28 Oct 2011

Morning Report: local papers

6:31 pm on 28 October 2011

Friday's headlines: Eden Park literally shook when the All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup final; Ballantynes store in Christchurch ready to reopen on Saturday; profanities published by Invercargill City Council.

NZ Herald

Top story in The New Zealand Herald reveals that the ground literally shook when the All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup final at Eden Park.

A seismometer buried 25 metres beneath the stadium shows how the crowd of 60,000 rattled the earth beneath their feet. An accompanying graph indicates a peak ground movement as the trophy was awarded.

Also on the front page: West Auckland and rural ratepayers are the big winners in a new Super City rating system. Residents on the North Shore, Howick and old Auckland City face hefty increases.

Waikato Times

The Waikato Times leads with a long-awaited auditor's report into the failed V8 event in Hamilton, slamming both councillors and city bureacrats for the failure.

The paper details what it calls 'scathing findings' by Audit New Zealand, along with a claim by former Mayor Michael Redman that he's been made a scapegoat for the event.

Dominion Post

Dominion Post political staff say Labour is sweetening its plan to raise the retirement age and force all workers to join KiwiSaver with promises to boost employer contributions to savings nest eggs.

There's news of a health scare affecting American singer Meat Loaf, who performed in Wellington this week.

And hundreds of pupils from St Patrick's College in Kilbirnie will spend their lunch breaks in detention, to catch up on extra work after attending the Rugby World Cup parade.

The Press

The Press also has more on Thursday's campaign announcement from Labour. With the party pledging to raise the retirement age to 67 and make KiwiSaver compulsory, National has described the plan as a response to unaffordable promises.

Staff and building contractors are working around the clock to make sure Ballantynes store in Christchurch is ready to reopen for the first time since the February earthquake.

The Colombo St doors will open for business at 1pm on Saturday.

ODT

The Otago Daily Times says Invercargill City Council is in damage-control mode after publishing a list of offensive words in a community board agenda.

The council published 88 pages of the latest Bluff Community Board agenda, including a report from a disgruntled board member on "member conduct".

The ODT says the report includes one page containing 11 profanities of which the newspaper will only publish two - "damn" and "hell".