King's Birthday Honours list to be revealed
Before the King's Birthday long weekend is done, a list of kiwi's will be crowned with their own titles, when the honours list is unveiled on Monday. Those people will recieve titles such as dame or knight, or letters like ONZM, officer of the New Zealand order of merit for meritorious service to the Crown and the nation. Anyone can nominate a person they think is worthy of New Zealand royal honour. The applications are considered by the Cabinet Appointments and Honours Committee. The Prime Minister then makes the final recommendation to the King. Helen Clark, ONZ, joined Lisa Owen to discuss the list.
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RNZ News
5 hours ago
- RNZ News
Twenty years of 'Bird of the Year' in one book
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"Even if you don't dive into the words, it's just beautiful to look at." Photo: Supplied / Penguin Books New Zealand To decide which native birds - and bat - were included, Rykers went back through the last 20 years of the Bird of the Year competition and chose ones that had interesting stories - whether they be related to the competition - from television host John Oliver and rumours of Russian interference to controversial mammalian infiltration or their histories. "I mean, it's all fun and humorous, but there is that kind of serious undertone," she said. "More than 80 percent of our native birds are at risk or threatened with extinction, but at the end of the day, I hope that people read it and fall in love, and feel hopeful, because a lot of the stories are about people who are out there on the ground, making a difference." Ellen Rykers Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon Rykers added the three main things threatening our manu were predators, habitat loss and climate change. However, she said the Bird of the Year competition had become a fundraiser for Forest & Bird, particularly in 2023, when the pūteketeke, also known as the Australasian crested grebe, was named the Bird of the Century , after a campaign by Oliver. The competition raised more than $1.2 million . "Forest & Bird didn't really have any idea, ahead of time, exactly the scale of the campaign. We knew that it would be beyond anything that we'd ever seen before and we knew that there would be sort of international aspects, but we didn't realise that he'd be paying for billboards on the busiest intersection in Tokyo and on the Champs-Élysées in Paris. "That really propelled quite an unknown bird - an under the radar bird or an 'underbird' - into the spotlight." A shot from US comedian John Oliver's segment on New Zealand's Bird of the Year on 5 November 2023. Photo: Screengrab Rykers said it did not start out that way. 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"Michael Szabo, who was the communications manager at Forest & Bird at the time, took notice of this and he listened to all these people sending in messages about all the birds that they loved. "He had come across this concept of a Bird of the Year competition working in Europe... and he thought, 'Okay, this is a great opportunity to give this a go here in New Zealand'." Including the pekapeka-tou-roa - or the long-tailed bat - was another one. "There was a Forest & Bird staff member, Debs Martin, who had been campaigning quietly for its inclusion for a long time. "At the same time, a high school teacher, Peter Wills, he had the exact same idea. 'Why don't we put the pekapeka-tou-roa in Bird of the Year ?', and so he and his students, and a bat expert took on that campaign. "We only have a couple of native bat species, so there's never going to be a Bat of the Year , but they face many of the same threats that our native birds do." 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RNZ News
9 hours ago
- RNZ News
Extra firefighters called in to house fire in Palmerston North
Smoke rising above Main Street Palmerston North. Photo: Supplied Firefighters are battling a house fire in central Palmerston North. The blaze was reported at 3:53pm Sunday and the Main Street house was "well involved" in flames, when crews arrived, a Fire and Emergency spokesperson said. A third crew have been called in. Initially, two nearby houses were reportedly on fire, but firefighters investigating the second house found it was not on fire but and smoke there was caused by a pot on the stove. Photo: Supplied Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

RNZ News
16 hours ago
- RNZ News
Who's running for Auckland's mayoralty?
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Policy "Reviewing, auditing past expenditures in contract awards, tendering systems, allocation of ratepayers monies via adopting and implementing, transparency, accountability systems of staff recruitment, management systems of the various CCOs (Council Controlled Organizations) such as AT (Auckland), so as to reduce unnecessary operational costs while maintaining jobs, unnecessary expenditure such as $1 million Christmas tree (Dec.2024), $1 million toilet and $1.2 billion road cone spent from 2020-2025 of which $400-$500 million could be overspent." Ted Johnston. Photo: Supplied The lawyer and former leader of the New Conservative Party is having another crack at the mayoralty after getting hit with an egg during a mayoral candidate debate in 2022. This time around, the 64-year-old has honed in on the city's traffic woes. Why do you want to be mayor? 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Policy "Among other policies for Aucklanders, we're fighting for mandatory funded desexing of dogs and cats - to stop the preventable deaths of thousands of animals while reducing council costs and community." Ryan Pausina. Photo: Supplied Pausina was an Auckland mayoral candidate in 2022. He told RNZ he is 48-years-old and a product developer. Why do you want to be mayor? "For starters, I have defined for the first time in history who should be the mayor of Auckland, out of all of us, who should be the mayor is determined by expertise in the fields of science relative to city works, city management and city civics, of which, that one person is required to serve for that role." Policy "Static speed-bump phase-out is a fun one, every time a vehicle slows down and passes over a speed bump, then accelerates away, a tiny teaspoon of petrol is wasted and in Sweden, they have created a speed bump technology to govern speed without wasting fuel or energy and annoyance in the process." Jason Pieterse. Photo: Supplied Pieterse told RNZ he is a 24-year-old engineering student doing his honours at AUT, making him the youngest of the bunch. Why do you want to be mayor? "I am running for mayor because I want to drive forward changes that support and improve the lives of every resident that calls this city home." Policy "I would have to say my most interesting policy is a housing proposal that would make near all housing costs much more affordable and accessible." Peter Wakeman. Photo: Supplied The 64-year-old described himself as a former passenger jet pilot. He is also running for mayor of Christchurch this local elections. A candidate with his name has run for mayor of Christchurch in almost every election since 1998. Why do you want to be mayor? "Wakeman is standing for Mayor in Auckland and Christchurch to be more effective in achieving Government policy that puts more money in everyone's pockets." Policy "Get more money into circulation by getting central Government to replace GST with Financial transaction tax (FTT) to reduce all of our costs of living and creation of debt free money by RBNZ." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.