Former politician Steven Joyce has won a defamation case against the National Business Review, having obtained a ruling that the business publication and its owner Todd Scott defamed him; and former prime minister Dame Jenny Shipley has been shuffled out of the New Zealand China Council in a restructure of its board.
* The New Zealand Herald
In the New Zealand Herald, an intensive care nurse who worked tirelessly for days to help White Island burns victims has died in a road crash in the Bay of Plenty.Sheila Cheng, 50, was killed after the vehicle she was a passenger in and another vehicle collided head-on on State Highway 30, Tikitere, just after 3.30pm last Saturday.
In other news, former prime minister Dame Jenny Shipley has been shuffled out of the New Zealand China Council in a restructure of its board.The organisation has been working on a plan to downsize since a review and a reported meeting with Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters in late 2018, and questions have this year been raised about Shipley’s future on the board.
In business news, former politician Steven Joyce has won a defamation case against the National Business Review, having obtained a ruling that the business publication and its owner Todd Scott defamed him.The former finance minister did not seek damages in the case launched over a 2018 column titled ‘Joyce sacking first test of Bridges’ leadership.’ However, he has won a declaration that NBR defamed Joyce and must now pay Joyce’s costs.
* The Dominion Post
In the Dominion Post,with the country’s confirmed cases of measles looking likely to hit a two decade high, New Zealand is at risk of losing its measles-free status.Data from the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR) showed that, as of last week, there were 2168 confirmed cases of the highly contagious disease. In 1997, measles cases peaked at 2169.
In other news, Wellington Mayor Andy Foster spent $30,000 hanging on to his wafer-thin win of the Wellington Mayoralty.Foster took the Mayoral chains from Lester in a nail-biting election in October .The initial votes saw Foster 715 votes ahead but this was whittled down to just 62.
In business news, dairy prices dropped 5.1 per cent at the global dairy trade auction last night, falling to $US3,302 a tonne.The auction, which sets the pace for dairy farmer payouts, saw benchmark whole milk powder prices dropped 6.7 per cent to $3,099.
*The Press
In The Press, a guest at Christchurch mayor Lianne Dalziel’s election campaign fundraising dinner believes some attendees paid up to $4000 to buy a bottle of auctioned wine.The successful bidders were not named in the mayor’s just-released electoral donation declarations. Under the Local Electoral Act candidates must disclose donors who contribute more than $1500.
In other news, the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) has granted consent to an oil and gas company to drill off the coast of Otago.Austrian oil giant OMV applied for permission to drill up to 10 exploration and appraisal wells, along with consent for associated discharges in the Great South Basin.The submissions were non-notified, meaning public submissions were not sought, a statement from the authority said on Tuesday.
In business news, the Government should buy Whakaari/White Island off its private owners and turn it into a reserve with restricted access, a New Zealand land law expert says.The volcanic island 48 kilometres off the Bay of Plenty coastline has been off limits to everyone except recovery teams, after it erupted on the afternoon of December 9 killing 16 people to date.
