Category: Business

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Public Service Association says more than 30 roles are on the chopping block at Maritime NZ.

The union said the water safety regulator was proposing to disestablish 34 roles within the harm prevention, investigations and policy teams – among others.

Martime NZ and Transport Minister Chris Bishop have been approached for comment.

PSA national secretary Duane Leo said the proposed job cuts would turn Maritime NZ into “the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff”.

“These workers are collaborating with the maritime sector to stop people being injured or killed on our waters.

“Cutting these injury prevention programmes will put more people at risk,” he said.

Leo said reducing the investigations and legal teams would also make it harder to investigate serious incidents and prosecute offenders.

He said the proposal came after a refusal to increase Maritime Levies.

“Once again the government is undermining the value and effectiveness of public services, and this change could cost lives,” he said.

Leo said the PSA would be opposing the proposal.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The government has announced a review into solar panel installation, which it describes as a “red tape nightmare”.

Regulation Minister David Seymour says the aim is to make New Zealand the simplest place in the developed world to install solar.

Tim Dudek, who owns installation company Solar Craft and has 16 years in the business, told Morning Report New Zealand’s standards have only just been changed to meet those of Australia, and demand has increased around 400 percent in the past few months.

“That’s taken probably a decade of lobbying by the locals or by SEANZ (Sustainable Energy Association of New Zealand).

“Our standards for solar installation have only just been brought up to what I would call the current standard. So I think the red tape that we go through at the moment is sufficient considering the risk of the product and what we’re installing on people’s properties,

“The systems are large, and they’re providing a lot of power and a lot of benefit. But with that, I guess with the power that comes from it, it needs a few safety checks.”

He said while installations could take time, that was just part of any electrical job.

“I would say an installation takes between a month and two months from whoa to go. There are a couple of tickboxes that need to be done with the various lines companies and retailers, electricians and inspectors, but it’s just part of any electrical job, no different to a switchboard or a heat pump installation.”

Dudek said some newer DIY systems did not need any additional red tape, however they were currently illegal in New Zealand.

“I’ve been looking at these new balcony solar systems. They’re a kind of borderline case.

“There’s lots of advantages to them. But there is also some compliance that they would need to go through to be able to connect to our grid and homes.”

Dudek said the biggest issue that needed attention was access to low-cost finance. He said the figures used by the ministry were outdated by about 10 years.

“I would say our average is between $25,000 and $40,000 for a system.

“The systems have got more powerful as time’s gone on, people are putting electric cars at home, and they just need more power.

“They’re just trying to do more with it. We’re trying to shift from petrol and diesel through to electric, and that’s got to come from somewhere.”

He said the current fuel price had accelerated interest in solar energy.

“Supply is pushed at the moment. It’s had about a 400 percent increase over the last three to four months.

“The fuel crisis has put the crunch on it, and we are coping. The government only implemented the training regime in November last year, so that we can train up electricians to install the systems and just do it safely. So just have to roll with the punches and grow as the industry grows.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

The failure of the economy to fire up means New Zealanders will spend five fewer days paying tax this year.

Business advisory network Baker Tilly Staples Rodway estimated the total tax take rose 1.9 percent on last year, which meant New Zealanders would spend just 130 days paying tax this year, five days less than last year.

Tax Freedom Day, which was the hypothetical date New Zealanders would have paid their tax bill for the year, was expected to take place on 10 May, meaning whatever they earn after that date was theirs.

Baker Tilly Staples Rodway tax director Michael Rudd said the reason for the shorter forecast date was because this year’s tax increase was far less than last year’s increase of 3.9 percent, or 15.6 percent in 2022, when the economy grew 4-point-3 percent.

A flat corporate tax take of 1.2 percent indicated businesses were struggling to grow, with inflation outpacing GST revenues and a sugar rush of trust dividend payments drying up.

“An optimist might say that corporates are managing their tax payments to take advantage of the new Investment Boost regime, which provides a 20 percent year-one tax deduction for new business assets purchased after May 2025,” Rudd said.

However, he said a large increase in the number of business liquidations was probably having a bigger influence.

“The cost of those failures is often borne by suppliers who never get paid, affecting their bottom line.”

In contrast, Rudd said Australians were paying three days more tax this year, not five days less.

However, they celebrated their Tax Freedom Day three weeks ago, which was fairly typical.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand is exporting much of its premium product – and then importing cheaper options for New Zealand shoppers, economists say.

Pak’nSave’s move to sell United States butter more cheaply than local butter has prompted conversations about how it is possible for imported items can be offered at a lower price than those produced in the country.

But trade data shows that butter is far from the only item that has a higher price when it’s made in New Zealand.

Cat and dog food was cheaper when imported. Dog biscuits – most imported from Australia, Canada, and China – were 87.6 percent cheaper than the export price of New Zealand products.

Water with added flavouring was also 25 percent cheaper when brought in from countries like the United States than the local product was exported.

Jams and marmalades were 21.9 percent cheaper when imported – often from Chile and Poland.

We also import cheaper wine than we export – among still wines, imported products were 25 percent cheaper. Australian wines were 54 percent of imports.

Confectionary, including white chocolate, was 37.8 percent cheaper when imported, mostly from Australia and China. Sweet biscuits were 64.4 percent cheaper imported, usually from Australia,

Some beef and lamb cuts imported for New Zealand consumers were also cheaper than those exported.

“We’re quite often exporting premium products to a premium market segment, whereas we’re importing the commodity stuff for the mass market,” economist Shamubeel Eaqub said.

“It’s picking up that difference in what we export versus what we consume. But it still begs the question, if we’re so good at making these things, why is it that we can’t have some of those other products, as well? Why is it that we’re reliant on imports? It’s not necessarily a good or bad thing, it’s just a question.

“I think to me it raises the question of is it really not possible to produce pet food for our pets in New Zealand given all the bobby calves we have? The fact we’re importing beef from Aussie and lamb from Aussie… I’m driving through Southland at the moment and seeing a lot of cows and sheep.”

He said there was a “spaghetti junction” of food going out and food coming in to meet different needs.

Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold said it was probably driven by economies of scale.

“It could be that these things are being manufactured in large facilities in Australia or up in Asia. They just have that economy of scale, perhaps reflecting lower input costs as well if these are energy-intensive products.

“Canned vegetables, fruit juice things like that… you wouldn’t automatically think that these would be energy-intensive processes but they kind of are. Countries like China are quite competitive because their costs of production are lower.”

He said New Zealand wine would be more of a premium product than much of the product that was being imported more cheaply.

“If you had it broken down by colour, I bet you would find that if we export red wine it’s probably pinot noir, but it would be more expensive than the typical red wine that would be imported into this country.

“In some of these industries if we’re exporting it’s because we’re a niche or premium end of the market.”

ANZ economist Matt Dilly said it would help to think of how competitive New Zealand was in various products. “I’d say most of our wine exports are in a category that I’d call affordable luxury. A typical bottle maybe $20 a bottle, maybe a bit less, maybe a bit more. But we do import a lot of cheaper wine from Australia. I think that’s a situation where we have a competitive advantage. We make excellent wine and export a lot of it but that doesn’t mean there are zero imports.

“We do import beef and lamb even though we’re really great at that. We import some cheese and some of those varieties we don’t make ourselves, especially European varieties.

“This framework about what we’re competitive in and what’s easily traded, there’s always going to be exceptions.”

“We import a lot of wheat, a lot of pork, vegetable oil. So these are things that are really tradable that, we don’t have a great competitive advantage in like we do for dairy and some of our other large products.

“Then there’s those other things that are naturally very difficult to trade, especially from an island country. So we make really good eggs, but we don’t export them because they’re fragile and perishable… have a (pretty robust two-way trade with Australia, going in both directions across the Tasman and, and that’s a function of our shared food safety system. So that’s something that’s really good for processed food products rather than the raw materials.”

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

How much are first-home buyers paying to get into the market now?

First-home purchasers have been responsible for a large share of property transactions in recent years, and new research from Cotality and Westpac shows that continued through the start of this year, too.

Over the past year, first-time buyers have purchased 24,800 properties – the highest annual number since the year to the third quarter of 2021.

“Whether you look at absolute numbers or relative share, it’s all pretty positive,” said Cotality economist Kelvin Davidson.

He said people were also getting more house for their money.

More than 75 percent of purchases were of standalone houses, and the median price paid was $720,000.

“The median price so far has gone up to $720,000 from $700,000 last year but that’s not a big increase… there’s a rising share of standalone houses among first-time buyer purchases. They’re getting bang for their buck in a market that’s titled in their favour with lots of listings, house prices down, interest rates lower than they were a couple of years ago.”

But there was a lot of regional variation within that number.

The highest median price paid by first-home buyers was $900,000 in Auckland, was followed by a median $733,000 in the Bay of Plenty and $730,000 in Wellington.

The lowest median was $407,500 on the West Coast and $489,000 in Southland. In Canterbury, they paid $655,000.

“In a provincial market what first-home buyers are buying is pretty representative of the houses that exist. A lot of first-home buyers in rural areas would be buying three-bedroom standalone houses. That’s what’s there but there would be differences in other markets such as Auckland where there’s a broader choice.”

Davidson said in the middle 40 percent of the market by price, first-time buyers were responsible for about 30 percent of purchases, compared to 21 percent in 2015.

The median price for first-time buyers was significantly higher than the lower quartile price for all buyers, of $600,000. “The ‘typical’ first-home buyers doesn’t always enter at the bottom of the market and work their way up. Many actually enter the market well above the lowest tiers of the ladder.

“There’s actually pretty strong data that a lot of them enter halfway up the ladder.. the median price being paid by first-time buyers is a long way above the lower end of the spectrum across all buyers.”

In many cases, buyers were taking out loans with deposits of less than 20 percent. Westpac said its record showed the average loan-to-value ratio for first-home buyers was 81 percent, up from less than 77 percent in 2024.

Davidson said KiwiSaver was a big help for most buyers.

Lower interest rates were also helping. In most parts of the country (excluding Auckland), minimum mortgage payments are now around $130 a month lower than they were this time last year, and $820 a month lower than they were back in 2024.

In Auckland, where first home prices tend to be much higher, the fall in mortgage costs has been even larger. Minimum mortgage payments are now around $180 a month lower than they were this time last year, and they’re around $1100 lower than they were back in 2024.

The calculation was based on an average price first-home with 90 percent deposit fixed for one year with a 20-year loan term.

Davidson said many of the supportive factors for first-home buyers were likely to remain in place.

“Reduced interest rates, KiwiSaver, loan-to-value allowances… it doesn’t look like house prices are going anywhere either. Mortgage rates are creeping up, so that’s a consideration for would-be first time buyers. But I think the buying window that’s been open for quite a long time now… is probably still going to be there for a while if house prices sort of stay broadly flat and the LVRs stay open.”

He said people who could cope with interest rates pushing up a bit and who were confident in their jobs would see opportunities.

“There are a lot of listings out there. Sellers are willing to do a deal to keep moving on. So I think first time buyers have things in their favour for a little while yet.”

Median first-home buyer price – Q1 2026

• Northland: $615,000
• Auckland: $900,000
• Waikato: $695,000
• Bay of Plenty: $733,000
• Gisborne: $600,000
• Hawke’s Bay: $625,250
• Taranaki: $560,000
• Manawatu-Whanganui: $524,000
• Wellington: $730,000
• Tasman: $712,000
• Nelson: $629,500
• Marlborough: $585,000
• West Coast: $407,500
• Canterbury: $655,000
• Otago: $620,000
• Southland: $489,000

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A $1.26 half-year billion profit for ANZ. A $545 million half-year for Westpac. A $494m result for BNZ.

As New Zealand’s economy reels from one hit to the next, some commentators have asked whether the run of recent profits for banks show they are one of the few businesses that can turn a healthy profit no matter what.

David Cunningham, chief executive of Squirrel and former chief executive of The Co-Operative Bank, said it was fair to suggest that banks were generally able to make money regardless of the wider business environment.

“Imagine if a bank did nothing for a year, stopped lending, stopped doing anything for a year, they’d still make 90 percent of the profit.

“Every year, over 150 or 200 years for many banks, they build up an annuity stream and every year they’re topping that up. The banking sector will typically grow at around the nominal GDP rate. If you think of inflation at 3 percent and real growth at 2, so nominal GDP at 5, that’s pretty much what you’d expect banks to achieve consistently over time unless they’re in a big cost-cutting mode or in a high-growth sort of phase.”

He said there would be times when credit provisions and credit write-offs could affect the reported profits but it did not necessarily mean they lost money.

Many banks set aside large loan loss provisions heading into the Covid-19 pandemic, which then were reversed out.

“They’re providing against the risk that in future they will lose the money… [but] there’s a great saying, the only thing worse than a profitable bank is an unprofitable one.”

He said most customers would be most concerned that banks were supporting investment in the economy and helping people when they needed loans for things like buying houses.

“The question in New Zealand is, are they for a very low-risk business? I mean, it’s almost utility-like. Utilities tend to have predictable, long-run, fairly stable earnings. So is a return on equity sort of near a 13 percent, 14 percent for some of them fair, or, you know, is a return nearer 10 percent like the overall of yield of banks in Australia fairer?”

But Claire Matthews, a banking expert at Massey University, said it was not true that banks were unaffected by wider forces.

She noted Westpac’s result said its impairment provisions were due to worsening economic conditions and margin compression as the official cash rate dropped.

BNZ’s profit was down 38 percent, although largely because of a change in the way it accounts for software spending.

“The banks have managed not to lose money in recent recessions, which reflects careful financial management and the fact that we haven’t had a really substantial downturn. As I’ve said in the past, we don’t actually want the banks to make losses, but they do feel the impact of economic conditions. It is also worth remembering that they are usually affected later by economic downturns, because it takes time to work through to the banks.’

Generate investment specialist Greg Smith said earnings were sensitive in a nuanced way.

“They can generate profits through the cycle, but recent results from ANZ, NAB and Westpac show earnings are clearly being shaped by slower growth, higher bad debts, intense competition and the impact of higher interest rates. The Middle East is a factor.

“They can perform well early in a rate tightening cycle because they typically reprice mortgage rates quickly, while deposit rates adjust more slowly, which leads to a temporary expansion in net interest margins. That dynamic helped support profitability over the past couple of years.

“However, what we’re seeing now across ANZ, NAB and Westpac is the other side of that cycle starting to dominate. Higher rates are now feeding through to customers, with banks lifting provisions for bad debts and flagging stress in parts of the economy. Credit growth is slowing, with businesses and households pulling back. Competition for deposits and mortgages is intensifying, putting pressure back on margins. Profits remain high in absolute terms, but earnings growth is limited or declining.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

• OECD says NZ economy recovering slowly, faces Iran conflict based challenges to growth and inflation
• Poor productivity, high debt, weak investment hold back growth
• Tax changes needed for retirement savings; boost needed for capital markets
• Electricity sector needs to break reliance on gas
• Quicker and deeper digitisation of health sector needed

New Zealand needs to reform the pension and electricity sectors, expand and strengthen capital markets, and speed up digitisation of the health sector, according to a report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In its latest report on New Zealand it said the economy is recovering, but the Middle East conflict would delay growth and stoke a near term spike in inflation, while the economy also faced long standing challenges from low productivity, high public debt, and too little investment in key sectors and companies.

Growth of 1.4 percent was forecast for this year, rising to 2.3 percent in 2027, while inflation was expected to hit a high of 3.4 percent this year before falling back into the 1-3 percent target zone.

“Heightened uncertainty and higher energy prices weigh on real incomes, confidence and domestic demand,” the OECD report said.

“Inflation will rise in 2026 due to higher energy and transport costs before gradually easing toward the 2 percent midpoint, reflecting spare capacity and easing tradeables inflation pressures.

“Although considerable uncertainty surrounds the timing and magnitude of this adjustment, given the risk of further shocks.”

The OECD had a message for the Reserve Bank (RBNZ).

“Our advice is for monetary policy to remain focused on the medium-term price stability while looking through the temporary first round effects of the energy price shock,” OECD director Luiz de Mello said.

The report said the RBNZ’s monetary policy mandate should be held unchanged for five year periods to “reinforce the RBNZ’s strong operational independence and credibility”.

Raise superannuation age, change taxes

The OECD joined other international agencies in calling for the age of eligibility for superannuation to be raised by indexing it to life expectancy, with measures to take account of different ethnicities and work backgrounds.

It also called for a reversal of the taxation of retirement savings from the current charge on contributions and investment earnings but tax exempt withdrawals.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said there were no plans to raise the eligibility age for NZ super, and rejected the call for tax changes as a big hit on government finances.

“We are trying to get the books back in balance so radical tax reforms that require a deficit on the government books are not something we are exploring right now.”

Other OECD suggestions included measures to improve capital markets, including government financial support, to allow small and medium sized firms to look at listing on the stock exchange and being able to raise finance in New Zealand.

Willis took a swipe at the major local banks that there was nothing stopping them now to lend more money to small firms and the challenge was for them to do it.

Reform the electricity sector

The OECD report also called for changes to the electricity sector to break its reliance on costly natural gas which has underpinned high prices.

“Affordability will remain elusive without breaking the gas-electricity price link by scaling non-gas long-duration firming, expanding demand response and strengthening competition.”

It said there should be a mandatory firming and flexibility market with likely a minority investment from the government in independent-led, long-duration non-gas firming generation.

Firming is the provision of immediate reserve electricity when renewable supplies decline. In New Zealand that has been done largely through burning gas and coal.

The OECD said the proposal to import liquified natural gas (LNG) should be seen only as a short term option.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

A long-running trademark battle between New Zealand-founded toy company Zuru and global giant Lego will go on after the Supreme Court approved Lego’s application to take further action.

Late last year, Zuru won a major victory, after the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court decision that had found in favour of Lego.

The heart of the dispute centred on a simple phrase printed on packaging of Zuru’s own-brand MAX Build More plastic brick building kits: “LEGO® BRICK COMPATIBLE”.

So Lego will go back to the Court of Appeal and make its case to uphold the High Court ruling.

The final ruling could potentially have implications for intellectual property law protecting trade marks.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Rents have fallen in most parts of New Zealand, according to Realestate.co.nz

Its latest data shows the national average asking rental price in April was $631 a week.

That was down from $640 at the same time last year and $660 at the peak.

The biggest fall was in the central North Island, where the average asking rent dropped from $619 to $566. That was followed by Gisborne, down 5.4 percent from $664 to $628.

Auckland’s asking rent fell from $702 to $690, Wellington’s from $647 to $620, while Canterbury’s increased from $581 to $587.

Both Nelson and Waikato had record rental prices, at $617 and $583 a week, respectively.

There were 5.1 percent more listings available, although Wellington had a drop of 26 percent.

Spokesperson Vanessa Williams said it would be welcome news for renters and came in a wider context of tougher economic times.

She said the peak of the market had been a strange time, before people started leaving the country in larger numbers and while legislation was changing.

“There was a whole bunch of investment properties that got taken out of the rental pool, thinking everyone was going to sell… values dropped from the peak of the market so they put them back into the rental pool again.

“Everybody is just considering the way they live because the cost of living has just continued to grow… outside of rent, everything else is growing.

“While it’s down $30 from $660 to $630, $30 a week doesn’t really go far when you think of the cost of insurance, power and food.’

She said it was still tough on renters in places like Central Otago Lakes, where the average was $860.

“For most people renting down there, tourism workers and hospitality workers, that’s a really kind of hard pill to swallow.”

She said it was likely that rents would remain soft through the rest of the year, while the economy was weak.

But Williams said people should do their market research before they asked their landlord to reduce their rent.

“Depending on how lovely your landlord is, if they haven’t done too many price increases, you might actually be in a house that’s well below the market anyway.

“That is something for people to consider if they are looking to move. Just do a bit of market research around what the size of your house and it’s renting for at the moment. Because if you have been in there for a while, and your landlord’s quite kind, you actually might be in a pretty good spot.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Meridian Energy says it has applied technology to squeeze more energy out of its existing assets – enough to supply electricity to between 60,000 and 80,000 homes.

The renewable energy company was able to deliver about 83 megawatts (MW) of additional capacity from existing hydro generators through engineering advances, in addition to 36 MW through managing existing hydro stations and wind farms.

In February Meridian revealed it had returned to profitability after last year’s dry year, with a net profit of $227m , and said it was focusing on enhancing the performance of existing assets.

Meridian generation general manager Tania Palmer said, “it’s basically ‘new capacity’ from what we already have – without new consenting – and it helps keep the system steady as demand grows, especially when wind and solar are low.”

Palmer said it was more energy than the combined capacity of the company’s Te Uku and White Hill wind farms.

“A current initiative at our Ōhau C station is focused on getting an extra 2 MW of peaking capacity out of each of the four generating units – enough to power roughly 8000 homes.

“Our engineers are also working on applying these changes to the upstream Ōhau B sister station, which would achieve a total of 16 additional MW.”

Meridian was also aiming to achieve more capacity gains by reducing equipment downtime.

For example, changing scheduled maintenance at Manapōuri Power Station had resulted in an additional 7 MW worth of generation that wouldn’t have been otherwise available.

Meridian was currently exploring upgrades of Waitaki and Ōhau A, B and C hydro power stations over the coming years, which could deliver more than 80MW in additional generation capacity.

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