Hobbit feud grows
UPPER NORTH ISLAND Police believe a valuable whalebone artefact was returned to an historic Northland house because the thieves thought it had a tapu, or curse, on it. “With all artefacts strongly connected to Maoridom, if they are removed or illtreated, they carry an automatic curse,” a police spokesman said.
T
No deal: Sir Peter Jackson has the support of the NZ Government
stating that, according to legal advice, the film’s producers could be breaking industrial laws if they negotiated an agreement with the union, as actors were regarded as individual contractors, not employees. NZ Actors Equity claimed Jackson and other producers had refused to enter into a
union-negotiated agreement. It advised members not to accept work on the project because actors might be employed on inferior non-union contracts. The union’s stance has found support from big names including Karl Urban from The Lord Of The Rings and the president of NZ Actors Equity, Jennifer Ward-Lealand.
NZPA - Marty Melville / TNT Images
Oz lures high-calibre Kiwis working full-time than Australians. About 90 per cent of Kiwi men have jobs, compared with 83 per cent of Australian men, the report says, while the percentage of Kiwis working full-time surpasses the equivalent rate of Aussies by 10 per cent. New Zealand is the secondlargest contributor to Australia’s overseas-born population, after the UK. Queensland has become the state of choice for New Zealanders – they are twice as likely to live in Brisbane as the overall population.
LOWER NORTH ISLAND A passenger plane crash-landed at Blenheim airport on Thursday. None of the 46 passengers was injured. Air New Zealand confirmed the Q300, operated by subsidiary Air Nelson, experienced a nose wheel failure after landing.
UPPER SOUTH ISLAND The Canterbury earthquake has apparently turned the tables in the Christchurch mayoral election, with incumbent Bob Parker now the favourite candidate. The UMR Research poll showed 55 per cent of voters now intended to vote for Parker, up from just 28 per cent in June, before the quake hit.
LOWER SOUTH ISLAND
Bright lights of Brisbane beckon
The University of Otago achieved the highest university operating surplus in the country last year, at $31.1m, figures released by the Tertiary Education Commission show.
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tntmagazine.com
NEWS & SPORT
■ Government backs film-maker Sir Peter Jackson in his dispute with NZ Actors Equity union over The Hobbit ■ Jackson threatens to move production away from New Zealand ■ Union’s stance backed by big names like Karl Urban from The Lord Of The Rings
New Zealanders are moving to Australia in record numbers, but they arrive educated and end up working, on average, harder and longer than natives, a government study says. Far from being a drain on the country’s education system and social services, the wave of migrants from across the Tasman Sea is proving to be older, professional and focused on work, an Australian Bureau of Statistics report says. Last year, 500,000 New Zealanders aged 15 to 64 and living in Australia had higher rates of employment and were more likely to be
COAST TO COAST What’s happening across the country
SUMMARY
he NZ Government has backed film-maker Sir Peter Jackson in a dispute with union NZ Actors Equity over his latest Tolkien saga, The Hobbit. Jackson has threatened to move the production from New Zealand, possibly to Eastern Europe, after the union called for an international boycott of the film because it was not allowed to negotiate on behalf of its members. The Government revealed its support for Jackson in a letter
NEW ZEALAND
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