News from the business sector, including a market report. [embed] https://players.brightcove.net/6093072280001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6311237675112

Chunks of earth just keep tumbling down in Wellington. Persistent heavy rain has sent land sliding - blocking streets and forcing some residents to get out of their homes.

Aanei te kai ripoata a Lauren Crimp.

"Every school day is a big day" - that's the lesson for parents whose children are skipping class.

Only about 60 percent of children in Aotearoa are regularly going to school. The numbers have been nosediving since 2015 and Covid has just made it worse.

Today Associate Education Minister Jan Tinetti headed back to class to launch a nationwide campaign aimed at getting more kids back to school. She talks to Lisa Owen.

Bollards have been put out and roads closed at Parliament, as Wellington prepares for anti-government protesters to return tomorrow.

Police are expecting more than a thousand protesters to arrive at Parliament, six months on from the 23-day occupation.

Our reporter Hamish Cardwell is outside Parliament and joins Lisa with the details.

A pensioner stranded overseas for months due to Covid-19 border restrictions has won a drawn out battle with the Social Development Minister over her superannuation payments.

Rosalie Dobson had her pension cut off last year and was ordered to pay a large chunk back after she got stuck in Indonesia.

She had travelled in June last year at short notice to sort out her business after her relationship ended.

But Dobson couldn't get back, trying for more than six months to get a spot in managed isolation before eventually arriving back in Aotearoa in March 2022. 

After 26 weeks overseas pension payments are frozen and at 30 weeks away a recipient can be forced to pay back the previous six months of super.

That's what happened to Dobson and she's been battling with MSD since reaching her third and final appeal.

'It's devastating' was the assessment of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as she toured flood-hit Nelson today.

The scale of the damage from heavy rain and widespread flooding is immense, with some locals saying it will take years for them to recover.

At least nine properties have been red stickered and are now unlivable, but hundreds more are still waiting for assessment.

Adam Burns is in Nelson.

It will be months before Mataura residents know the full extent of the flooding risk after discovering issues with their stop banks.

Environment Southland is undertaking more investigations after announcing residents in Gore, Mataura and Wyndham may need to evacuate sooner than planned.

Today, the regional council held its first drop-in information session in Mataura Tess Brunton spoke to residents.

Its Mullet Mania in the Manawatū. The results are in, and the winners of Manawatū's best Mullet have been announced.

Eighteen-year-old engineer Jonty White took out the adult title, while two-year-old Baylor Munro triumphed in the popular junior title.

More than 5,000 locals voted for their favourite versions of the classic do.

Photographer Helen McDonald organised the competition and photographed the contestants, and joins Lisa Owen.

A forensic scientist says examining the bones of two children found hidden in suitcases could reveal vital details of how they were treated during their young lives and what happened to them and when.

An Auckland family made the grisly discovery after buying the contents of an abandoned storage locker in an online auction - but are not involved in the incident.

Police yesterday revealed the children could be aged between five and ten and may have been in the suitcases for some time. Otago University lecturer Doctor Angela Clark is a forensic anthropologist who also works with police and in the justice system.

For the first time in this country's history paid firefighters walked off the job in a nationwide strike today.

It comes amid smouldering tension between the firefighter's union and Fire and Emergency New Zealand - after both sides reached an impasse after 13 months of negotiations.

Firefighters says they feel undervalued and unheard on issues of safety, staffing and lack of resources.

Rosie Gordon reports.