The Front Page podcast: The dilemma of ethical fashion, oil giant eyes up NZ shores

Workers at MB Knit garment factory in Narayanganj, near Dhaka, Bangladesh. Photo / Getty Images

Each weekday The Front Page keeps you up to date with the biggest news in New Zealand. Today, a new ethical fashion report details the best and worst performers in New Zealand, oil giant told to prepare for resistance over NZ drilling plans, details of the Government's gun buyback scheme and the impact of the 2018 census botch-up. Hosted by Juliette Sivertsen.

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Most New Zealand fashion retailers are doing a good job of looking after the people who make their clothes, but some brands have work to do.

Department store Farmers was among those who got a poor ranking in this year's Ethical Fashion report by relief and development groups Tearfund and Baptist World Aid Australia.

Farmers is one of 10 New Zealand retailers to receive an F or D ranking for supply chain transparency, worker rights and policies to prevent child and forced labour.

Others include Baby City, Trelise Cooper, World and Merric.

One hundred and thirty companies were graded by Tearfund on their ethical supply and manufacturing practices.

Tearfund education and advocacy manager Claire Hart said many brands had progressed in the areas of gender equality, transparency, responsible purchasing and practices to combat child and forced labour.

"The fashion industry is only moving in one direction when it comes to this, it is moving towards visibility, transparency and care of workers, and companies that aren't on that journey...are going to be outliers very soon."

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Farmers is one of 10 New Zealand retailers to receive an F or D ranking for supply chain transparency, worker rights and policies to prevent child and forced labour.

Others include Baby City, Trelise Cooper, World and Merric.

Both Farmers and Trelise Cooper believed their low grades were because it chose not to take part in the survey.

But Clare Hart explained Farmers makes very minimal public disclosures, making it difficult to find out information about what's going on in its supply chains.

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Austrian oil giant OMV has unveiled one of the most ambitious oil and gas drilling programmes proposed in New Zealand.

It plans possibly three exploration and seven follow-up appraisal wells off Otago's coast in the Great South Basin.

The 10 oil and gas prospects are within a 100 to 150km arc, southeast of Dunedin.

OMV has applied to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for a marine discharge consent to release contaminants to sea, that application was being made public today.

That particular application to the EPA covers any residue trace elements of harmful substances, remaining on deck after any larger spill clean up.

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It's no surprise that these plans have got climate activists up in arms.

And the Green Party's wasted no time weighing in, saying the plans are bad news for the planet.

Green Party Energy and Resources spokesperson Gareth Hughes says it's time to put a line in the sand on offshore oil and gas drilling.

He says it's not the future they want for New Zealand, and the consent application announced today shows last year's ban on new permits needs to be strengthened.

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The bill to ban military style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles is set to pass through its final stages in Parliament this evening.

It will receive its Royal Assent tomorrow and be in force on Friday.

And the Police Minister Stuart Nash has revealed some, but not all, of the details regarding the Government buyback scheme.

This will include compensation for high capacity magazines and gun parts, as well as prohibited firearms.

Nash says independent advisers will come up with a price list for the buy-back for Cabinet to approve.

A separate expert panel will work out fair compensation for high-value weapons.

What happens then is still being determined, but they may be sold to police or the Defence Force, where appropriate, or destroyed.

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While tonight's reading will conclude the first phase of the Government's gun law reform, National plans to push for provisions to allow banned semi-automatic weapons, to be used for international sporting competitions.

Requests for competitive shooters to be exempt have been rejected.

But National's Police spokesperson Chris Bishop will try to advance an exemption in the next tranche of gun law reform.

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It's turned out the Census problem is worse than we thought.

Stats NZ's chief statistician Liz MacPherson yesterday wrote to MPs to confirm that more than 700,000 New Zealanders had either not participated, or not completed the census.

MacPherson had twice refused to reveal the number, and only did after being threatened with a complaint to the Speaker.

Last year's Census was the first one online and MacPherson says there was "considerable misunderstanding" about it.

In the letter to MPs, Liz MacPherson said more details around the timing of the census information would be released publicly on April 29.

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That's the Front Page for today, Wednesday 10 April, making sure you're across the biggest news of the day. For more on these stories, check out The New Zealand Herald, or tune in to Newstalk ZB.

You can subscribe to this podcast on Apple podcasts here, iHeartRadio here, and Stitcher here.

If you like to stay up to date on social media, you can find host Juliette Sivertsen on Twitter.