Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Commerce Commission says work is underway to introduce stronger sector-specific regulation to improve competition in some critical industries.

The commission’s first State of Competition report provides an evidence‑based assessment of how competition was working across New Zealand’s economy, indicating a need for increased oversight.

Commission chair Dr John Small said competitive pressure had weakened in many parts of the economy.

He said the competition report suggests market conditions favoured larger incumbent businesses, particularly in electricity, gas, water and waste services, as well as financial and insurance services.

“Weak competition in these markets can mean higher costs and lower-quality services cascade through to businesses and households, increasing the prices people pay for everyday goods and services,” he said.

“That’s why work already underway to promote stronger regulatory settings and more effective competition is so important.”

Size matters

Small said there was value in promoting competitive opportunities for a wider range of businesses, particularly for smaller and newer firms that appear to be facing greater barriers to growth.

“While smaller, newer businesses may be able to enter markets, it is harder for them to displace the established players.

“When competition weakens, innovation slows, costs rise, and consumers pay the price. A competitive environment enabling small businesses to grow is essential for productivity and long-term growth.”

He said the report was grounded in domestic data*, though the findings aligned with international trends, pointing to OECD reports indicating evidence of weakening competition across many advanced economies since 2000.

“Competition agencies around the world are increasingly balancing law enforcement with more active tools, including access, inter-operability and non-discrimination requirements,” Small said.

“This reflects a broader shift in how competition policy is applied in practice, including in response to the challenges of digital innovation and more complex markets.”

In light of these challenges, he said the report was an important step in building the evidence-base needed to promote fair, dynamic, and competitive markets.

“As a diagnostic tool, it highlights where system‑level settings may need attention, and where competition settings may need to evolve as markets change, alongside the commission’s ongoing regulatory and enforcement work.”

*The report drew on data from individual businesses held by Stats NZ over a period of 22 years (2001-23), though was limited to businesses that interact with the New Zealand tax system.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Trade Minister Todd McClay said he was expecting the United States government to announce it was launching a trade investigation into New Zealand and Australian lamb imports in the coming weeks.

New Zealand lamb exports to the US have grown in recent years, with more than $600m of sheep meat – including lamb sold to the US – in 2025.

US Trade officials are thought to be launching investigations into so-called unfair trade practices, as a way to reintroduce tariffs deemed illegal by the Supreme Court.

“We know they are doing investigations at the moment, so-called investigations, they are looking for other ways to put that tariff wall back up,” McClay said.

McClay said an investigation into lamb was likely and it was possible that if the president needed to shore up votes in some states, he could hit New Zealand and Australia with tariffs.

He said that his officials were talking to their US counterparts and reminding them that New Zealand was providing good product, was not flooding the market and was helping US farmers grow the market for lamb.

“But the nature of it is when the president decides, the president decides, and so if he decides, you know, that if he’s had a bad lamp chop or something, who knows what’s going to happen”

Most New Zealand exports to the US face the blanket global tariff rate of 10 percent.

This was imposed after an earlier 15 percent tariff on New Zealand exports was deemed illegal by the Supreme Court.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

An investigation of boarding houses in Auckland found significant non-compliance with Healthy Homes Standards, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) says.

In April, the ministry’s Tenancy Compliance and Investigations Team (TCIT) visited 15 properties in south and central Auckland during a three-day operation.

The investigation team’s national manager, Brett Wilson, said 14 of the 15 properties inspected in the operation did not comply with Healthy Homes Standards.

“Maintenance issues were identified at most of the properties visited, primarily involving structural upkeep of the property, such as doors, windows and guttering, as well as the condition of kitchens and bathroom facilities.”

He said the properties required moderate to extensive repairs to bring them up to the required standard.

“One landlord also disputed that their property was subject to the Residential Tenancies Act and requested TCIT officers leave the premises,” he said.

“Boarding house tenants are typically among the most vulnerable and often lack knowledge of their rights under the Residential Tenancies Act.”

Monitoring boarding house compliance was an ongoing focus for the investigations team, he said.

“Boarding houses have been required to meet the Healthy Homes Standards since 2021 and these targeted visits were an opportunity to assess compliance at a selection of properties, including some that were previously assessed as meeting the standards in 2023/24.”

Wilson said TCIT was working with the landlords to address the issues identified, and reserved the right to take further enforcement action if the issues were not addressed.

The checks were carried out alongside Fire and Emergency New Zealand and Auckland Council.

Auckland Council compliance manager, Adrian Wilson, said staff had been working alongside other agencies through its boarding house inspection programme to address compliance issues.

“This collaborative approach supports compliance across all relevant legislation and helps ensure boarding house tenants’ living conditions and rights are protected.”

Under the Residential Tenancies Act 1986, a boarding house has, or intends to have, at least six tenants at any one time, and a boarding house tenancy lasts, or is intended to last, for at least 28 days.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Xero founder Sir Rod Drury has been withdrawn from a list of keynote speakers due to speak at the Electrify Queenstown business event next week.

It comes after a number of women raised allegations of inappropriate behaviour by the former New Zealander of the Year.

Former Xero staffer Ally Naylor first raised the allegations of misconduct against Sir Rod last month.

The business tycoon rejected “any allegation of wrongdoing” and described his relationship with Naylor as “limited” and “consensual”.

Since then, further allegations of inappropriate behaviour have been raised by media outlets Stuff, and entrepreneur Jenene Crossan.

Sir Rod returned his 2026 New Zealander of the Year award last week, with the awards office confirming the award would not be re-awarded.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Christchurch City Council says it has been refunded $250,000 after being overcharged for its streetlighting by Contact Energy.

It comes after the Electricity Authority lodged a formal complaint with an independent rulings panel against the power company.

The authority alleges that between early March 2022 and the end of September 2025, Contact failed to maintain an up-to-date distributed unmetered load (DUML) database for the council.

It also failed to take all practicable steps to ensure submission information was complete and accurate.

Contact has accepted it breached the code, and potentially faces a penalty of up to $200,000.

The authority said Contact was responsible for the council’s streetlight database in the period.

It further noted Contact failed to address DUML accuracy issues identified across several audits, resulting in the overcharge.

“The investigator assessed the market impact as high, with an over-submission of 4.94 gigawatt hours of electricity between March 2022 to September 2025,” the authority said.

Christchurch City Council head of facilities and property Bruce Rendall said the discrepancy was identified by an independent auditor, after which Contact confirmed the overcharge.

“The matter is limited to streetlighting charges,” Rendall said. “Council is not a party to the Electricity Authority’s current complaint process.”

The council manages a streetlighting network of approximately 44,000 lights.

The largely LED network was operated through a central management system with smart controllers on individual lights.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The rising cost of fuel appears to keeping more drivers off the road, with light traffic down 1.7 percent last month, though still up on the year earlier by 2.4 percent.

The latest ANZ Truckometer shows the heavy traffic index – a real-time measure of economic activity – was holding up a bit better with a drop of 1.2 percent in April over March, but was still trending higher with a 2.6 percent year-on-year rise.

ANZ chief economist Sharon Zollner said the light traffic index tends to be a predictor of economic activity six months ahead, though the fuel crisis had created some uncertainty about the outlook.

“Higher fuel prices is bad for activity more generally. It’s not just about driving less, it’s about people shopping less as well,” she said.

“We can certainly see that in our card spending pack, and we’ve also seen a sharp drop in business and consumer confidence. So it’s obviously going to reduce driving, but it’s reducing broader economic activity as well,” she said.

Zollner said the heavy traffic was still holding up quite well, with support from the agriculture, construction and manufacturing sectors.

However, she said the activity could be a sign of some stockpiling of critical goods, as businesses may be concerned about the potential for supply chain disruptions, as seen during the Covid pandemic.

“There’s a lot of talk about how this isn’t just fuel, it’s plastics and other chemical inputs as well.

“So maybe there’s a bit of front loading going on, but the anecdote would certainly suggest that the economy is taking quite a hit in terms of activity. So it wouldn’t be surprising to see that start to turn-up in the heavy data. But for now, it’s holding up.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Businesses on both sides of the Tasman are reporting widespread economic damage caused by the Middle East conflict.

A survey of nearly 700 members by Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ) indicates 80 percent of businesses were seeing increased costs with 60 percent reporting heightened risk and uncertainty in decision-making.

“This is not a distant crisis. It is landing on Australian and New Zealand businesses right now, and our members are seeing it firsthand across every sector of the economy. CA ANZ represents 140,000 finance professionals. What they are telling us matters, and government needs to listen,” CA ANZ chief executive Officer Ainslie van Onselen said.

“The findings reflected a defining economic challenge for both countries.”

The survey of chartered accountants included finance leaders across industries with broad visibility, including manufacturing, retail, agriculture, logistics and healthcare in New Zealand and Australia.

About one-in-five businesses indicate they would raise prices, with New Zealand at 24 percent and Australia at 17 percent.

About 6-in-10 reported their organisation was directly exposed to the conflict’s economic effects, with greater impact in New Zealand (68 percent) than Australia (55 percent). A further 21 per cent said it was too early to assess the full impact.

Of those exposed, higher energy costs were the most common concern (77 percent), followed by supply chain disruption (46 percent), higher production costs (40 percent), shipping and freight delays (40 percent) and exchange rate volatility (36 percent).

New Zealand businesses were more exposed to shipping disruption, with 48 percent reporting freight delays compared to 32 percent in Australia.

CA ANZ chief economist professor Richard Holden said the pain was unlikely to be short-lived.

“Higher energy prices don’t just hit at the bowser, they push up the cost of food, freight, manufacturing, meaning everything increases in price. Businesses and households are already under pressure. This makes it worse.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

Cuts to trans-Tasman flights due to higher fuel costs have tourism operators worried on the impact it will have on last-minute bookings.

Last month, Qantas said it would cut domestic flights as it flagged as much as NZ$966m in extra fuel costs.

It said it had reduced domestic capacity by about 5 percentage points in the fourth quarter.

In March, Jetstar said it would axe a number of flights – including some international between Auckland and Sydney and Auckland and Brisbane.

Regional Tourism New Zealand chair Andrew Wilson told Nine to Noon the impact hadn’t been felt yet, but feared it would implications on customers after late bookings.

“The frequency of service and the ability for people to be able to book probably last minute or to try and find something that meets a really specific kind of time frame,” he said.

“If people have got a narrow window to travel, that’s really the biggest worry around it.”

Wilson said there was still plenty of uncertainty in the industry over how long the impacts would be felt.

He said airlines would be cognizant in terms of wanting to make sure that it maintained services across the Tasman and into the long-haul markets.

“We’re pretty optimistic that the work we’ve done over the last couple of years to really kind of boost international arrivals, and in particular Australian arrivals, puts us in a good position,” Wilson said.

“I think demand for travelling to New Zealand is still really strong, but we certainly can’t afford to take our foot off the gas in terms of making sure that international visitors know just how incredible our country is.”

Wilson said consumer confidence had taken a dip in Australia, but he was encouraged by the number of arrivals to New Zealand.

He said while tourism operators in Queenstown and Christchurch would be nervous heading into the winter season, he was optimistic there was capacity for flights.

“I’m fairly confident there’ll still be sufficient capacity on those routes to get plenty of Australian skiers across the Tasman when we kind of head into the winter season,” Wilson said.

“We’ll all be looking out for that first good dump of snow down south, and I’m sure that’ll drive pretty significant kind of bookings at that point.”

Wilson still expected a slightly quieter winter season than usual.

The airlines wouldn’t want to be an airline operator at the moment in terms of balancing pricing and fuel costs with demand, he said.

“I think they’re doing a really good job in terms of trying to match enough flight services to meet the demand that’s there,” Wilson said.

“I think when we look forward through winter, we’re all feeling pretty comfortable in terms of there will be enough capacity on those routes.”

He said it was really the uncertainty of beyond the next summer season, where fuel prices would sit, and what that would mean for the tourism industry.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The chief executive of accounting software company Xero has been forced to apologise after customers in multiple countries experienced multi-day disruptions.

RNZ enquiries reveal that Xero users in New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom have experienced disruptions, but online forums suggest issues may still be ongoing in the UK.

Chief executive Sukhinder Singh Cassidy issued an apology in an email to Xero customers late on Monday.

Have you been affected? Get at touch at business@rnz.co.nz

“I want to reach out to you personally, and on behalf of the entire Xero leadership team, to sincerely apologise for the disruptions you have experienced on our platform over the last five days. I know it has been incredibly frustrating for many of you and not the experience we strive for at Xero,” his statement said.

“Some of this has been on our side and some due to our third party platforms that we rely on. Either way, for all of you that have deadlines to meet and the pressure of hitting those deadlines, where you rely on Xero to help you get your work done, this is unacceptable. The trust you place in Xero to run your business is something we do not take for granted.

“We are working hard right now on determining the root cause of these issues and most importantly what we must do to avoid this in the future.”

Earlier on Monday, RNZ had received the following response from Xero enquiring about the disruptions.

“Some customers have experienced errors accessing Xero. We can confirm all systems are now restored and our engineering teams continue to monitor closely.

“Our Status Page at status.xero.com is updated regularly with the latest information. We apologise to our customers for the inconvenience.”

Xero will release its full-year results this Thursday.

The company has been approached for further comment.

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

KiwiSaver members in aggressive funds have done better under Democrat US presidents and National governments in New Zealand.

Morningstar has compiled data showing typical returns in various time periods.

KiwiSaver launched in July 2007, when Helen Clark’s Labour government was in power, and George W Bush was the US president.

In the period of Bush’s tenure, conservative funds had an average return of 8.37 percent a year. Balanced funds lost 2.36 percent a year, growth funds lost 8.88 percent a year and aggressive funds 14.33 percent.

During the period of Clark’s time in office, conservative funds made 7.54 percent a year, balanced funds lost 4.18 percent a year, growth funds lost 10.87 percent a year and aggressive funds 16.63 percent a year.

It should be noted that this was the period when the global financial crisis was affecting markets, but most people had small balances so might not have noticed the falls so much.

From US President Barack Obama’s tenure on, all funds returned positive per annum returns on average.

Conservative funds returned 5.06 percent a year by Morningstar’s calculation, balanced funds 7.34 percent a year, growth funds 8.35 percent and aggressive funds 8.85 percent.

Good times (for the markets) continued in Donald Trump’s first tenure.

Conservative funds returned 4.79 percent on average a year, balanced funds 8.4 percent, growth funds 10.14 percent and aggressive funds 11.75.

Under US President Joe Biden, conservative funds’ return dropped to 1.06 percent a year, balanced funds 5.64 percent, growth funds 7.93 percent and aggressive 11. 1 percent.

Things picked up again when Trump returned to office. So far, conservative funds have returned 3.97 percent a year, balanced funds 8.13 percent a year, growth funds 10.13 percent and aggressive 12.91.

“There is an argument that Trump has been quite good for markets,” Koura founder Rupert Carlyon said.

“Tax breaks, deregulation all that kind of stuff… the end of his [first] term was impacted by Covid.

“Generally the markets would prefer a Republic administration it’s just really hard to get the data on that because there’s always a crisis, particularly if you’re there for four or eight years.”

University of Auckland senior finance lecturer Gertjan Verdicket said the average aggressive return under Republican US administrations was 3.44 percent a year.

Under democrats it was 9.97 percent. But for conservative funds, the average under Republicans was 5.67 percent and under democrats 3.06 percent.

In New Zealand, Labour governments had a much lower return for aggressive funds than National governments.

Verdicket said: “In the US, under Democrat presidents, the return is significantly higher for the [aggressive funds]. The return on the conservative portfolio is higher under the Republicans. The latter could point to a ‘light-to-safety’ effect, where people shift from equities to bonds. It’s more a risk-off principle. If you are looking for an explanation: increased economic uncertainty and disaster risk – especially over the longer-term.

“If we compare this to NZ, the flip happens when you look at NZ prime ministers. Labour has a significant underperformance in the most aggressive portfolio, whereas the difference between the two in the conservative portfolio is way smaller. This, to me, could also point to a flight to safety, but then toward the different political ideology – relative to the US. Under Labour, they switch from equities to bonds, that’s why you see the increase in returns of the conservative portfolio.”

He said other literature showed evidence of higher market performance under democratic than republican presidencies.

Under John Key’s government, between 2008 and 2017, conservative funds returned 5.39 percent a year, balanced funds 8.14 percent, growth funds 9.32 percent and aggressive funds 10.18 percent.

Under Jacinda Ardern’s Labour government between 2017 and 2023, conservative funds returned 1.53 percent a year, balanced 4.41 percent a year, growth funds 5.84 percent and aggressive 7.44 percent.

So far, under the National government, conservative funds have returned 5.83 percent, balanced funds 11.75 percent, growth funds 14.58 percent and aggressive 18.38 percent.

Carlyon said, with so much of KiwiSaver money invested offshore, New Zealand politicians were largely irrelevant.

The settings they applied to KiwiSaver were more important, he said,

“I’m not a supporter of either party, by the way… but Labour were the ones that brought in KiwiSaver and also set up the superannuation fund.

“John Key under National, they are the ones that then cancelled contributions into the super fund. They’re the ones that also dropped [contributions] from 4 plus 4 to 3 plus 3, got rid of the kickstart, got rid of half the government contribution.

“The last Labour government left it alone and didn’t touch anything. But we’ve seen continual kind of weakening by the National Party. And probably the most damaging thing that the John Key government did for retirement savings, was the total remuneration rules.

“I think they brought that in in 2009, and that was like, that was probably, was the biggest thing that undermined KiwiSaver of all..”

Sign up for Money with Susan Edmunds , a weekly newsletter covering all the things that affect how we make and spend money

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