A small council has fended off a court challenge to its rating system by forestry owners forced to pay more as changing land use drags down the district’s economy. Wairoa District Mayor Craig Little said he was “absolutely delighted”…

While Paula MacLean’s boyfriend was behind bars she took the opportunity to offer to sell his medication on the black market.MacLean’s partner was arrested and remanded in custody on May 21, but she collected his medication, methylphenidate…

Former NRL player Jamil Hopoate has pleaded guilty to commercial cocaine supply.

The former Bronco faced a Sydney court today and pleaded guilty to one count of supplying a prohibited drug in a large commercial quantity.

Hopoate was caught in a police sting over cocaine supply at Botany in Sydney's south last year.

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Officers intercepted half a tonne of cocaine imported on a plane from the UK to Sydney in May 2021 and swapped it with a neutral powder before waiting for someone to collect it.

Hopoate was allegedly caught carrying eight-kilogram blocks in a backpack, which he was then accused of ditching, before leading police on a pursuit over fences and through backyards.

Hopoate will be sentenced in June.

Wellington City councillors sat through nearly three minutes of sobbing and screaming when an American prankster infiltrated a committee Zoom meeting.Alex Stein, an American with more than 140,000 YouTube subscribers and 100,000…

A few hours after insisting he was across his briefs, Anthony Albanese has blanked on a key plank of Labor policy.

The Opposition Leader was asked outright to name the six points of Labor's plan for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

Mr Albanese attempted to answer the question indirectly.

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"What that is about is making sure that we take pressure off people who are, at the moment, having their programs cut," he said.

"What we will do is put people at the centre of the NDIS."

A few minutes later, he was handed the policy plan by an adviser.

He then read the six points.

He was later asked to list the five-point plan for aged care, which he also did not answer.

It came several hours after he was asked by Today host Ally Langdon about his capacity to recall policy detail.

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"You want to run the country. Shouldn't you be across your briefs?" Langdon asked him.

"I am, Ally, I am," Mr Albanese replied.

"Stop reading from the Liberal Party notes that they send through to people all of the time, Ally. 

"This is just an absurdity."

It is the second time Mr Albanese has blanked at a press conference during the election.

In the campaign's opening days, the Opposition Leader was unable to recall the cash rate or the unemployment rate.

The six-point plan was announced last month by Shadow NDIS Minister Bill Shorten.

Under the plan, Labor aims to crack down on "cowboys out there taking advantage" of the scheme by reviewing "criminal activity and fraud".

The party plans to look into the "excessive use" of external lawyers and review the "value for money" of consultancy contracts.

For participants in the scheme, the party wants to address access to appropriate housing, ensure more flexible housing and boost employment opportunities.

FULL COVERAGE: Federal election 2022

Labor also plans to lift staffing caps, streamline the planning process for initial plans and introduce a review "that will guarantee plans will not be arbitrarily cut".

Mr Shorten said Labor will also appoint a senior officer within the National Disability Insurance Agency to focus on the barriers to service delivery in regional Australia and commit to "co-designing changes to the scheme with people with disability".

Test your brains with the Herald’s afternoon quiz. Be sure to check back on nzherald.co.nz for the morning quiz tomorrow. To challenge yourself with more quizzes, CLICK HERE.

A farmer who fleeced IRD for $17.3 million has pleaded in tears for a Court of Appeal judge not to send him back to prison.Matawai man John Richard Bracken hobbled on crutches into the High Court at Wellington this morning – where…

A court has heard how a Hell’s Angels meth dealer used his profits from selling the drug to invest in stock car racing, which has now helped turn his life around. Dwayne Morehu, 45, was the latest to appear before the courts today…

The speakers for Kāpiti and Horowhenua’s first TEDxKāpiti have been announced with a vast array of topics being covered in the 10 talks.Taking place on June 25 at Te Raukura ki Kāpiti, the event is an independently…

Australians who sold their property for a profit in the dying months of 2021 typically made a profit of more than $300,000, recent analysis has found.

New data in CoreLogic's Pain & Gain Report shows that the national median nominal gain for sellers was $319,000 for the December quarter.

For the last three months of 2021 the total pool of resale property profits was an eye-watering $38 billion.

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Using data from approximately 133,000 resales of property, CoreLogic found 93.8 per cent of sellers made a profit, with regional Australia outstripping gains made in capital cities.

Of those who lost money on reselling their property, the median loss was $34,000.

Sydney had the highest median dollar value gain from profit-making resales across the capital cities at $536,500, while Hobart was the capital city with the highest percentage of profit-making sales at 98.3 per cent.

Properties that were held for more than 30 years had the highest median profits of around $770,000, while properties held for two years or less had the lowest – which was still a wallet-busting $150,500.

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CoreLogic's Head of Research Eliza Owen said the biggest winners were owner-occupiers who were selling freestanding homes.

"Houses saw a higher instance of profitability than units, at 96.2 per cent and 88.6 per cent respectively," Ms Owen said.

"Investors had a lower incidence of profitability (91.4 per cent) than owner-occupier sellers (96.7 per cent).

"As noted in previous quarters, hold periods between investor and owner-occupier sellers were quite similar, with the lower instance of profit-making sales among investors likely being more a feature of the type of stock purchased, where investors accounted for over half of unit resales in the quarter (57.4 per cent)."

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Ms Owen said there is potential for profit rates to increase in the coming months, but it's clear that the property market is facing a headwind.

"Higher average mortgage rates, rising advertised stock levels and affordability constraints are already seeing values slip across Sydney and Melbourne and the impact of interest rate tightening may also affect profitability for more recent buyers," she said.

"In the April Financial Stability Review, modelling from the RBA suggested a 200-basis point increase in the cash rate from current levels could lead to a 15 per cent decline in real house prices over a two-year period.

"A 15 per cent decline in the current median dwelling value across Australia would take prices close to May 2021 levels, and those having purchased around that time may see an increased chance of making a nominal loss through to 2024."