Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

There is concern that Artificial Intelligence could be used to get customers to pay more, with one expert calling for legislation to block the use of dynamic pricing in supermarkets.

The government’s amendment to the Commerce Act, which is expected to pass in the middle of the year, includes giving the Commerce Commission more powers in combating predatory pricing.

But University of Sydney researcher Lisa Asher said the legislation was not explicit enough in stating that retailers must be held accountable for price changes made by Artificial Intelligence (AI) monitoring.

She told Nine to Noon that supermarkets in the United States are using data about customers to change pricing in online shopping.

Asher said the incoming legislation here does not go far enough to stop the same from happening in New Zealand.

“Pricing algorithms is when there is monitoring that is happening via systems and they are looking at competitive pricing, web-scraping or looking through the internet and adjusting pricing based on that for a particular retailer,” Asher said.

Dynamic pricing strategies could take advantage of consumers and the information they have about their purchasing habits. For example, they could charge a customer more if they know the customer always buys the same product.

“You’ve got your loyalty card, your purchase history, whether you bought on-or-off promotion, whether you tend to buy lower-value products or higher-value products – that sort of mix – to then adjust the price based on what is the maximum price they think you can charge, which is, in essence, price gouging,” Asher said.

AI can exacerbate this.

Asher said this sort of conduct has been seen on online platforms like Amazon in the US.

But it’s not just online stores. US law makers have raised the alarm over dynamic pricing in grocery stores via electronic shelf labels that allow stores to adjust prices instantly. They fear AI could be used to price-gouge customers at check-out.

Asher said the UK and European Union markets are moving to put into law that a company is held accountable for any changes in pricing done by AI.

“They need to be held accountable for any systems or programmes that they decide to implement in their business,” she said.

Woolworths New Zealand told Nine to Noon it does use electronic shelf labelling in almost all stores, but it does not use dynamic or any personalisation in pricing.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

TVNZ has posted a sharply lower half-year profit as revenue slumped in a tough advertising market, and on a one-off accounting write-down.

The state-owned broadcaster’s profit for the six months ended December 2025 was $2.4 million, compared to $53m a year ago.

Revenue fell 12 percent to $134m, driven by a sharp fall in advertising income, which TVNZ said reflected the broader economic environment.

The company recorded a $28.5m write-down in the value of its assets, largely in programme rights.

TVNZ said it offset the impact of lower revenue by investing in digital advertising and by managing its costs.

It said digital advertising continued to grow, with digital accounting for more than 30 percent of total advertising revenue.

“We can now tell the difference between someone streaming alone and a household watching together, which means we see the true scale of our digital audience,” chief executive Jodi O’Donnell said.

2026 would be “a defining year” for the media company.

“We’re investing now to ensure TVNZ is the place New Zealanders choose first for the news, entertainment and sport they love,” she said.

“That comes with planned short-term costs, but we’re confident in the long-term value these changes will create for New Zealand audiences and advertisers.”

TVNZ expected to deliver a dividend of $1.6m to the Crown, compared to $3.1m in the 2025 financial year.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Business failures are forecast to continue, even as the economy grinds to recovery.

Centrix said this week that liquidation numbers were up 16 percent year-on-year.

Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub has compiled data from the NZ Gazette, which shows that in the year to February, 30 percent of businesses that were wound up were in construction.

Another 15 percent were in accommodation and food services, and 10 percent were rental, hiring and real estate.

Security and safety businesses had the highest proportion of businesses failing with a wind-up rate of nearly seven per 1000 enterprises. That was followed closely by accommodation and food services.

“[Security] is quite a small sector, most of them are security companies, a few road safety businesses… There are a lot of small operators.

“Really the story is in the big ones, the construction and hospitality … that’s where things are really tough.”

Construction businesses were being wound up at a rate of about four per 1000.

Inland Revenue is often cited as a factor in the increasing rate of liquidations. After a quiet couple of years during the pandemic, it has stepped up activity sharply to pull in overdue tax.

Eaqub’s data showed that, at 70 percent of windup applications, Inland Revenue’s share was the same as it had been in 2016.

“I think it’s the [increase] that’s caught people rather than the fact that you’ve broken the law by not paying your taxes and you should be caught. I think some of the writing tends to be a bit sympathetic towards these dodgy businesses not paying their taxes. I have no sympathy for them… you can’t trade while insolvent. If you can’t pay your taxes, you’re insolvent.”

He said in previous downturns it had taken quite a long time for the rate of business closures to slow.

“It takes about 12 months after the economy cycle recovers before the business closures start to come down. That’s because that transition point in the recovery is quite challenging for a lot of businesses. They’re already going into it with relatively low cash reserves, people are desperate.

“They take on a lot more work than they can do in pricing that’s not accurate with costs increasing … This period can catch a lot of people out in the construction industry in particular.

“This is probably the riskiest period for the sector because they can see the recovery and then make decisions, they make rush decisions at this point in time then catch them later on… a period of economic recovery doesn’t mean that it is going to turn around straight away… there’s still this pressure businesses should be really aware of and make sure they’ve got a good close eye on their finances, they’re pricing up jobs correctly, they’ve got the future supply of work.

“This is when people start to move as well – in a lot of smaller businesses, you lose one or two staff, that might be half or three-quarters of your workforce.

“It’s all of those things that happen at the beginning of an economic cycle that can be quite frightening.”

Eaqub said it was notable that some lenders were taking action against businesses.

Bizcap, which describes itself as “New Zealand’s most open-minded lender” has applied to wind up eight businesses this year alone.

Keaton Pronk, a licensed insolvency practitioner at McDonald Vague, said it was unusual that a lender would do that rather than relying on security it would normally hold against its loans.

He said, across January and February there had been 228 winding up applications, of which 157 were from Inland Revenue, 48 were one-off creditors and 23 were creditors with multiple applications.

The Financial Markets Authority also took action against a group of related entities.

A spokesperson for the Financial Services Federation said it was likely that no security was being held against those loans or not enough to cover the debt.

Bizcap did not respond to a request for comment.

Centrix said there were signs of improvement in seven of 19 industry sectors, particularly agriculture, wholesale trade, and information media and telecommunications services.

What can you do?

Frank Witowski, a Business Mentors New Zealand mentor told Nine to Noon this week that people should act quickly if they were in trouble.

Many businesses did not keep a close enough eye on their spending, he said, and waiting too long to ask for help.

“I would say see an accountant and go through your books to see what spending you’ve got. Sometimes people don’t look for help, they try to sort it themselves and it doesn’t always work.”

He said it might be possible for businesses to add other services or products to stand out, or look for ways AI could offer efficiencies.

Cutting prices was unlikely to help, he said. “Price cutting has been going on for so long now. If you don’t have the revenue you need, you’re gradually going down and down, It’s good for buyers to get discounts left, right and centre but for businesses they eventually can’t run it any further.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The increasing use of digital price tags could allow supermarkets to use AI algorithms and ‘dynamic pricing’ where prices change in real time, a competition researcher says.

The government’s amendment to the Commerce Act, included increasing the Commerce Commission’s powers in combating predatory pricing , clarifying merger processes, and modernising the rules around new technologies, including AI.

University of Sydney researcher Lisa Asher says legislation should block the use of dynamic pricing in supermarkets.

She told Nine to Noon supermarkets in the United States were using data about customers to change pricing in online shopping.

Asher says legislation planned for New Zealand does not go far enough to stop the same happening here.

Woolworths New Zealand says it does use electronic shelf labelling in almost all stores, but it does not use dynamic or any personalisation in pricing.

“ESL is about more accurately displaying the prices we advertise. Instead of changing thousands of paper tickets every week across our 185 stores, we can update prices using ESL,” the company said in a statement. .

“We do not use dynamic pricing. We do not have any personalisation in our pricing.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Travel agents are helping their New Zealand clients get out of the Middle East.

It has been almost a week since the US and Israel began bombing Iran, which is carrying out retaliatory strikes on US bases and embassies.

Most commercial flights are not operating, with much of the region’s airspace closed.

Paul Diamond from Wendy Wu Tours said the company was helping to evacuate six New Zealand clients from Egypt.

“They were due to carry on through to Jordan. But obviously, with the travel warnings out, we decided that it was only right for the safety of the passengers to cancel the Jordan part of the trip and to find ways to get them home early.”

He said the clients were booked on upcoming flights from Cairo to Auckland via China.

He said one of their clients was not able to evacuate via London because of recent changes to immigration rules, meaning dual citizens can no longer use a foreign passport to enter the UK.

“We couldn’t reroute them back through the UK because even though they were born in Britain, they didn’t have a British passport with them. They only had their New Zealand passport. With the new immigration changes, EgyptAir told us that they wouldn’t be able to get on the flight to transit through London because they would have had to go through customs.”

He said they had rerouted or cancelled all tours going through the Middle East since the conflict broke out, affecting about 500 of their clients across New Zealand, Australia, and the UK so far.

“We won’t operate our tours, and we won’t send passengers through any country if there is a travel warning that says to avoid non-essential travel. We always cancel our tours and make other arrangements while those warnings are in place.

“We’re going to see a lot of disruption, not just for us, but for a lot of people looking to travel to Europe that have got their tickets booked with Middle Eastern carriers, which, since Covid, have been one of our main routes to get New Zealanders over to Europe.”

Flight Centre general manager Heidi Walker said some New Zealanders had been able to get on flights from Dubai to Sydney.

“We’ve been in daily correspondence with Emirates in New Zealand and many of the other airlines as well. They’ve been helping us get people onto the limited flights that are departing. Emirates has managed to get a few flights from Dubai into Australia, and those have been really beneficial to everyone trying to get out of there.”

She could not say how many clients were in the Middle East currently, but about 100 had planned to travel via Dubai in March.

“We’re reaching out to those customers who have booked with us to make sure that we can find the best solution for them. Everyone is a little bit different about what they want to do and where they need to get to.

“We are saying to everybody to make their own decisions, to not rush into any decisions. We’re trying to give them all the information that we have and refer them to where they can find information about the safety of the destination that they’re travelling to.”

She said there was no firm date on when Dubai to Auckland flights would resume.

“The message from Emirates, which I fully support, is that when it is safe to be able to travel, then they will look at that. But until the point where it’s safe, they won’t be resuming those flights.

“At the moment, the Dubai-Sydney flights are definitely filling our requirement to help New Zealanders out of Dubai.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Travellers are being warned to check what they are actually covered for by insurance if they cancel travel plans due to the conflict in the Middle East.

Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman Karen Stevens said people should make sure they understood what they could claim for before they cancelled their insurance policies.

The conflict had closed many areas of airspace and meant a number of flights had been cancelled.

Many travel policies do not cover anything to do with the outbreak of war, civil disobedience or riot. That includes flights, accommodation or rebooking costs.

“I think most people don’t think about how the insurance is going to respond before they cancel,” Stevens said.

“They’ve got to be very careful before they just go ahead and cancel things.”

She said people should talk to their airlines first, or their accommodation providers, to see if they could get a refund or credit, or change their arrangements.

“A lot of people are still travelling or want to continue to travel, it’s just that because of the travel alerts and so forth and because of what’s going on in the Middle East they can’t go that way.

“But a much better suggestion for them is to actually start with the airline than it is to just cancel and then think that they can rely on the insurance cover because in most cases they will not be able to.”

Insurance would also not cover situations where people cancelled out of concern.

She said her scheme had dealt with many situations in which people had changed their minds about travelling and not been able to claim.

Stevens said she expected to receive complaints.

“I think to try and avoid those complaints, the best thing people can do is understand what they are covered for before they make any claims or before they decide to do anything about the travel arrangements. They really need to know if the insurer is going to provide the cover or they’re going to say an outright no as soon as the claim is made.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Jo Murphy says she very much regrets moving into a retirement village as early as she did.

She said she sold her freehold home at least 15 years too soon.

“It was a neat little brick home on a nice quiet side road in Waikanae… the garden and the drive took hard work to keep tidy but I was fit and well, I had established some beloved plants. The labour – with hindsight – was beneficial and the property looked good too.

“Maybe I was simply lonelier than I thought … I had lots of activities so I didn’t put my finger on it being loneliness.

“I badly wanted to take that reverse mortgage but I also was thinking about my daughter who’s clued up on finances. She was a senior dealer for a while in the money market, and I could feel her disapprobation… so I stalled.”

She has since moved through three retirement villages in two parts of the country and said her capital had been eroded to the point where she could not buy another home if she left. The villages charged an initial fee for an occupation right agreement as well as ongoing fees.

“I had no idea until I wasn’t in my own home how much agency you lose in your day-to-day life. A lot of decisions are made around you. In this particular instance where I am now… I live with their constant vibration.”

She has been distressed by ongoing noise in her unit but was not able to do anything about it.

Planned work had not happened as promised, she said. Other people who were considering making a similar move need to think about what they were giving up, she said.

It is something that many people around the country are weighing up, particularly if they have built up good levels of equity in their homes but are struggling with the rising cost of living.

Property law expert Joanna Pigeon said people who were “asset rich and cash poor” often found it tough to stay in their homes when the cost of rates, insurance and other expenses increased.

But she said there were things to weigh up, whichever path someone took, and there could have been drawbacks if Murphy had opted for the reverse mortgage.

Heartland, for example, charges a variable interest rate – currently 7.75 percent – on reverse mortgage lending. This compounds because repayments are not made until the property is sold. Pigeon said this could mean equity reduced quickly.

“I would encourage people considering whether to have a reverse mortgage to have legal advice, and to also if suitable discuss with their family. Sometimes family members may prefer to assist if they can to assist with the preservation of equity in a property.

“The decision whether to go into a retirement unit or remain in a home with a reverse mortgage will always depend on age, stage and health situation. Care may be required at a later date, and if equity is eroded by a reverse mortgage it may reduce options if say a fall necessitates care needs etc. It is impossible to have a crystal ball for potential needs in the future. These potential issues need to be discussed and a decision made in the circumstances. Reverse mortgages are a product to enable a person to remain in their home, but the pros and cons need to be weighed up.”

Retirement Village Residents Association president Brian Peat said he chose a retirement village because he needed to find something quickly when he returned from Queensland.

He said it was not common for people to regret moving into a village but it was a “huge step into the unknown” for residents.

“”It is certainly a different lifestyle and some adjust but others don’t.”

Michelle Palmer, executive director of the Retirement Villages Association, said there were about 53,000 people in retirement villages around the country and 130 moved in every week.

“However, we recognise village living isn’t for everyone. That’s why we encourage anyone considering a move to visit different villages, talk to residents and have conversations with family and friends.

“It is also a legal requirement under the Retirement Villages Act to obtain independent legal advice before signing an agreement. “

She said Murphy’s experience was not typical and she was disappointed and surprised that none of the villages had met her expectations.

“The residents I speak with tell me they value the sense of community, companionship and security villages provide, along with the peace of mind that comes from a low-maintenance lifestyle. They tell me how much they love the village amenities and activities. For many, access to hospital-level care, should they need it, is also an important consideration.

“Some older New Zealanders do choose options such as a reverse mortgage to remain in their home. However, many residents appreciate that in a retirement village, exterior maintenance, lawns, rates and often building insurance are managed by the operator. In many cases, retirement villages also have fixed weekly fees so that provides greater financial certainty.

“As people age, the responsibilities associated with owning a house can become more physically demanding and a financial burden, so having them taken care of provides real reassurance.”

Heartland Bank general manager of retail and reverse mortgages, Will White, said there had been a 15 percent increase in reverse mortgage business in the past six months. There are now more than 26,000 people with a Heartland reverse mortgage.

He said reverse mortgages were popular when prices increased and people had more equity to draw against. They were still popular now, in a weaker housing market, when people struggled with the cost of living and rising rates.

He said people who were under the age of 60 would not be able to access a reverse mortgage. “The earlier you get the reverse mortgage, the more interest you will pay.”

But he said there were many customer protections in place that were not there 20 years ago.

“People rightly have a long memory and there’s this idea that debt’s going to be left to the children, you no longer own your own home… all those things are false but it’s always important for us to make sure we get those messages out there that it’s a different product than people remember.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

[sh] Call to lock in KiwiSaver withdrawal age as 65

A prominent investor and director is calling for politicians to confirm that New Zealanders can count on getting their KiwiSaver when they turn 65.

Fraser Whineray, former Mercury chief executive, has outlined a plan for how he would like to reform the almost-20-year-old KiwiSaver.

He said a priority was to make the KiwiSaver withdrawal age its own setting.

At the moment, people can access their KiwiSaver funds when they reach the age of eligibility for NZ Super, which is currently 65.

But it shifted from 60 to 65 in 1993 and there have been proposals to move it higher.

Whineray said KiwiSaver access should remain at 65, regardless.

“If that [NZ Super age] shifts, then KiwiSaver shifts. I’m going ‘well hang on a second, KiwiSaver is my money’. People are doing their financial planning, their work planning, all those sorts of things… knowing it’s coming at 65.

“So one rule is that KiwiSaver’s access age needs to be defined, and not defined by something else.”

He said all political parties would receive a copy of the summary policy on Monday.

“I would love to see them answer the question ‘are you going to confirm that people can get their KiwiSaver no later than 65?’ And if they mumble over that question, and say ‘I’m going to wait for a report’ or get a study done or whatever – rightly, New Zealanders should say ‘that is not a hard question. It’s my money, I’m getting it at 65. You need to tick yes or find another job’.”

He said it should also be made clear that the government could not direct KiwiSaver funds.

“KiwiSaver funds need to know that it’s up to them and their risk appetite and their fund managers to work out what they should be invested in, how much in New Zealand, h ow much overseas, how much in bonds, how much in equities, etcetera.

“We can’t have a situation where KiwiSaver funds are being forced to invest in things which are to offload government fiscal problems.”

Whineray also wants to direct more KiwiSaver support to children. The number of under-18s with accounts has dropped since the $1000 “kickstart” payment was removed.

He said children could have an account opened automatically by Inland Revenue at birth with $5000 invested in a growth fund, paid by the government. A family could then put in $2 a week to give children a balance of $20,000 or $25,000 by 18.

He said this could be done with the $500 million a year currently spent on unevenly distributed incentives for people aged 18 to 64.

The member tax credit had cost nearly $1 billion before the government halved its contribution to $260. At the moment, many people were missing out and the system was creating “haves and have-nots” he said.

He also wanted compulsory employer contributions to continue for people on parental leave paid by the employer, and for contribution rates to reach 12 percent.

He said that should be done by dropping employer contributions to 2 percent from 2027 and increasing them by 0.5 percent a year to 2047, while employee contributions remained voluntary.

“We have to do this very gently … we’ve left people behind. They’re already not got on the buss or they are off the bus, so we need to reverse the bus a bit.

“This has to be very slow. Otherwise, it’s just too much of a shock for the system, and the economy, and wages… So, 20 years is kind of the transition, but it also overlaps with the political system letting it stabilise for 20 years, until at that point, it’ll be embedded.”

He said people who had been out of the country for a year should also not be able to pull out their money at that point.

“If you go anywhere [other than Australia] you can pull it out after a year. You go on the OE, you’re sitting in Ibiza, hit 366 days, you’ve permanently migrated and pulled the lot.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Finance Minister Nicola Willis says the economic impact of the war in the Middle East still isn’t clear.

Energy prices have spiked because of supply concerns, while financial markets have been spooked by the conflict.

The shipping lane in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital channel for energy trade, effectively closed due to the ongoing conflict between the US, Israel and Iran in the Middle East.

Modelling by Westpac suggests a disruption to Iranian production only could see the price of oil rise another US$25 per barrel to around US$100 (NZ$168).

It’s warning that could push our inflation rate up by around one percent.

Further shipping disruptions through the Strait could see Brent crude spike further, and as a result, inflation could climb.

Willis told Checkpoint she was receiving briefings every day from the Treasury, which was closely co-ordinating with the Reserve Bank (RBNZ).

“What they’re telling me is that, of course, as a small trading nation, New Zealand will be impacted by these global events, but how we are affected will depend on what happens with the data,” Willis said.

Willis said she hasn’t received formal Treasury scenarios on the impacts of the Middle East conflict yet.

However, she said markets aren’t predicting oil to rise as high as they did after Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.

“Markets don’t know yet how long this conflict will be or how severe this conflict will be, in fact, none of us know that,” Willis said.

“The best-case scenario I think for all of us is that the conflict ends. This is not New Zealand’s, but this is a conflict that is affecting human beings in a profound way and also has the potential to affect the global economy, and, therefore, New Zealand’s economy in a profound way.”

Willis said the Treasury and Reserve Bank are geared up to monitor the effects of the war closely.

She said it was too soon to tell how the conflict will impact her 2026 Budget, but she expects to stick to the operating allowance she gave off $2.4 billion.

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