Sixteen Southland schools are in line for rooftop solar panels under a $30 million government programme announced as part of Budget 2026. Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds confirmed the selections on Monday, with the list spanning from Halfmoon Bay School on Stewart Island to Drummond Primary School inland, and Otautau School

A freak technical fault almost certainly cost Cormac Buchanan a podium at the British Grand Prix. The 19-year-old Southlander qualified eighth at Silverstone — matching his career best — and was running with the front group when his bike began overheating from the moment the lights went out. A suspected tear-off from

Gore District Council has backed both competing Southland local government reform proposals, writing to the Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport ahead of the government's August 9 deadline. The council confirmed support for both the two-unitary Greater Southland proposal developed by Southland District Council and the single-unitary

Three months out from the election, the government is clinging to a two-seat majority — and a new party just made things considerably more complicated. The latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia Poll has the Opportunity Party breaking five percent in a mainstream public poll for the first time, landing on 6.1

New Zealand's top one percent of earners pay more income tax than the entire bottom half of the country. That's the central claim in a new handbook from the Taxpayers' Union, released this week as the 2026 election campaign heats up. The group says its

A Nightcaps music teacher's songs, written nearly two decades ago and largely sitting in a drawer, are now animated videos watched by children across the country — thanks to a collaboration with SIT's screen arts programme in Invercargill. Nicky Fryer, a teacher aide and music teacher at

Southland District Council is spending its $1 million Milford Sound windfall on public toilets. Council agreed at its meeting on Wednesday to direct the money — received from selling its two percent shareholding in Milford Sound Tourism Limited — toward renewing and upgrading public toilets along the main tourist route through Southland

The Southland Sharks are national basketball champions, beating the Wellington Saints 104-101 in overtime in Invercargill. Last year the Saints ended the Sharks' season at the same stage. Saturday's result was payback — hard-fought, down to the wire, and settled only in extra time. Sharks captain Sam Timmins