Man found guilty of sex with 13yo, Kiwi accused of importing 20kg of cocaine into Sydney, and a major bank lowers mortgage rates.
1 Auckland man found guilty of sex with 13-year-old girl
Auckland man Luca Fairgray was found guilty on three charges of having sex with a 13-year-old in 2023.
Usually it's for the Crown to prove guilt but, because Fairgray, who is now 22, has accepted he had sex with a 13-year-old, his starting position was guilty.
It has been on him to prove his innocence on the grounds that he had a reasonable belief at the time that the teenage complainant was 16 and that he took steps to find out whether she was 16.
2 Kiwi faces life sentence for 20kg of cocaine in suitcase at Sydney Airport
The 21-year-old man allegedly had 22 vacuum-sealed packs of a white substance which testing revealed to be cocaine in his luggage.
This amount of cocaine could have been sold as almost 100,000 street deals with an estimated value of NZD$7.17 million. The weight was equivalent to more than a dozen 1.5kg bags of flour.
The offence carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
3 Top NZ company warns costs may rise under US tariff regime
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare said it didn't expect the move to affect its net profit for 2025 financial year but expected costs to rise in the 2026 financial year.
The US announced it would impose a 25% tariff on products imported from Mexico and Canada and a 10% tariff on products from China starting this week.
4 Heavy traffic on 33km detour after truck rolls north of Auckland
Specialist machinery is required for the clean-up and recovery after a truck rolled and blocked both directions on State Highway 1 close to the boundary between Auckland and Northland.
A 33km detour has been put in place for light vehicles only, NZTA said.
There was "currently heavy but flowing" traffic on the detour route, and motorists were asked to stick to the recommended detour as other local routes were not suitable for state highway detour traffic.
5 More sanctions added to benefit traffic light system
The sanctions were added after select committee hearings on the bill. They involve reporting on job search activities and attending five hours of employment-related training.
Non-financial sanctions provide an alternative to financial penalties for first-time obligation failures for some job seekers, allowing them to continue receiving their full benefit while under sanction.
Social Development and Employment Minister Louise Upston said the new sanctions were to ensure accountability in the welfare system.
ONE MORTGAGE RATE CUT
ASB has lowered some fixed home lending rates for the second time in a fortnight, reducing rates on 1-year, 18-month and 2-year terms from today.
The bank dropped its 1-year and 18-month fixed home loan lending term by 5 basis points, to 5.54% and 5.34% respectively.
ONE UNIFORM PASS APOLOGY
A Canterbury school has apologised after a uniform pass was issued to allow a student to wear "incorrect uniform items" such as pounamu, something it admits was "culturally inappropriate".
Ashburton Intermediate School principal Brent Gray said the school was "grateful" that people had raised issues around the pass and that it would "rectify immediately any seeking of passes to wear a taonga/pounamu, which we have not denied the wearing of to anyone during my time here".
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