by Len Brown, Mayor of Auckland
2012 will be an exciting year for Auckland with lots of improvements planned and many exciting events… We also face many challenges this year, including tackling Auckland’s transport issues. Our roads are congested, our train network is hobbled by a central station that trains have to reverse out of instead of run through, and there are parts of Auckland with inadequate bus services. Read more »

Opinion from Your Port Your Call
www.facebook.com/yourportyourcall

Ports of Auckland plans to add the equivalent of 16 Eden Park #1 fields to its container wharves – and most of the new space juts out in to the Waitemata harbour. A publicity campaign titled “Your Port, Your Call” kicks off today urging Aucklanders to find out more about the “extraordinary” plans by the port to expand its operations. Read more »

Auckland.Scoop
Who would have believed that there’s a government job which is described as a Network User Behaviour Manager? The job does exist. It’s inside the monolithic New Zealand Transport Agency. The position made itself known this week in a press release advising us to ride our bikes and leave our cars at home. Not that the Transport Agency has much of a record of building cycleways. Read more »

News from NZ Police
Auckland Motorways Police are alarmed by the results of a recent ten day operation which focused on education and enforcement of child restraints in motor vehicles. Read more »

News from NZ Police
The search of the Dotcom Mansion at 186 Mahoenui Road in Coatsville, Auckland finished just before midnight last night, concluding the work required there by Police and the Organised and Financial Crime Agency New Zealand. Read more »

Auckland.Scoop
Two co-founders of one of the internet’s biggest filesharing websites were arrested in Auckland yesterday. Read more »

Auckland.Scoop
Are people concerned because of the height of the new CBD brothel that’s planned for 75 Victoria Street West? If it was lower than 15 storeys, would there be less to complain about? Could there be too many brothels in the centre of town? Does a proliferation of brothels – 16 of them are licensed so far – offer a new future for central Auckland? Read more »

FAMILY TIME: From centre left – Mark Wallace, Ashley (9), Rebecca (7) and Katrina. Photo: Simon Oosterman

Article and photos by Simon Oosterman.
The media have given plenty of space to Ports of Auckland management, but nobody has canvassed the opinions of those most affected by the company’s decisions, the workers. Here we get behind the news to the men, their wives and the children affected by the Ports of Auckland actions and proposals. Read more »

News from Maritime NZ
Divers today continued a full assessment of the state of the wreck of the Rena – its stability on the reef and general condition – as the first stage of working out what to do next. Read more »

Auckland.Scoop
A container holding 17 tonnes of tiny plastic beads is causing a new environmental threat on Matakana Island. Beads which have spilled on to the island’s beach are a threat to wildlife if they are eaten. Read more »

BusinessDesk report by Nick Gray
The emergence of a document released today by the Maritime Union highlights the bitter dispute – punctuated by strikes and lockouts – between the union and the port, led by chief executive Tony Gibson. Read more »

Auckland.Scoop
An oil slick four kilometres long was this morning stretching northeast of the Rena. It is likely to come ashore east of Maketu this evening.

Booms being prepared to protect Maketu from oil slick. Photo: Maritime NZ.

Booms have been put in place to protect sensitive areas in Maketu, Little Waihi and Waitahanui.
Read more »

News from Maritime NZ
Swells around the Astrolabe Reef are continuing to prevent salvors from diving on the wreck to assess the damage caused through Rena’s break-up and partial sinking of the stern.
Read more »

Click for big version

News from Maritime NZ
Most of the stern section of the MV Rena has slipped off the Astrolabe Reef.

Click for big version

At 10.38am, the foremost part of the stern was still sticking up out of the water, with the rest – including the bridge – submerged. The bow section remains unchanged in place on the reef. Read more »

Photos above from Maritime NZ

Auckland.Scoop
The Rena has now split into two sections on the Astrolabe reef off the coast of Tauranga. Read more »

by Andy Foster
Safer roads? Good news? Only 284 people died on our New Zealand roads in 2011. That’s the lowest since records began in 1952. It is a very significant reduction after a number of years of the death toll more or less plateauing. Read more »

News release from Automobile Association
The AA hopes last year’s road toll is the start of a new era for New Zealand road safety. The 2011 road toll was 284. While this is still a tragic loss of life, it is the lowest level of fatalities in New Zealand since 1952 when records began. Read more »

Auckland.Scoop
There’s a war of words on Auckland’s waterfront this week. The victors so far are the Maritime Union, which has released three statements in three days, two of them offering to lift its strike notices for the new year, if only … Read more »

Auckland.Scoop
Happy Christmas for most of us, but not for everyone this year. Read more »

by Councillor Cameron Brewer
Rather than centre-left councillors getting all defensive and lashing out at the Productivity Commission and the Government’s genuine concerns about housing affordability, the Auckland Council now needs to address those concerns. Read more »