All local councils should start charging ratepayers for both drinking and waste water by volume, while new water infrastructure should be delivered regionally because of its high cost for smaller communities, says a government advisory group report. Chaired by Wellington Regional Council chair Fran Wilde, the report was quietly released on the Department of Internal Affairs website on Wednesday, and …

New Zealand consumers are more upbeat about buying big ticket items than they have been in five-and-a-half years, with confidence increasing last month. The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence survey rose 4.4 points to 119.2 in April, just ahead of the historical average at 117. A net 40 percent of the 1,019 people surveyed thing now is a good time to …

The Labour and Green parties have promised to rip up the existing electricity market model, returning to a centrally planned electricity system, a single state-owned power buyer, and breaking up the integrated generator-retailer electricity companies. Announced on the eve of the partial privatisation of state-owned MightyRiverPower, the announcements have a triple political purpose: to show a united Labour-Green front, a …