News and views

Water quality is no new issue in Aotearoa New Zealand, but it is a growing one. On 31 October 2019, the government closed submissions on the Action Plan for Healthy Waterways. The Plan has since been referred to an independent advisory panel that will consider the public’s submissions and report back to the government.

Responding to a negative customer review online can be very stressful but a gut reaction and a hastily written reply can cause far more trouble than it's worth.

The damage from governance failure can be profound, and can attract significant unwelcome media and public scrutiny. Focusing on the learnings from these cases is how we can get some real benefit and continuous improvement in corporate governance.

The devastating gas explosion that rocked a quiet Christchurch street earlier this year made me think about Public Liability insurance. My first thoughts were obviously with the family and the neighbours affected by the blast but being a typical lawyer I couldn't help wonder if the gas contractor had Public Liability insurance.

Innovation has seen a number of plant-based meat alternatives grow in popularity. These plant-based products often use terms such as ‘milk' or ‘patty’ to label their products. European authorities are currently looking at whether such terms should be restricted to use with animal-based products only. Here in New Zealand, Federated Farmers has indicated that it may push the government to follow suit.

Working remotely is becoming more and more common. But it wasn’t always that way – especially at law firms.

Significant changes post-M.bovis The NAIT (National Animal Identification and Tracing) system was first introduced in 2012 and came into effect progressively until it was fully implemented on 29 February 2016. Any completely new system is likely to need a review after being in operation for a period of time.

The Queenstown Lakes District Council announced changes to short-term visitor accommodation rules, covering the likes of Airbnb, for certain zones earlier this year – but that didn’t account for all properties.