Health Minister Tony Ryall should step in to prevent Christchurch's 198 Youth Health Centre from closing its doors permanently, Labour's Youth Affairs spokesperson Jacinda Ardern said today.

Suicide rates are on the decline, but more men than women are still dying. This is not the time to get rid of New Zealand's only phone counselling service set up to help men, says Jim Anderton MP for Wigram and former minister responsible for the government's suicide prevention strategy.

Independent conservation organisation Forest & Bird welcomes the High Court judgement today endorsing most measures announced in 2008 to protect endangered Hector's dolphins.

Kiwibank has made a profit during the worst recession in decades by staying in the New Zealand market and refusing to gamble on overseas currencies like the big Australian banks, says MP for Wigram and Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton.

Wellington, Feb 18 NZPA - A special inshore Kaikoura fishing area should be axed after a commercial fisherman caught and killed a protected Hector's dolphin, a marine mammal expert says.

Victims of vicious attacks, a 17 year old girl who had an accident at the gym, and many other accident victims, are being turned away by ACC for having non-existent 'pre-existing conditions', says MP for Wigram and Progressive Party leader, Jim Anderton.

Highly threatened Hector's dolphin populations around New Zealand are still declining despite new protection measures implemented in 2008, according to new University of Otago research.

The tax reform proposals put forward by the Government's Tax Working Group will, if adopted, tilt the tax system more in favour of wealthier New Zealanders.

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A financial transactions tax is a better option for widening the tax base and reducing income tax than increasing GST, MP for Wigram and Progressive Party leader Jim Anderton says.

"GST is a regressive tax," Jim Anderton says.

Politically, the year 2009 was (to paraphrase an old Bill Clinton campaign adage) all about the economy, stupid!

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