and on employing more people.

“Moving to a pro‑rated minimum sick leave entitlement also removes an absurdity within the current law, where employees working fewer hours could receive disproportionately higher entitlements. It is not hypothetical, we regularly see situations where an employee working one or two days a week becomes entitled to five or even ten weeks of sick leave, which employers must cover to keep operating. That can come at the cost of being able to hire additional staff.

“As with the Holidays Act, the provisions in the new Bill set out minimum entitlements only. Employers will still be able to offer packages that go beyond the minimum requirements, and many already do.

“Continuity across political cycles will be important for employers. We look forward to confirmation from the Opposition that this Bill, given its two‑year implementation period, will be carried through if there is a change of Government after the 2026 Election.

“The Employment Leave Bill completes a key set of reforms the business community has long been calling for.

“This Bill finishes the trifecta of policy changes businesses asked for ahead of the last election: resource management reform, health and safety reform, and Holidays Act reform. We look forward to working with the Government on the next set of improvements that will best support businesses to grow and hire more people.”

Business Canterbury, formerly Canterbury Employers’ Chamber of Commerce, is the second largest Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand and the largest business support organisation in the South Island. It advocates on behalf of its members for an environment more favourable to innovation, productivity and sustainable growth.

Consumer NZ delivered a petition to parliament today, signed by more than 10,500 New Zealanders, calling on the government to require airlines to tell passengers their rights when flights are delayed or cancelled.

The petition asks associate minister of transport, James Meager, to use existing powers in the Civil Aviation Act (CAA) to compel airlines to clearly inform passengers of their rights when a flight is disrupted.

Despite amendments made to the CAA last year, giving the minister the power to require airlines to inform passengers about their rights, no action has been taken.  

“Thousands of New Zealanders have told us they’re sick of being left in the dark,” says Consumer NZ chief executive Jon Duffy. “When a cancellation or delay is the airline’s fault, passengers have rights. The problem is that, unlike other jurisdictions, airlines don’t have to tell them. That’s unacceptable.

“Right now, there are passengers forking out hundreds of dollars for costs they incur as the result of a disruption, but often it’s the airline that should be covering the cost.”  

Passengers left without crucial information

Consumer’s research shows that:

four in ten people who flew in the past 2 years experienced a delay or cancellation

more than three quarters of travellers rely on the airline for information about their rights

nine in ten are not fully aware of what those rights actually are.

Airlines are not required to inform passengers whether a disruption was caused by an event within their control – information that directly affects whether a traveller can claim reimbursement.

“Disrupted passengers are being left out of pocket because they're not being given the information they need from their airline. Sometimes they are even actively misled,” says Duffy.

The issue was highlighted last year when Jetstar was fined $2.25 million for misleading passengers about their entitlements under the CAA.  

The Commerce Commission is also currently investigating whether Air New Zealand has breached the Fair Trading Act in its communications with passengers regarding their rights when flights are delayed or cancelled for reasons within the airline’s control.

A simple fix the minister can make now

Under the CAA, when a domestic flight disruption is caused by an event within an airline’s control – such as staffing, mechanical or operational issues – passengers are legally entitled to:

a refund (assuming they don’t accept another flight)

reimbursement of costs they’ve reasonably incurred because of the disruption – up to 10 times the cost of their ticket or the actual cost of the delay (whichever is lower).

Similar rules exist for international flight disruptions but differ depending on where you are flying from, where you’re heading and where the airline is based.

“The law is complex and most people don’t fully understand it. Over 10,500 people want airlines to tell them their rights when their flights are disrupted. The minister should not ignore them. He already has the power to fix this,” says Duffy.

Notes

Consumer NZ launched the petition in September 2022 after receiving a large volume of complaints from travellers who struggled to find out why their flight was disrupted and whether they were entitled to compensation.

In other countries – including those within the European Union – airlines must proactively tell passengers their rights. Consumer says New Zealanders deserve the same protections.

GenPro Chair Angus Chambers has welcomed changes to how first-year GP trainees are employed, saying any measure that encourages more doctors into general practice is positive.

“Access to a family doctor is the biggest challenge facing general practice and therefore our patients. Many practices across New Zealand are struggling to recruit doctors, and patients are seeing the consequences through longer wait times and reduced access to care.”

“Anything that increases the number of GPs entering the workforce is a good thing,” Chambers said.

However, Dr Chambers said the announcement represents a pipeline intervention rather than a solution to the workforce pressures currently facing general practice.

“This change may make it easier for some doctors to enter GP training, which is welcome. But it’s important to be clear that this is an HR improvement to the pipeline of junior doctors. It’s not a solution to the workforce shortages we are experiencing right now.”

Dr Chambers noted that even the current number of GP training places is not always fully taken up.

“We are still not seeing all the available GP training vacancies being filled each year. That should tell us something important about the attractiveness of general practice as a career.”
He said one of the key reasons is that incentives for general practice still lag behind those offered in many other medical specialties.

“Doctors are making rational career decisions. When other specialties offer stronger incentives or more secure career pathways, it’s not surprising many choose those options.”

Chambers said simply increasing the number of training places or changing who employs trainees i in their first year will not solve the problem.

“This is the third or fourth government that has listened to the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners’ advice that increasing training places will fix the GP shortage. It won’t. It’s only one piece of a much bigger puzzle.”

He said the underlying issue continues to be the financial sustainability of general practice.

“The real pressure point is funding. The funding going into general practice has not kept pace with rising operating costs or the changing and increasingly complex medical needs of New Zealanders.

“Until we address the sustainability of general practice, it will remain difficult to attract and retain enough doctors to meet the needs of communities.
 
“After years of under investment by successive governments, general practice needs further increases in Health New Zealand capitation funding for it to stay viable. A similar increase to that delivered in Budget 2025 is needed in 2026,” Dr Chambers says.

He said GenPro looks forward to continuing to work with the Government on broader reforms to ensure primary care remains strong and accessible.

“Strengthening the pipeline matters, but we also need to make general practice a sustainable and attractive career for the doctors who will deliver care to New Zealanders in the decades ahead.”

GenPro members are owners and providers of general practices and urgent care centres throughout Aotearoa New Zealand. For more information visit  www.genpro.org.nz

Source: Palestinian Solidarity Network Aotearoa

PSNA has written to Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith today requesting proposed ‘move-on’ laws will specifically continue to allow free speech and the right to protest under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.

The approach to government comes in the wake of last week’s attempt by Christchurch City Councillor, Aaron Keown, to close down Palestine solidarity protests at Christchurch’s Bridge of Remembrance. 

As reported on Radio New Zealand Keown is insisting the police are keen to use the proposed new laws to shift protests on:

Keown said police told him months ago that they needed powers like the proposed move-on orders, which he believed would help disperse protesters.

Councillor Keown welcomed the newly announced move-on powers, which he believed would “absolutely help” disperse protesters, something Woods (Amnesty International director of advocacy and movement building Lisa Woods) said was of grave concern to Amnesty International.

Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa’s Co-chair, John Minto says Keown’s statements contradict assurances made by senior police when a PSNA delegation met with them two weeks ago in Wellington to discuss increasing attacks on Palestine solidarity supporters by IDF soldiers and other elements of the pro-Israel lobby. 

“At the meeting police specifically told our delegation these ‘move-on’ orders would NOT be used to restrict protest rights.”

“So, there is a mass of confusion around over the proposed new law.”

“We need the Justice Minister to use clear wording, when he introduces legislation into Parliament, that anyone exercising their rights under the Bill of Rights Act will not be included.”

“We already have many laws which were introduced for a particular purpose, but which have been used to restrict the right to protest – for example trespass orders and ‘unlawful assembly’ provisions under the Crimes Act,” Minto says.

“New Zealanders rights to free speech and right to protest in public are under attack. Last year police and the Independent Police Conduct Authority colluded to propose legislation which would have required police permission to organise a protest”

“Authoritarian regimes the world over are putting heavy restriction on the right to protest. Many of them claim to be democracies.  It’s important we resist jack-boot policing here.”

John Minto

Co-Chair PSNA

MARCH 9, 2026 – In a significant milestone for consumer protection, Tech New Zealand has partnered with three of the world's largest digital platforms to launch the New Zealand Online Scams Code (NZOSC): https://technewzealand.org.nz/the-code/online-scams-code/

Signed by founding signatories Google, Meta and TikTok, the Code entails 38 concrete commitments to combatting online scams, spanning blocking, reporting, takedowns, advertising, email/messaging, law enforcement, intelligence sharing, consumer communications, and future-proofing. The Code aligns New Zealand with international best practice, and is based on Australia's Online Scams Code, developed by Australian industry association Digital Industry Group Inc. (DIGI).

Tech New Zealand CEO Graeme Muller said the Code, which is voluntary and open to any digital industry organisation to adopt for its own use, significantly raises the level of digital protection for consumers.

“Scammers are sophisticated, well-resourced and operating at scale and New Zealanders deserve an industry that meets that challenge head on. The New Zealand Online Scams Code is exactly that: a practical, public commitment from the digital industry to protect the people who use our platforms every day.”

The Code was launched at Parliament on 9 March 2026 to a gathering of senior government representatives, policy makers and industry leaders from across Aotearoa's tech ecosystem, united in their belief that protecting New Zealanders online is a collective responsibility.

“This is what good tech looks like in practice: industry and government working together, proactively raising the bar for every New Zealander,” said Mr Muller.

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson, who is also the lead Minister against scams, said the new code is a key action from the New Zealand Anti-Scam Alliance, launched last year.  

“The Alliance is working to strengthen multiple industry codes of conduct. So far, banks have introduced the Code of Banking Practice, and the telecommunications sector is reviewing its Scam Prevention Code.

“Today's announcement of the New Zealand Online Scams Code, aimed at digital platforms, provides another tool in the war against scams. We will be monitoring the code's success, and make adjustments if needed, so that New Zealanders can feel safer online.

“My goal as the lead Minister against scams is to make New Zealand the least attractive target for scammers.”

A new University of Auckland project aims to turn about 1200 Auckland houses destroyed by cyclones into a resource for a more sustainable future.

Associate Professor of Architecture Mike Davis has launched a research project identifying reusable materials in houses that have been deemed unsafe, after being hit by Cyclone Gabrielle and floods in 2023.

The aim is to turn cyclone-damaged houses into an “urban mine” that reuses as much as possible, saving the planet from the pressures of endlessly providing brand new materials, says Davis.

“The tragedy of these houses being lost would be deepened if all the reusable materials in them were dumped in landfills.

“We need to look after the land, which is not about putting stuff in landfills, it’s about reusing materials and putting them into a circular economy,” says Davis, who works in the University’s Māori and Pacific Housing Research Centre, MĀPIHI, and Future Cities Research Centre.

Davis is mapping what materials have come out of the red-stickered houses and where these materials have gone.

“Then we can start to predict what might come out of houses that have been red-stickered or that are damaged in storms in the future,” he says.

Hand-held devices and drones are making 3D scans of various types of houses, such as Keith Hay and Universal homes, villas and bungalows, and state houses. This helps identify the quantities of various building materials typically found in each type of house.

“Building a knowledge bank of the reusable materials available from red-stickered houses will help the construction industry know what materials are likely to be available for reuse,” Davis says.

The project also aims to highlight environmentally harmful materials coming out of cyclone-devastated houses.

This information will be used to develop more sustainable building practices for the future, he says.

“One example is polystyrene, which doesn’t go away, so when a house comes down after 50 years, it’s a massive problem.

“We want to look for alternatives and ask what we can learn about building better in the future.”

Davis says older houses tend to be richer repositories of valuable materials, such as kauri, matai and rimu timber.

“More than 50 percent of timbers can often be reused from earlier buildings.

“Once you get into houses from the 2000s, lots of materials are glued together and it’s much harder to reuse something that’s been glued.”

The research could have real-world impacts in expanding the quantities of building materials available at recycling centres and demolition yards, Davis says.              

About 600 red-stickered houses have already been relocated or deconstructed, but another 600 have yet to be removed from properties.                                                                                  

“The aim is to normalise the idea of buying second-hand materials and seeing that as a positive thing.

“We’re moving away from the idea that everything has to be new, new, new, because that’s resource intensive and not sustainable.”

He aims to develop design principles that will help to future-proof housing, so it is more adaptable, more readily disassembled, and easier to repair.

“We will look at what can we do with relocated houses to make them more affordable and fit for purpose.”

Davis, who has Samoan ancestry, says a fondness for recycling and a hatred of waste is in his DNA.

His great-grandfather built churches and other buildings in the Pacific Islands, where resources are limited and valued.

“New Zealand is also two islands and when you live on an island, what you’ve got is what you’ve got, so you make it last.

“But that’s not going on in the building industry in New Zealand at the moment – there’s a rip, strip and bury mentality,” he says.

Over the past 15 years, his own creative projects have focused on recycled materials.

“We need to see those awesome old timbers as having cultural heritage as well as economic value, because there’s not much kauri coming out of our forests these days,” he says.

Results from the research are expected later this year.

Zero Waste Aotearoa (ZWA) does not support disestablishing the Ministry for the Environment and bundling its environmental protection functions into the proposed MCERT Mega Ministry.

“This takes us back to an old 1970's approach by embedding a fundamental conflict of interest into the new mega-Ministry. Environmental protection will be viewed as an internal obstacle to be managed, rather than a statutory goal to be upheld,” says Sue Coutts of Zero Waste Aotearoa.

“Clean and green is part of our national identity.  It underpins our trade and tourism industries. If we don't have a strong champion to protect our environment we are putting our health, our economy and our future at risk.”

“Almost all of our major environmental indicators show we're in serious trouble. Our lands, air and water are polluted, biodiversity is under extreme strain and climate goals have been abandoned.”

“Solving New Zealand's waste, recycling, plastic and chemical pollution problems is already low on the government's priority list, dismantling the Ministry for the Environment will cross these critical issues off the to-do list altogether.”

“Dismantling the Ministry for the Environment (MfE) is nothing less than vandalism of the public interest by a government that has shown it cares very little for the ecological systems that sustain us.”

“Climate, nature, environmental quality and health impacts need a dedicated, independent statutory voice. This helps to ensure any trade offs being made between development and production  and environmental quality and protection are rigorously analysed.”

“Decision making will be less open and transparent, because the new mega-Ministry Chief Executive will carry the responsibility for making trade offs between environmental and development objectives. This will happen at the management level, rather than these being debated and agreed in the public and political realm. There will be fewer opportunities for scrutiny of decision making with a public interest lens or by watchdogs like the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment.”

“MfE also plays an important role in managing the Crown's relationship with iwi regarding natural resources. The current expertise and relationships could be buried or lost in the shift to the MCERT mega ministry.”

“As importantly, resource management law is undergoing a massive overhaul. There is a lot of work to be done setting up the national standards, environmental limits and policy direction that will shape decision making in the future.”

“It makes more sense to leave MfE as it is and properly resource it to do the background work outlined in the new Planning and Environment bills. Restructuring and merging MfE into MCERT will disrupt the team and waste time, energy and resources that could be put into this critical work.”

“As the submission period closes, ZWA encourages the public to understand the negative impacts on environmental protection this will have. ZWA recommends to the select committee that the Ministry for the Environment is not included in this amalgamation, and instead is empowered to actually do the work of caring for our environment.”

Notes

Submissions are open until 4:30 pm on March 11, 2026, for the Environment (Disestablishment of Ministry for the Environment) Amendment Bill.

The Government introduced legislation to establish a Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport (MCERT)

MCERT would formally disestablish the Ministry for the Environment. The new ministry will be established on 1 April 2026 and become operational from 1 July 2026

Honouring the Courage, Resilience, and Strength of Palestinian Women – Palestine Forum of New Zealand joins communities around the world in commemorating International Women's Day on 8 March 2026. This year, we dedicate its observance to the extraordinary Palestinian women mothers, doctors, journalists, teachers, and activists who continue to demonstrate unparalleled courage and resilience in the face of ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis.

As the global community reflects on the theme of gender equality and women's rights, we call on New Zealanders and the international community to recognise that Palestinian women are not merely victims of circumstance; they are leaders, caregivers, and the backbone of their communities, holding families and societies together under conditions of extraordinary hardship.

The Untold Stories of Palestinian Women

Palestinian women have long stood at the forefront of their people's struggle for dignity, self-determination, and survival. From the fields of Gaza to the refugee camps of the West Bank, Lebanese border towns, and the Palestinian diaspora worldwide, women have been the anchors of family life, cultural preservation, and community resistance.

Today, Palestinian women face compounding crises: displacement, loss of loved ones, restrictions on movement, and limited access to healthcare and education. Yet, in the face of these immense challenges, they continue to lead, educate, heal, and inspire. Their stories must be told, their voices must be amplified, and their humanity must be recognised.

Palestine Forum of New Zealand's Call to Action

On this International Women's Day, Palestine Forum of New Zealand calls upon:

•  The New Zealand Government to take a firm and principled stand in advocating for the protection of Palestinian women and children under international humanitarian law.

•  The United Nations and international human rights bodies should urgently investigate and address the specific and disproportionate impact of the ongoing conflict on Palestinian women.

•  New Zealanders from all walks of life are to stand in solidarity with Palestinian women to listen to their stories, support humanitarian aid organisations, and speak out against injustice.

•  Media organisations dedicate space and airtime to the voices of Palestinian women, ensuring their experiences shape the global narrative.

“Palestinian women do not ask for pity; they ask for justice. They ask for the world to see them as they truly are, strong, dignified, and deserving of every right that every woman on this Earth deserves. On this International Women's Day, we say: “We see you, we stand with you, and we will not be silent.”

– Palestine Forum of New Zealand