WIRES:

Sunny days send weather websites soaring

Wednesday, 14 January 2004, 10:03 am
Press Release: www.hitwise.co.nz

Auckland, 13th January, 2004 - With many of the country's four million inhabitants on holiday, a South Island drought, and the hottest January temperature ever recorded, it's no wonder New Zealand's weather related websites have been burning up the Hitwise charts.

The country's official weather watchdog, the MetService ( http://www.metservice.co.nz/) has witnessed its site rise to 25th placing amongst websites visited by NZ users for the week ending January 3rd. 3.5% of all visitors to the website added it to their favourites list in their Internet browsers indicating a desire to return.

If chart below is not visible please see attachment.

Many other NZ weather websites have been doused in web interest. NZoom Weather ( http://www.oneweather.nzoom.com/) saw its ranking rise to 45th among all websites visited by New Zealand Internet users in the week ending 27th December. The website rose from 67th position the week previous.

Hitwise clickstream data showed the aforementioned MetService site as being third most popular site visited following NZoom Weather, with Metra NZ www.metra.co.nz, a meteorological forecast service 9th, and the Commonwealth Bureau of Meteorology www.bom.gov.au in 10th position. Weather Online ( http://www.weatheronline.net.nz/ ) is another site to have its day in the sun, finding itself positioned at 20th in the News & Media category for the week ending January 3rd, up from 41st at the start of November with 9.3% of its visitors bookmarking the site.

The dry weather also pushed farmers online with rural website FencePost (www.fencepost.com) increasing its market share to almost 65% for the week ending December 27th, up from 55% at the start of the month.

Business Headlines | Sci-Tech Headlines

BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH > >

Sky City : Auckland Convention Centre Cost Jumps By A Fifth

SkyCity Entertainment Group, the casino and hotel operator, is in talks with the government on how to fund the increased cost of as much as $130 million to build an international convention centre in downtown Auckland, with further gambling concessions ruled out. The Auckland-based company has increased its estimate to build the centre to between $470 million and $530 million as the construction boom across the country drives up building costs and design changes add to the bill.
More>>

ALSO:

RMTU: Mediation Between Lyttelton Port And Union Fails

The Rail and Maritime Union (RMTU) has opted to continue its overtime ban indefinitely after mediation with the Lyttelton Port of Christchurch (LPC) failed to progress collective bargaining. More>>

Earlier:

Rail And Maritime Transport Union - Lyttelton Port workers begin overtime ban
Lyttelton Port of Christchurch - LPC operations will continue as usual during overtime ban
Environment Canterbury - Next phase of Lyttelton Port recovery underway

Science Policy: Callaghan, NSC Funding Knocked In Submissions

Callaghan Innovation, which was last year allocated a budget of $566 million over four years to dish out research and development grants, and the National Science Challenges attracted criticism in submissions on the government’s draft national statement of science investment, with science funding largely seen as too fragmented. More>>

ALSO:

NZ Govt - Submissions on future of science system
Science Media Centre - Year in Review: the big science stories of 2014

Scoop Business: Spark, Voda And Telstra To Lay New Trans-Tasman Cable

Spark New Zealand and Vodafone, New Zealand’s two dominant telecommunications providers, in partnership with Australian provider Telstra, will spend US$70 million building a trans-Tasman submarine cable to bolster broadband traffic between the neighbouring countries and the rest of the world. More>>

ALSO:

Spark NZ - New trans-Tasman telecommunications cable plan confirmed
InternetNZ - New cable a positive sign for the future

Scoop Business - ComCom pushes out final decision on Chorus copper pricing
Commerce Commission - Backdating prices for Chorus’ copper lines and broadband
TUANZ - TUANZ welcomes further clarification by Commerce Commission
Spark NZ - Spark New Zealand Moving Ahead in 4g Network Build

Statistics: Current Account Deficit Widens

New Zealand's annual current account deficit was $6.1 billion (2.6 percent of GDP) for the year ended September 2014. This compares with a deficit of $5.8 billion (2.5 percent of GDP) for the year ended June 2014. More>>

ALSO:

Scoop Business - NZ Sept quarter current account deficit near six-year high

Still In The Red: NZ Govt Shunts Out Surplus To 2016

The New Zealand government has pushed out its targeted return to surplus for a year as falling dairy prices and a low inflation environment has kept a lid on its rising tax take, but is still dangling a possible tax cut in 2017, the next election year and promising to try and achieve the surplus pledge on which it campaigned for election in September. More>>

ALSO:

BusinessDesk - Economy can grow faster than thought before inflation bites
Audio - Treasury Forecast Announcement for 2015
NZ Treasury - Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update 2014
Office of the Clerk - Public Submissions - Budget Policy Statement 2015
NZ Govt - Government focused on surplus in 2014/15 - English: National is focussed on achieving surplus
Labour - Bill English’s face is redder than his books - Failure to diversify puts prosperity at risk
United Future - Dunne Speaks - Christmas Edition
Greens - Irresponsible tax cuts lead to seventh successive deficit
NZ First - Dishonesty Only Thing in Surplus in Forecasts
CTU - Cuts in public services likely from Budget Policy Statement
PricewaterhouseCoopers - New Zealand Government signals reversal of fortune
NZ Taxpayers' Union - Cut Taxes + Cut Waste = Surplus
TV3 Video - Don't blame deficit on tax cuts - English
Earlier - Cuts to Health Suggested

Job Insecurity: Time For Jobs That Count In The Meat Industry

“Meat Workers face it all”, says Graham Cooke, Meat Workers Union National Secretary. “Seasonal work, dangerous jobs, casual and zero hours contracts, and increasing pressure on workers to join non-union individual agreements. More>>