Robyn Malcolm had to be escorted by police from an inner city Wellington restaurant last night after being threatened by technical workers worried the Hobbit won't be made in NZ.

A filmmaker and actor who worked on LOTR and Avatar says union demands to standardise pay rates could cripple dozens of NZ films.

The Hobbit is slipping away from New Zealand despite the best efforts of its producers, the film's co-writer Philippa Boyens says.

Sir Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh's statement on The Hobbit and a release from the Council of Trade Unions in response.

The loss of The Hobbit film overseas is a "potential tragedy for the New Zealand film industry", Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage Chris Finlayson said this morning.

The producers of The Hobbit say production is being moved off-shore after industrial action 'undermined Warner Bro's confidence in NZ'.

Weta Workshop's boss Sir Richard Taylor last night said the New Zealand film industry was "at some level of peril".

Two Hobbit films, expected to cost about $669m to make, are in danger of being moved away from NZ because of "the actions of a very limited few", says Weta Workshop's Sir Richard Taylor.

First it was Paul Henry. Now it's Michael Laws. These are cruel times for shock jocks and the people who love them, writes John Drinnan.

Kiwi actors are being used as pawns in a high-stakes game involving Sir Peter Jackson's The Hobbit.

Two senior ministers have made themselves available to mediate in the industrial dispute surrounding The Hobbit after meeting with Fran Walsh and Sir Peter Jackson today.

Sir Peter Jackson is being cast as Gandalf in a row about payment for actors...

Many central city businesses cannot open until the damage from the earthquake is fully assessed, and some workers are worried about losing pay.

The Govt's decision to extend 90-day new-employee trials was made after a suggestion from the Act Party and went against the recommendation of its own Minister of Labour, Kate Wilkinson.

Unions are warning of heated collective contract talks on the horizon.

Protesters briefly broke through security cordons at the hotel beside the convention centre where the National Party's annual conference was being held.

Employers are pleased with the 90-day trial period, though workers sometimes feel vulnerable and mistreated, a Department of Labour report shows.