Eileen Goodwin

One of the freedoms enjoyed by "extremist'' religious people in New Zealand may be curtailed under a Labour-led Government.

Mondelez appears to have reached a stalemate with the union representing Cadbury workers and wants to close the consultation.

The union representing Cadbury workers has denied revealing confidential information about the Dunedin factory.

A planned intensive care unit/high dependency unit at Dunedin Hospital might only be open about four years before it is replaced in a new hospital.

The group fighting to keep the Cadbury factory open has appealed to Dunedin residents to turn out in large numbers to a rally in the Octagon today.

Change is on the cards for the way health boards pay for new hospitals, which may have big implications for the cash-strapped Southern District Health Board.

Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull will speak at a public rally organised to protest the proposed closure of the Cadbury factory in Dunedin.

Dunedin North MP David Clark was confirmed as Labour's new health spokesman in a minor reshuffle announced last night.

Once tagged for probable closure, Dunedin's Cottonsoft factory is about to hire five more workers due to an ''aggressive'' increase in demand.

Two Dunedin MPs — Michael Woodhouse and David Clark — are tipped to take the health portfolios in planned reshuffles in National and Labour.

The shift from "tiny to small" was a big step for Dunedin chocolate-maker Liz Rowe, and she is keeping her ambitions modest.

Cadbury workers are having trouble securing bank loans and house tenancies because of the threat over their jobs, making their lives "so difficult", their union says.

The Dunedin Hospital rebuild group had little to impart except ''drivel'' and ''jargon'' at Tuesday's public meeting, and should not have called it if there was nothing to say.