Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

Not even fast food giant McDonald’s New Zealand is immune to the rising cost of food, especially for key burger ingredient beef.

Around 90 percent of the fast food chain’s menu in its 170 restaurants across Aotearoa was sourced from local farms, and it spent $235 million on local produce in 2024, up from $218m in 2023 and $214m in 2022.

It exported more than $287m of local ingredients like beef, cheese and buns to its restaurants in export markets.

Aotearoa was now one of the chain’s top six countries supplying beef for its restaurants globally.

Last year, the American-owned subsidiary used 6000 tonnes of locally-sourced beef for sale domestically, and it exported nearly 30,000 tonnes of it, making up around 10 percent of New Zealand’s total beef exports.

McDonald’s New Zealand’s head of impact and communications Simon Kenny said globally the chain served 70 million people a day, using 2 percent of the world’s beef.

He said price swings locally could have a material impact on the operating costs of its restaurants.

“Like everyone’s seen in the supermarkets, beef’s been one of the biggest ones,” he said. “The beef we’re buying right now is over 20 percent more expensive than it was at the start of the year.”

He said that meant the patty that went into the cheeseburger was 10 cents more expensive than at the start of the year.

“On a product at that kind of cost, it’s a significant input cost that goes up. So yeah, we’re not immune to it.”

StatsNZ data showed food prices increased 4.7 percent in the year to October, and beef was a hotspot of the economy farmers were capitalising on.

Further data revealed meat exports hit $10 billion in the year to October last year, driven by sheepmeat and beef up $625m.

Processor ANZCO in Taranaki’s Waitara made around 500,000 patties a day from local meat supplies, he said.

But Kenny said beef was a commodity it had to buy on the open market.

“Ironically, because of the global demand for beef from other McDonald’s markets, and what we’ve seen this year with the increase in costs… because of those global dynamics, that does impact us domestically.”

He said price increases were considered very carefully, and assured that burger sizes had not changed, as they had global size specifications to stick to.

“McDonald’s is known for value,” Kenny said. “There’s a whole load of costs that we have to factor in to the business with our franchisees every year and then go, okay how do you manage margins but also keep giving customers good value?

“There’s a popular myth that the Big Mac got smaller, and we like to joke that probably your hands got bigger than they were when you were six years old in the ’80s or ’90s.”

He said labour costs for its 10,000 New Zealand staff had also increased.

The subsidiary’s profits saw a 43 percent fall on 2023, to $59,779,000 in 2024, according to company register documents.

The corporate reported it was “facing challenges” in meeting its ambitious scope 3 emissions reduction targets in the latest purpose and impact report.

It wanted to reduce its scope 3 forest, land and agricultural emissions in its value chain by 16 percent off its 2018 baseline of 62,836,186 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide to 52,782,392 megatonnes of carbon dioxide before the end of 2030. It hit 60,245,138 megatonnes in 2024.

It also wanted to maintain no deforestation across its primary deforestation-linked commodities.

But Kenny said New Zealand beef farmers were ahead of many global competitors in this space especially with traceability, even compared to Australia.

“Beef represents when you look at scope 3 emissions, by far the biggest single contributor to our global emissions profile is beef farming.”

He said it was about encouraging sustainable agriculture by ensuring there was best practice on farms, and emissions data and measurement were the first point of call in doing so.

“Actually, New Zealand’s in a really good place when it comes to how we produce beef – we just we have to measure it better and report back better.

“That then helps us report back to our global team and feed into those kind of metrics, versus any radical differences and changes to farming systems.”

Kenny said farmers could “tweak” their systems to improve their impact, like considering regenerative farming principles and other emissions reductions

“I think in the next five years it’s going to be a lot of those kind of tweaks to farming systems and what we already do really well in New Zealand.”

Nearly 50 years ago, in 1976, McDonald’s opened its first restaurant in New Zealand in Porirua.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Fire and Emergency (FENZ) has applied for independent facilitation to put an end to its long running dispute with the firefighters union.

It has been 16 months since the NZ Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU) began pay talks with FENZ, in July 2024.

FENZ said the union’s most recent proposal was more than three times its offer and far beyond what it was willing to agree to.

“We’re asking the Employment Relations Authority to provide facilitation to help bring the parties together because of the protracted nature of bargaining and the impact on public safety from prolonged and repeated strike action,” deputy national commander Megan Stiffler said in a statement.

“There’s a gulf between us at the moment. Moving to facilitated bargaining is the next logical step to resolve the dispute and keep our communities safe.”

Stiffler said FENZ had approached bargaining in “good faith with the goal of reaching a fair, sustainable and reasonable settlement”, with its latest offer amounting to a 6.2 percent average increase over three years.

She said the average pay for a senior firefighter had cumulatively increased by 37 percent in the past 10 years.

“We want a fair outcome that recognises the incredible dedication and service of our people and delivers a modern and sustainable fire service,” Stiffler said.

“At the same time, approximately 95 percent of Fire and Emergency’s operations are funded by a levy on New Zealanders’ building, contents and vehicle insurance. With increasing insurance costs, we have to be mindful of cost-of-living pressures.”

A spokesperson for the NZPFU said the application for facilitation had been made in October but was initially adjourned so that another negotiation meeting could take place.

They said the Employment Relations Authority will make a decision later on Tuesday on whether to order facilitation after the most recent meeting.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Explainer – You can’t turn around with seeing a Black Friday advert this week. But where did it first come from?

The shopping sales event – officially taking place this Friday – is an American import that’s picked up speed among retailers since first migrating over here more than a decade ago. But why has it gained ground here?

Events labelled “Black Friday” sales have been going on all month long, as what was originally a single day has ramped up into a long-haul sales opportunity.

“Black Friday has become a really critical sales point in the retail calendar for retailers,” Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said. “You know, you come out of winter and you’ve got new stock in store.”

Here’s some facts about Black Friday you can amuse your friends with as you wait in queues this week.

Where did Black Friday come from anyway?

The phrase “Black Friday” has been around for a long time, used at least as far back as the 1860s to refer to a stock market crash.

But it picked up a shopping link in the early 1960s when, according to many sources, shopping crowds and tourists for a holiday weekend sports match overwhelmed police in the US city of Philadelphia. The phrase took off, although there was an attempt to rebrand it as “Big Friday” by merchants who didn’t like the association with civil disorder.

By the 1980s, the term was pretty commonplace in America to describe big sales, and it’s expanded to include spinoffs like online-focused “Cyber Monday” as well.

In America, it comes the day after the major holiday Thanksgiving, which always falls on the fourth Thursday in November.

Thanksgiving is timed around the autumn harvest in the northern hemisphere and meant to be a day to celebrate blessings and family life, all orchestrated around big feasts of turkey, pumpkin pie and the like. While Thanksgiving is not a New Zealand holiday, some Americans living here do still mark it in their own ways.

Black Friday sales became a bit infamous for big queues and occasional viral brawls at stores in America, although those have largely faded away in recent years with the advent of online shopping.

So how did it end up in New Zealand?

We don’t do Thanksgiving, so why do we do Black Friday sales? Blame it on the almighty dollar.

“We are a low wage economy who love a bargain,” said Michael Lee, a professor of marketing at the University of Auckland.

It’s only in the last 10 to 15 years that Black Friday has had a regular spot in the New Zealand calendar.

Google Trends search data shows Black Friday searches first started to spike here around 2010, then began taking off like a rocket around 2017.

“Once retailers saw a bump in sales following Black Friday, they were quick to catch on and leverage it further,” Lee said. “Then things tend to self-perpetuate, like they often do in capitalism.”

“It’s the only four-day holiday in the American calendar, which is why it’s such a big piece in their retail calendar,” Young said.

“A lot of international trends do then flow down to New Zealand, much more so now especially with modern technology and communication. Everybody’s wanting to be able to get a part of that.”

Last year, payment provider data showed more than $175 million was spent at core retail merchants during Black Friday weekend.

While online shopping is big, it’s actually not a lot of Kiwis’ preferred way to shop, according to Retail NZ.

“In New Zealand, 85 percent of sales are made in store,” Young said. “So you know, everyone’s not going online to buy. They might go online and do the research and then after that they go into store to purchase.”

Is it really that big a deal for businesses?

Black Friday – and all the weeks of sales leading up to it – is now neck and neck with Boxing Day as the biggest sale period for retailers, although Boxing Day has the advantage as a single day.

“What we know from statistics from last year that for many stores, Black Friday either challenged or topped Boxing Day sales, which obviously in New Zealand’s environment is a really critical market,” Young said.

“It seems to help them at a relatively quiet time of year,” Lee said.

“It also makes sense that it would outstrip Boxing Day, since the majority of Kiwis still tend to do their Christmas shopping before Christmas, therefore might not have the funds to dive into a Boxing Day sale so soon after their Christmas expenditure.”

Retailers would obviously prefer not to see Kiwis swarming Temu and AliExpress for all their Black Friday details.

Young said buying from New Zealand stores helps the overall picture for the economy.

“If New Zealand consumers buy in New Zealand it’s going to help economic growth in New Zealand because the money will stay here. It creates jobs.”

Some companies have also pushed back against the overt commercialism of Black Friday and what’s being called excessive consumerism.

“Black Friday most definitely feeds into excessive consumption,” Lee said. “If Kiwis really want to support retailers I guess they would pay full price so that businesses could earn more profit, but who is really going to put a business’s bottom line before their own?”

What about the high cost of living? Will that hurt sales this year?

Given the talk all year long about the cost of living and economic worries, Young said retailers are “still a little nervous, to be honest”.

“When you look at the economic climate that we’ve been working in and how difficult trading has been, retailers are looking for reasons to get people in store to get that foot traffic to get people to buy.

“We all know that we’ve been feeling the pinch of prices at the grocery for a number of reasons.”

As for consumers, their confidence is still low, Young said.

“We haven’t gotten into that positive territory of consumer confidence and despite having ongoing cuts to the Official Cash Rate, consumers are still telling us that they are worried about job security.”

Unemployment remains high. A big marker of that is more than 60 percent of Retail NZ members are not hiring additional staff this year for Christmas.

“They’re just rolling up their sleeves and doing more,” Young said. “It’s really unusual.”

“We’re hoping that we will see that flux of people coming into stores.”

Why did it end up becoming “Black Friday month” for many businesses?

Unless you stay entirely away from the internet and media, you’ll have seen Black Friday ads as early as the last week of October. What was once considered a single day of big bargains now sprawls on for weeks.

Businesses are “now stuck in a promotions battle with every other retailer”, Lee said.

“You can absolutely get sales fatigue,” Young said. She said retailers should be careful not to overdo the hype and to deliver what they promise.

“Making sure that whatever it is you’re offering is a unique office compared to other times of the year. Black Friday is seen as a big marker and people are expecting to see significant discounts.”

“It’s critical to have trust and confidence in a retailer and in order to do that a retailer is going to need to make sure that they can back up the statements in their advertising. We know that the Consumer Guarantees Act and Fair Trading Act are there to support consumers so they they can make sure that the deals being offered by businesses are reputable.”

It also pays for smart shoppers to do a little legwork.

Consumer NZ has warned people to be careful not to be too swayed by “hype”.

Shoppers should “start looking online early about what are the products they’re after and what is the price now, and they’ll see what the price is when it goes on sale”, Young said. “Doing that online research is really critical.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The union representing flight attendants warns there could be ongoing strike action after negotiations stalled.

Air New Zealand cabin crew will walk off the job on 8 December after failing to reach an agreement over pay and conditions.

The union has been negotiating for six months, its demands totalling in the millions.

If the strike goes ahead, the airline said it would support impacted customers, which includes rebooking and may include providing meals, refreshments and accommodation if required.

Air New Zealand chief executive Nikhil Ravishankar declined an interview with Morning Report, but told the NZ Herald the strike could affect somewhere between 10-15,000 customers.

“This next round of conversations are going to be critical. And as we get the finer details locked down, and if we do end up going down that path, the first people we’ll notify are the customers,” he told the news outlet on Monday.

An Air NZ crew member’s base pay sits between $58,000 and $85,000, but there were lots of non-base allowances that make up their pay as well, Ravishankar said.

The president of the Flight Attendants Association of NZ, Craig Featherby, told Morning Report strike action was a last resort after negotiations stalled over the past month.

Featherby said the airline is asking staff to give up conditions and they pay offer is just shy of living wage.

“Air NZ continue to invest in modernising it’s aircraft… it’s built new lounges, rolled out new designer uniforms and returning major shareholders… What we are asking them to do is invest in their people too. This is not hundreds of millions of dollars that we are asking for, this is more the millions of dollars of additional funding.”

He said ongoing strike action may occur but reassured customers there will be no strike action on the seven days leading up to Christmas.

The three unions representing Air NZ crew will meet with the senior executive team on Wednesday.

In a statement, Ravishankar said Air NZ remains committed to working with the unions to reach a fair and sustainable outcome.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

The jobs market may be stabilising with the growth in advertised jobs at the highest in nearly three years, although the number of job-seekers is rising as well.

The latest SEEK NZ employment report indicated the volume of ads rose 1 percent in October, which was the fourth consecutive monthly increase, and 7 percent higher on the year earlier.

SEEK country manager Rob Clark said it was the highest annual growth in job ads since November 2022, but the number of applicants per job also rose by 2 percent month-on-month, close to record highs.

“While we’re mindful that many Kiwis are still facing real challenges in finding work, this data does indicate that hiring activity has stabilised after many months of decline.”

Hawke’s Bay and Otago had the biggest increase in job advertisements, rising by 3 percent in October, while Gisborne was the worst performer, falling by 1 percent last month.

Auckland job vacancies rose by 1 percent in October, the first monthly increase in more than a year, indicating a broader, albeit modest recovery, Clark said.

“One encouraging sign is that this growth isn’t concentrated in just one or two areas – we’re seeing modest gains across most industries and in most regions around the country.”

“For candidates, this represents some encouraging movement in an otherwise extremely tough market. Technology roles remain in demand, with science and technology and ICT positions both up 15 percent annually.”

Monthly increases were recorded across most industries, the largest being sport and recreation rising by 4 percent, followed by education and training, legal, construction, and hospitality and tourism, all rising 3 percent.

Despite the gradual improvement in the number of job ads, the excess of applicants per job is driving job seekers to apply for jobs in Australia.

“New Zealand is the strongest source of non-Australian applicants for roles in Australia,” Clark said.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Sites such as GrabOne and NZSale are probably falling victim to New Zealanders’ desire for even cheaper online bargains, and the “Temu effect”.

NZSale closed for business in New Zealand on Sunday. GrabOne went into liquidation last month, citing financial constraints.

Chris Wilkinson, a retail consultant at First Retail Group, said there were a few reasons why they had not lasted.

“Back when [NZSale] started, we didn’t really have any of the Temus of this world, we didn’t have AliExpress at such scale, we certainly didn’t have Shein. It’s interesting that a lot of products that they’ve had for sale are from businesses that have disappeared on the world market, like Jack Wills, one of the clothing brands from the UK.

“Whether they’ve got this redundant stock or have been able to tap into redundant stock, the challenges around that in a global market are very difficult. We’ve now got the likes of The Outlet filling a gap that possibly none of us realised was there, even.”

He said everything would have a lifespan and NZSale might have reached the end of its. “People start to disengage. In the past where they’ve been able to get unique products at headline prices that was the thing that differentiated them. These days it’s more difficult to do that because there are just so many other competing channels for consumers.”

Movements in the New Zealand dollar could also affect competitiveness, he said.

Temu and AliExpress had become entrenched as new retail channels, he said. “They’re very, very strong in the market.”

Even online retail giants ASOS and Boohoo had been affected by the changes, he said. “ASOS and Boohoo were succeeding because they had free freight into New Zealand, they were able to sell very competitively… then over a period of time they moved more and more into their own brand products away from the brands people were craving. One of the biggest challenges they’ve had is the fact that their product may be no different from any other type of fast fashion that you could get on the high street or in the malls of New Zealand, and often at a more competitive price, too.”

Gareth Kiernan, chief forecaster at Infometrics, said Stats NZ data showing the growth in “low-value imports” coming into the country indicated the increasing dominance of platforms such as Temu.

He said there was a wave of growth between 2003 and 2006 which lifted the proportion of total householding spending on this type of import from 0.1 percent to 0.9 percent.

“This growth was probably underpinned by the early shift in retailing towards online, giving people some access to products overseas that they might not be able to buy in NZ – eBay also probably played a role in this access.”

There was then a dip until 2011 when the proportion grew again through to 2020, up to 1.2 percent of spending.

“There will be general growth in online retailing during this period, but I’d also expect AliExpress to be a key contributor, as well as popular sites like Book Depository and ASOS to have contributed to this trend.”

He said it had stayed at about that level since but the volume being bought had increased a lot over the last 10 or 15 years.

“In other words, we’re not really spending a massively larger amount of money on buying stuff from overseas, but we’re getting a lot more for that money. The volume proportion grew from 0.5 percent in 2011 to 2 percent by 2022 before taking a bit of a breather, and then since 2023 it’s lifted from 1.8 percent to 2.8 percent. The initial surge fits with cheaper products being available from the kinds of stores I mentioned, and the latter increase is likely to be the Temu effect.”

Wilkinson said younger shoppers in particular were still keen on brands, but they were often going to secondhand shops to find them.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

An expert in employment law says new legislation will override a Supreme Court ruling, but that bill is full of holes – and will itself end up being tested in the courts.

The union for four Uber drivers who went through the Employment Court, Appeal Court and Supreme Court – the highest in the land – to win their case for being employees rather than contractors, may have to start all over again.

The Employment Relations Amendment Bill is at select committee stage and is due back before Parliament on Christmas Eve. It aims to define the nature of contracting to give everyone certainty.

Employment law expert Simon Schofield, a professional teaching fellow at the University of Auckland, says it has provision in it to exclude ‘specified contractors’, measured by a five-point gateway test.

“If a person is found to be a specified contractor they will not be an employee, and the Employment Relations Act won’t apply.”

Those tests are that there needs to be a written agreement that specifies the worker is an independent contractor; the worker is not restricted from working for others; the worker is not required to be available to work certain times or days or for a minimum period, or is able to sub-contract the work; and the business does not terminate the arrangement for not accepting an additional task.

The hiring business must give workers the chance to seek advice on the written agreement before signing it.

Asked if the bill as written would override the Uber court decision, Schofield says “yes – although that’s not problematic from a legal perspective”.

But he expects there will be some tinkering with the bill before then, for clarification purposes.

“I think they need to change parts of the bill. Uber has said there should be amendments; Business New Zealand has suggested certain changes. The unions of course have said, ‘throw the whole thing out’; I’m not sure that’s the answer either.

“I would hope that there are changes. There’s a real tension between the written contract, and how the relationship works in practice.”

‘Creates more uncertainty’

He says the way the bill is drafted now, a lot of people who were seeking certainty won’t be getting it.

“I don’t think this bill is a silver or gold bullet to fix the problem. A lot of issues will continue to arise, and we need a strong framework to assess that.”

Schofield believes the bill, when it becomes an act, will be refined by court decisions, but that’s not the best way to make legislation.

“The way in which the bill is currently drafted creates more uncertainty rather than less uncertainty, despite what the minister is saying.”

Meanwhile he says the next step will be the unions seeking to collectively negotiate with Uber in the wake of the Supreme Court decision.

“I imagine Uber will be stonewalling them, saying ‘no we’ve got this Employment Relations Amendment Bill going through Parliament, we’re not going to negotiate with you’ – or at least drag out those negotiations.

“I would also think the unions will be asking for arrears in respect of those Uber drivers going back six years, and of course that will be a massive calculation and will no doubt attract a number of previous Uber drivers to that litigation.”

Schofield says Uber is looking at payouts in the millions.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Retirees need to be allowed to have more money in their KiwiSaver accounts and still receive the accommodation supplement, the Retirement Commissioner says.

The accommodation supplement is available to people who need help with their housing costs, including pensioners.

But applicants need to have assets of no more than $8100 per person to qualify.

Retirement Commissioner Jane Wrightson said that was too low and people with even relatively small KiwiSaver balances could find they could not access support.

The average KiwiSaver balance is about $30,000.

“We’ve been concerned for some time that the accommodation supplement’s cash asset test is set far too low and, because KiwiSaver becomes fully accessible at 65, even modest balances can affect eligibility. The limit has sat at $8100 per person since the supplement was introduced in 1993, and has never been adjusted for inflation,” she said.

“In our 2021/22 Review of Retirement Income Policies, we recommended that the government increase the cash asset threshold to at least $42,700 per person so the supplement can better reach low income retirees facing high housing costs.

“More broadly, this issue underlines the need for a long term policy framework and a cross party accord. Retirement settings interact, so NZ Super, KiwiSaver, and targeted supports like the accommodation supplement, so changes in one area can create unintended consequences elsewhere. Our 2025 review calls for planning, stewardship and political consensus to avoid short term fixes and provide New Zealanders with certainty and trust in the system.”

Shirley McCombe, general manager at Bay Financial Mentors, said the supplement scheme needed a comprehensive review.

“Firstly, the current supplement does not reflect actual rental costs, forcing clients to allocate a significant portion of their basic benefit or superannuation to cover accommodation expenses.

“Secondly, while we encourage people to save for retirement, the system effectively penalises them for doing so. Individuals must deplete their savings to $8000 before qualifying for assistance. This approach feels counterproductive and directly conflicts with the message we give Kiwis about planning and saving for their future.”

Another financial mentor, Fiona Govender agreed.

“This is a very real problem as soon as someone retires with more than $8100 in KiwiSaver they lose entitlement to accommodation supplement for their rent until they run their KiwiSaver balance down to under this … I have raised this multiple times with Retirement Commissioner, Fincap… may as well buy a new car and get the increased accommodation supplement.”

Julia Bergman, general manager of housing, employment and labour market at the Ministry of Social Development said KiwiSaver would not be considered a cash asset until someone was 65 and it was no longer “locked in”.

“We record whether applicants are declined because they’re over the cash asset limit, but we don’t regularly collect or publish data about whether this was caused specifically by a KiwiSaver balance.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Resene Paint’s latest pay offer is “chump change”, says a worker at its Lower Hutt plant, but the company says it is being consistent with the manufacturing sector.

A noisy protest of about 80 workers and supporters braved the rain to picket the company’s head office in Naenae on Monday.

Union affiliated staff were striking to lift pay rates to meet the living wage.

Union delegate Mags Jackson said she was disappointed to have to strike but the company’s latest pay offer – which raised the average employees hourly rate by 84 cents – was “chump change”.

She said negotiations had been going on with the company for almost a year.

“It’s bullshit. It’s like chump change. We’re not asking for a lot. We’ve cut a few [things] in our allowances to try and make it reasonable and yet [Resene] come out with a flat eight cents on the previous offer.

“I want to spit it back at them to be honest. It’s a waste of time going in and sitting around the table with them when they’re not going to value what we’ve put forward. They don’t care about us,” Jackson said.

If the rent goes up – where do we live?

Worker Lui Betham said it would mean a lot if the company would agree to meet the standard.

“It will give us less stress. Less worrying about the power bill, the rent, and – if the rent goes up – where do we live? Life is hard in New Zealand but I don’t want to go and live in Australia,” Betham said.

Betham said other employees had worked for up to 27 years for the company, but were yet to reach a living wage.

He said the company’s latest pay offer – which raised previous offer by an average of 8 cents per hour – was “depressing”.

“Our people we work really hard and it really hurts. It’s like a kick in the guts. You’d like to be treated with a bit of respect. We’re making this company a bit of money so we’d just like to share that,” Betham said.

Worker’s ‘disgusted’ by company’s promotional investment

Lisa Behrent had worked for Resene for more than 20 years.

She said she was “disgusted” the company could find the money to sponsor local sports teams and events while the workers were left out in the cold.

“It’s just crap. I mean [the company] supports the Hurricanes, breast cancer, that home and garden thing [NZ House and Garden Tours]. I mean, you should be supporting your workers,” Behrent said.

Offer consistent with manufacturing sector

A spokesperson for the company said they would not offer any new comment – other than reiterating previous comments – in relation to Monday’s protest.

“Our offer is consistent with the manufacturing sector annual wage increase for the current 12 month period. We will continue to negotiate in good faith at the bargaining table with the E tū Union, and we will not be conducting the bargaining process in the media,” the spokesperson said.

Reverend Alison Robinson of nearby St David’s Anglican Church said church members were turning up in solidarity at the workers’ protests and had been fund-raising among the wider Anglican community to help cover lost wages.

“The rain doesn’t keep us away and we’re managing to get out here at least once a week so I think it’s a really strong movement.

“[Resene] are a really successful company. Which we’re delighted about. They have reaped a lot of benefits over the years and I think that needs to be shared with the workers,” Robinson said.

Cost of living wage ‘a drop in the ocean’

E tū lead advocate Finn O’Dwyer-Cunliffe said the cost of bringing workers up to the living wage was a “drop in the ocean” compared with Resene’s overall revenue and budget.

He said the company’s previous offers would leave their workers struggling in the current economic climate.

“People who are earning $24 – $25 an hour – it’s not enough to make ends meet so we need something significantly better and we don’t think the living wage is too much to ask. That eight cent an hour increase – on average – in their latest offer was pretty insulting,” O’Dwyer-Cunliffe said.

O’Dwyer-Cunliffe said he hoped the company would see the resolve of the workers backed by the support of the local community and come back with a more substantial offer.

“We’ll keep going. We hope that Resene comes to the table with something that really shows their respect and value of their workers rather than skimming around the edges and finding an extra few cents here and there.

“This is a massive company that’s made significant profits in recent years and we want to see them share that value with their workers,” O’Dwyer-Cunliffe said.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

All three-storey homes, and any alterations costing $100,000 or more, will be required to get a home warranty under indemnity changes under the Building Act.

Architects, engineers and other building design professionals will be required to have indemnity insurance, and fines for Licensed Building Practitioners will also be doubled.

In August, the coalition government announced it was changing the building consent system to ease the liability load on local councils and speed up consenting.

Under reforms through the Building Amendment Bill, expected to be introduced in early 2026, councils will no longer be the last man standing dealing with building defects. Instead, under “joint liability”, each party will be responsible for repairs for their share of the work.

There have been concerns raised that under the new regime owners could be left vulnerable to costs if parties – such as the builder – disappeared.

On Monday, Building and Construction minister Chris Penk revealed the new consent system would require professionals contributing to building design – such as architects and engineers – to hold professional indemnity insurance.

It will also be mandatory for all new residential buildings three storeys and under, and for renovations over $100,000, to have insurance that covers a one-year defect period and a 10-year structural warranty period.

Disciplinary penalties for Licensed Building Practitioners (LBPs) will increase from a maximum fine of $10,000 to $20,000, and the maximum suspension period will increase from 12 months to 24 months.

“Home warranty schemes are already widely available across New Zealand, and the sector has assured me it can scale to meet new demand, allowing consumers to shop around to find coverage best suited to their build,” Penk said.

“Requiring professional indemnity insurance for building designers ensures these professionals are financially able to stand by their work, giving building owners confidence. This requirement does not extend to other building trades.”

Penk said these measures provided strong protections for the reform, while boosting consent productivity.

Speaking at the announcement, New Zealand Certified Builders Association chief executive Malcolm Fleming said the changes would set the building industry up for growth and support better supply and quality of homes.

“The previous arrangements were unfair to local councils and ultimately to ratepayers also, as they were the ones that had to pick up the bill if something went wrong with a bill down the track and the builder wasn’t able to put things right.

“Understandably, this has led to councils taking a cautious approach to the building consents, which has snailed up the system, causing delays and unnecessary costs to have been imposed on the homeowners.

“This move to proportional liability means that whoever has made a mistake is responsible for putting it right. It sounds simple enough and it is, but the key to making it work is having an effective home warranties in place to protect the homeowner should a builder not be able or willing to rectify any issues that may arise.”

Earlier, the Insurance Council of New Zealand said there could be challenges for insurers with the new approach, and it looked forward to further discussions with the government.

A property lawyer had told RNZ it was not clear who would underwrite the insurance – highlighting that insurers had been reluctant in the past to insure for weather tightness defects.

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