National's Joseph Mooney is the new electorate MP for Southland
New National Party MP Joseph Mooney will serve his first term in Parliament in an electorate that showed some dissatisfaction with his party on Saturday night.
Mooney is the new electorate MP for Southland, but Labour won the party vote.
The new Southland electorate encompasses much of the former Clutha-Southland area, which has traditionally been a National stronghold and was home to former Prime Minister Bill English for more than 20 years.
“The very first thing I’ll do is try to get [fruit] pickers on the ground and Recognised Seasonal Employers workers, because we have a crisis on our doorstep in Central Otago. Queenstown and Te Anau are also heavily reliant on migrant workers and Kiwis aren’t doing that work, so we need to get people on the ground in there," Mooney says.
“Also our rural contractors and farmers are heavily reliant on migrant workers because Kiwis either aren’t doing that work or they’re not trained to do it.’’
Poll: If we want to reduce speeding, what do you think actually changes driver behaviour? 🛻🚨🚓
In the Post's article on speeding penalties, the question is asked whether speeding fines are truly about road safety, or are they just a way to boost revenue for the Crown?
What do you think? Should speeding motorists receive speeding fines or demerit points?
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38.2% The sting of a fine (Money talks!)
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61.8% The threat of demerit points (Nobody wants to lose their license!)
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
Share your favourite main crop potato recipe and win a copy of our mag!
Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
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