18 Jan 2010

Summer Report: local papers

8:30 am on 18 January 2010

Monday's headlines: 700 people cut from ACC's long-term client list in the past six months; campsite flooded on the Wairarapa coast; Waitaki Mayor defends consents for intensive dairy farming.

NZ Herald

The New Zealand Herald reports 61% of people want the minimum wage lifted to $15 per hour. Cabinet is expected to decide within the next two weeks whether to increase the minimum wage from $12.50 per hour.

Prince William's visit to Eden Park also makes the front page. The prince had a few too many rugby balls thrown at him by some young players, but took it all in his stride.

Dominion Post

The Dominion Post reports a father rescued his daughter and nieces when floodwaters engulfed their campsite on the Wairarapa coast.

Stuart Newland 28, of Palmerston North, then dragged his wheelchair-bound father-in-law to safety.

The Wellington region recorded double its average monthly rainfall over the weekend.

Prince William also features: he is pictured lifting a parcel of food from a hangi at Government House in Auckland.

The prince is to open the Supreme Court building in Wellington on Monday morning.

ODT

Waitaki Mayor Alex Familton defends factory farm consents in The Otago Daily Times. He's rejected a suggestion from the Environmental Defence Society that land-use consents, granted by Waitaki District Council for intensive dairying are illegal.

Liquidators have closed the South Island operations of a home-based child-care service, Easy Mind. The closure means the loss of more than 60 jobs and around 200 families need to find alternative care.

The Press

The Press reports more than 700 people have been cut from ACC's long-term client list in the past six months. Previously, about 700 long-term clients a year would leave ACC. The agency wants to save around $1 billion by 2013.

A trip to New Zealand was too much for Canadian cabinet minister Greg Thompson. He was due to visit NZ, but has quit his job, saying the "grind" of such trips is too much for him.

A very tired looking basset hound is pictured with a kitten from a litter that she's become a replacement mum to.