Articles from ‘elocal magazine’

Across Europe, immigration is no longer merely an argument about border numbers. Large sections of the electorate are demanding lower migration, while polling shows significant support in several countries for requiring some recent migrants to leave. New Zealand First is now putting a fundamentally different proposition before New Zealand voters: immigration should serve the country's capacity, infrastructure and citizens, rather than…

BRICS leaders are gathering in New Delhi with less talk of replacing the US dollar and more attention on something potentially more consequential: building the infrastructure that could allow member economies to trade, settle payments and finance investment through alternative channels. BRICS Pay, digital-currency interoperability, expanding intra-BRICS trade and deepening energy relationships suggest the bloc's evolution is increasingly about…

That's the message from Vladimir Putin ahead of the 18th BRICS summit in India. As the Bloc's member countries have a packed agenda ahead of them. Our team will be on site to provide special coverage throughout the event. The Russian president has already met with Indian PM Narendra Modi. That's as Putin is scheduled to meet with other BRICS leaders whose countries are setting the stage for multipolarity. Houthi forces claim to have seized…

Dr Oliver Hartwich argues Election 2026 is becoming an auction of other people’s wealth, with parties competing over nationalisation, new taxes, subsidies and taxpayer-backed schemes. He warns that weakening property rights and redistributing existing wealth risks discouraging the investment New Zealand desperately needs. With productivity already trailing Australia, Hartwich says the priority should be growing the economic pie, not fighting…

An Auckland couple were found equally culpable for nearly nine years of tax evasion and fraud totalling more than $554,000. But while the husband was sent to prison, the judge reduced his wife’s sentence to home detention on humanitarian grounds, saying imprisoning both parents would be too hard on their children. eLocal Report: Based on reporting by RNZ HERE. · An Auckland woman has avoided imprisonment for tax offending after a judge…

OceanaGold wants to extend the life of its Macraes gold mine for another decade, targeting around one million additional ounces of gold. The proposal promises hundreds of jobs and billions of dollars of economic activity, but it also raises a bigger question: when a finite New Zealand resource is extracted, how much of that wealth should be preserved for future generations? eLocal Report: Based on reporting by Tess Brunton for RNZ HERE. ·…

After more than a century of proposals, political reversals and competing transport priorities, Auckland’s City Rail Link is finally preparing to carry passengers. Its history shows the consequences of repeatedly postponing major infrastructure including a final price that climbed to $5.5 billion. eLocal Report: Based on reporting by Matthew Theunissen for RNZ HERE. · Auckland’s City Rail Link (CRL) is finally due to open this weekend after a…

ACT is campaigning to end the Waitangi Tribunal’s contemporary jurisdiction, arguing the institution has become increasingly ideological and expansive. Critics say the proposal misunderstands the Tribunal’s original purpose and would remove an important mechanism for scrutinising how government decisions affect Māori rights. eLocal Report: Based on reporting by Giles Dexter for RNZ HERE. · ACT has placed the future of the Waitangi Tribunal…

WELLINGTON — The NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party ("Freedom") is proud to announce that prominent whistleblower and transparency advocate Barry Young will stand as a candidate for the party in the 2026 General Election. · Barry Young was the database administrator who developed the "pay-per-dose" system for Health NZ. He is better known for whistleblowing when the data showed unexpectedly high post-vax deaths. He was subsequently raided by armed…

Artificial intelligence is rapidly improving the brains of robots, but building their bodies remains surprisingly old-fashioned. Hungarian robotics startup Allonic believes the answer could be to stop assembling increasingly complicated machines and start manufacturing them more like biological bodies. eLocal Report: Based on information published by Allonic and additional robotics and manufacturing reporting. · For decades, advances in…