Smokers hit with $200 million-a-year rise in tobacco taxes; slain nurse ambushed; Queenstown waterfront retailers have react to flood alert.
NZ Herald
A New Zealand-born nurse ambushed and killed on the veranda of her home in an upmarket Sydney suburb was possibly the victim of a man who preyed on her, the paper reports.
A huge increase in the price of cigarettes and tobacco was bulldozed through Parliament by Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia in a move designed to cut the 5000 smoking-related deaths each year.
Dominion Post
Smokers have been whacked with a $200 million-a-year rise in tobacco taxes as the Government ratchets up the pressure on them to quit. The paper says tobacco companies were caught by surprise by the move, while Sir Roger Douglas, one of just four MPs who opposed it, called it an attack on the poor.
The Kapiti Coast looks set to challenge Ohakune's giant carrot and Paeroa's fizzy drink bottle for the country's biggest sculpture - with a life-sized pod of singing and spouting whales.
The Press
The tobacco excise tax increase is described as a major concession by National to the Maori Party.
A judge says a Christchurch grandmother has been the victim of an age-old trick aimed at the gullible and greedy. The woman stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her employer to pay international fraudsters. What she believed would just be a one-off payment eventually snowballed to $452,000 and has now led to jail.
Otago Daily Times
Dunedin smokers surprised by the tax hike were quick to buy supplies before prices went up at midnight.
University of Otago design students are in shock after their department could close.
Several Queenstown waterfront retailers have reacted swiftly to a flood alert posted for Lake Wakatipu, closing premises and moving merchandise.
