Australia: Election latest, tariff twist, Virgin travails
Australia correspondent Karen Middleton joins Kathryn to talk about the latest political polls ten days out from the election which point to Anthony Albanese's government being returned. Australian beef producers have found favour in China in the latest twist to Trump's tariff war. Virgin Australia passengers were stranded in Queenstown Airport overnight at Easter - not great PR as the airline prepares to relist on the sharemarket after a five-year hiatus. And it's been one of the worst Easter weekends for drownings on record. Karen Middleton is a political journalist based in Canberra
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
1News
4 hours ago
- 1News
NZ to launch visa waiver trial for Chinese visitors from Australia
New Zealand will trial visa waivers for Chinese visitors arriving from Australia starting this November, the Government has announced. The "visa waiver status" changes would only apply to Chinese passport holders with a valid Australian visitor, work, student or family visa, and for stays of up to three months. Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said the Government was helping to boost the country's attractiveness as a destination for Chinese tourists. "More than 240,000 Chinese visitor visas were granted in 2024, and we want those numbers to grow," she said in a media release. "This will make it easier, cheaper and faster for them to cross the Tasman and visit our shores. "The trial will last for 12 months and will be supplemented by further improvements to our immigration processes, making it easier for people applying for a visa." ADVERTISEMENT Immigration New Zealand was establishing a dedicated contact centre number and support in China for Chinese "Approved Destination Status" travel agents. New Simplified Chinese web content would also be published on the agency's website. Those applying for a visitor visa would also no longer need to have their document translations certified, which Stanford said would remove additional translation fees for all applicants, not just those from China. These changes were in conjunction with the five-year multiple entry visitor visa and current average processing time of five working days for a Chinese visitor visa application, Stanford said. Upston said China was one of New Zealand's most important tourism markets and that more visitors meant a larger spend across the hospitality and tourism sectors. "In the year ended March 2025, visitors from China contributed $1.24 billion to New Zealand's economy, but there's still more work to do to grow these numbers and drive further economic growth throughout the country," she said. The Government's announcement follows calls for an easing of visa requirements for Chinese visitors, including from Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown, and the granting of visa-free access for New Zealanders to visit China last year.
Scoop
5 hours ago
- Scoop
Seeka Forecasts Strong Profit Growth On Back Of Bumper Kiwifruit Harvest
Seeka Limited [NZX:SEK] has released its first earnings guidance for the 2025 financial year, forecasting a profit before tax of between $33.0 million and $37.0 million — an increase from $29.7 million in 2024. The projected uplift in earnings reflects a strong kiwifruit harvest volumes along with continued solid performance across Seeka's New Zealand and Australian operations. In New Zealand, Seeka packed 47.0 million trays of class 1 kiwifruit, a 9.3% uplift from the 43.0 million trays packed the previous year. Improved fruit quality and increased labour availability allowed the business to optimise the harvest period and maximise throughput, despite some recent weather-related delays. In Australia, the company harvested 2.25 million kilograms of kiwifruit — a stable result in line with 2024. Australian-grown kiwifruit continues to perform well in-market, complemented by Seeka's diversified produce range including pears, nashi and jujube. Seeka CEO Michael Franks acknowledged the contribution of the company's people and grower network in achieving a successful harvest. 'This year's result is a testament to the resilience and commitment of our teams. Our operations ran smoothly, we had ample capacity across out 11 sites and the quality of the crop has positioned us well for a solid financial performance,' said Franks. While Seeka acknowledges this is an early forecast, the company is confident in its trajectory and will continue to monitor performance closely. Further updates will be provided if there are any material changes to guidance. Seeka will release its interim results for the six months ending 30 June 2025 on 20 August 2025.
Scoop
5 hours ago
- Scoop
New Standards May Be Needed For NZ's Critical Communications Infrastructure
Government officials are looking at developing minimum standards for the protection of critical communications infrastructure. Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment officials joined Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith in a select committee hearing about communications infrastructure on Tuesday. They confirmed the work started by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet to look into cyber resilience for critical national infrastructure was continuing. The project sought consulation from the public in mid-2023 over potential reform and Cabinet in December last year agreed on a National Risk and Resilience Framework to manage risks able to "potentially derail us as a country". The officials said the project was now looking into whether there should be minimum standards for critical infrastructure for cyber-protection. "Most of my conversations with the telecommunications providers in New Zealand, it's obviously they're very, very, very aware of this risk, and it's something they take extremely seriously," MBIE general manager James Hartley told MPs on the committee. He also said a separate project - the Pacific Cyber Security Initiative - had been transferred from the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) to the Government Communications Security Bureau spy agency. It follows an Australian naval ship - the HMAS Canberra - shutting down wireless internet and radio services across much of New Zealand by accident. Hartley said that appeared to be a case of human error. "There is a pretty well established process for visiting naval ships coming to New Zealand, where they apply through MFAT for the frequencies they would like to use when they're in the jurisdiction of New Zealand. "It looks like in this case, the ship may have forgotten to turn its radar off. So that's obviously concerning. Once officials were alerted to that, that was escalated through Defense Force and through the Australian Defense Force and back to the ship, the HMS Canberra, for resolution." Goldsmith said the incident was a concern to him. "That's a ongoing conversation... it is a concern, and we wouldn't want to see it happen too often." During the hearing, Goldsmith also confirmed sattelite communications providers - like Elon Musk's Starlink, and other competitors moving to make use of the technology - would need to be looked at in terms of whether they would need to be regulated in the same ways domestic providers were. Hartley said there were two aspects to that: whether those providers would need to pay the Telecommunications Development Levy, and whether they could be included in dispute resolution provisions like those offered to customers of domestic providers. Goldsmith said, however, that New Zealand had good connectivity overall and with more competition it was going to become "fundamentally almost going to be impossible to get lost in this country in before too long, and which, which, you know, will be transformational in terms of search and rescue and all those sorts of things". The government was also looking at setting up more 5G cell towers.
