Information packs went out to 477,000 Maori voters this week as the 2018 Maori Electoral Option gets underway. The option runs from April 3-August 2 and allows Maori voters to choose to be on the Maori roll or the general roll for the next two general...... Read More

I walked to work this week – 19 minutes door-to-door – just because Martin Parkes suggested indirectly that I should. I walked to work a second morning, again at Martin Parkes’ insistence. This time I took a longer route down Dive Crescent....... Read More

It’s a simple, procedural, postal by-election to fill a vacancy at Tauranga City Council, but three weeks out from the close of voting, there has been a heated exchange of words and ideas. The debate was fueled by sitting council member Steve...... Read More

It looks heartening, but can also be an eyesore and a menace. The recycling bins stationed around town are often chock-a-block with bottles, and bottles that can’t be crammed down the spout are mounting up around the bins. It seems when a city’s...... Read More

Leaving developers to inform council policy on housing outcomes for Tauranga has been slammed in a housing report presented to councillors. The Tauranga City Council’s traditional hands-off approach has failed and the market has not delivered housing...... Read More

Nearly 10 years ago he was ranked 51st on the National Party list and preparing to take on Winston Peters in Tauranga. Now, Simon Bridges is the 12th leader of the party he first joined as a teenager in 1992. It took his caucus colleagues only two rounds...... Read More

  City councillor Larry Baldock has failed in an effort to edit council minutes to remove allegations of Chinese organ harvesting. Larry had hoped to remove reference in the minutes from December 19 of Judy Shakespear’s public forum talk about...... Read More

Tauranga Labour list MP Jan Tinetti has revealed a deeply personal tragedy while talking in support of her leader and Prime Minister. The MP had been asked by The Weekend Sun for a report card on her government’s first 100 days in power, and was...... Read More

Regional council staff have been dealing with an oil spill exercise at Butters Wharf near the aerodrome bridge this week. Called Operation Basil Brush (Boom Boom), the exercise is based on containing a spill at the cement/tanker berth near the southern...... Read More

It’s been a big week in politics, with National Party MPs putting their hands up to take over the reins from Bill English, who has resigned and will be leaving parliament. One man who wants the top job in the National Party is Tauranga MP Simon...... Read More