NZ Engine

Source: Radio New Zealand

Wellington might have been knocked off the top spot for quality of life and beer might be expensive, but New Zealanders are getting relatively cheaper iPhones, data shows.

Deutsche Bank’s Mapping the World’s Prices report looks at the price of a range of items around the world, in US dollar terms.

It launched in 2012 and said there had been changes in that time.

Japan has slid in purchasing power parity terms, while New Zealand had moved up the rankings – up 20 points in just over 20 years, according to its calculations.

Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said he thought that was essentially due to the country’s terms of trade.

“Prices for our exports have risen faster than the prices for our imports, meaning that the relative purchasing power of our production has been rising – even if our productivity growth has been poor. For reference, the terms of trade was a record high in June 2025, up 64 percent from June 2000.”

In the 2025 data, Luxembourg took the top spot for quality of life, replacing Zurich and Wellington. Wellington fell to 11th. Auckland was 17th out of 50.

Kiernan said it seemed to be because of mortgage costs. He said there were a number of one-off factors, such as temporarily cheaper public transport, that could have made Wellington look better in earlier years.

But he said much of the data seemed counter to the rhetoric about New Zealand being an expensive place to live. In most cases, New Zealand was in the bottom two-thirds of the rankings.

Switzerland had the highest salaries net of taxes, in US dollar terms.

Wellington was 29th out of 69 and Auckland 34th.

Auckland was top for an assessment of the climate, followed by São Paulo and Lisbon.

Wellington’s housing affordability notably improved this year. Auckland was 32nd most expensive of 69 in terms of price-per-square metre to buy a city centre apartment, and Wellington 44th. To rent a three-bedroom apartment in the city centre, Auckland was 39th and Wellington 44th.

Kiernan said the apartment comparison was useful from a standardisation point of view, to compare cities, but was not representative of the way most New Zealanders lived.

Wellington had the 14th highest disposable income after rents for a scenario with two people working and renting a three-bedroom apartment. Auckland was middle of the pack.

Auckland’s salary net of taxes was up 13.6 percent in five years in US dollar terms, the data showed, and Wellington’s up 21.2 percent.

Both cities were in the 50 percent least expensive for monthly utilities but were 20th and 21st of the most expensive cities to buy groceries.

Switzerland topped the table on that measure, and a number of United States cities, as well as Sydney and Melbourne, ranked ahead of New Zealand.

New Zealand was expensive to buy cigarettes, just behind Australia. China was the cheapest place. Wellington was the fourth most expensive city in the world in which to buy a bottle of domestic beer, and Auckland 15th.

Economist Shamubeel Eaqub said that because excise taxes are high compared to many other parts of the world.

He said there should generally not be much difference between New Zealand cities beyond housing and petrol.

New Zealand was the eighth cheapest place to buy an iPhone. Seoul was the cheapest city, the report said, because competition with Samsung pushed prices down. Auckland was 24th cheapest out of 69 for a cappuccino and Wellington was seven points behind.

Auckland was 18th most expensive out of 69 cities to buy a summer dress in a chain store and 36th equal for a McDonalds meal.

Auckland ranked fourth most expensive for public transport.

Kiernan said movements in the exchange rate could significantly skew how New Zealand performed in international comparisons.

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

Source: Radio New Zealand

If you have asked for a car insurance quote recently, you may have been asked your gender.

You might have wondered why it matters.

In a test by RNZ, a 42-year-old woman with a 2020 RAV4, parked in a Maunu, Whangārei garage, who has a clean driving history and no recent insurance claims was quoted $59.65 a fortnight for comprehensive car insurance with AMI.

The same scenario, except selecting “male” for the gender, was $58.99.

State quoted $58.70 for a woman and $58.06 for a man. Someone who said they were non-binary received the same quote as the woman.

AA quoted $53.83 a fortnight for a man and $53.87 for a woman.

Consumer NZ insurance specialist Rebecca Styles said the organisation’s most recent car insurance survey showed women were charged more by some insurers when they were middle-aged or older.

But when drivers were younger, men were charged more.

Comparison site Quashed said for a 22-year-old woman, insurance of $40,000 with a $1000 excess on that hybrid RAV4 would cost at least $169.64 a month for the cheapest option.

A man the same age would pay at least $185.98.

Chief executive Justin Lim said the premium for young male drivers ranged from 2 percent to 17 percent more.

It was especially the case for utes and trucks, he said, where young men could have to pay up to 24 percent more.

Styles said to provide car insurance quotes on the basis of gender felt a bit old-fashioned.

“With increased individualised pricing of insurance, you’d think it would be more about the risk factors for particular individuals rather than gender.”

Jeremy Holmes, from actuarial firm MJW, said if there was evidence that something affected the risk to insurers, they would price it in.

“In a reasonably free and open market, the price will tend toward that which is implied by the risk.

“As an example, say Insurer A charges the same price for everyone regardless of risk. They would set the price so that, in aggregate, it’s enough to cover their claims. Then along comes Insurer B who differentiates the price. Insurer B charges less for lower-risk people.

“What will happen is that all the low-risk people will shift to Insurer B and Insurer A will be left with people who, on average, are higher-risk. So Insurer A will need to increase prices which will exacerbate the issue.”

He said the different prices for genders indicated there was a perceived difference in risk.

“This is known as anti-selection. The way to combat anti-selection is to charge prices that reflect risk. If we operate in a market where people are free to move between insurers then the insurers will need to price according to risk.

“In saying that, there is something of a ‘social license’ whereby insurers can generally only use a factor to differentiate the price if society accepts that it is a reasonable thing to do.

“Historically, most people have accepted that different genders present different risks and this has been a common rating factor for motor insurers. Although that view has gradually been changing. The EU implemented some rules back in 2012 to prohibit differential insurance pricing by gender.”

Claire Matthews, a banking expert at Massey University, said it was becoming more challenging for insurers.

“It is likely there would only be limited data available on accident rates for the broader definitions of gender now used to allow statistical justification for gender-based premium differences, which has been used in the past. I think that’s why some insurers will have stopped using it, and others probably have given it only limited thought.”

A spokesperson for AA Insurance said it considered factors such as driving history, location, vehicle type and gender to ensure an accurate reflection of the risk it was taking on.

“For most products, gender is not a factor. However, for car insurance, our claims data shows that gender combined with age is a strong predictor of risk, so it is included when calculating motor premiums.”

Vero said in 2023 it would no longer capture a person’s gender for car insurance.

IAG, which operates the AMI and State brands, said its car insurance pricing was based on a number of factors, including a customer’s age, where they lived, the make and model of their vehicle, their gender, as well as the sum insured of the vehicle.

“We use our claims data to see how different factors affect the cost and frequency of claims and this helps us set premiums that reflect the level of risk.”

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Source: Radio New Zealand

Almost 15 years after 29 men were killed in the explosions at Pike River mine, new research shows New Zealand’s health and safety record remains poor, with workers here more likely to die than in Australia or the United Kingdom.

Research by the Public Health Communication Centre identified persistent issues – including weak enforcement, inadequate fines and poor understanding of legal duties among employers and political leaders.

Dr Christopher Peace, the lead author of the research, said while there were changes following the 2010 mining disaster, things were now sliding backwards and there had been no substantive change in the number of work related deaths in the last 15 years.

New Zealand’s workplace fatality rate was now twice as bad as Australia’s and four times as bad as the United Kingdom’s.

“Quite honestly, for a country that thinks it cares about people, for a country that thinks it’s pretty good, I’m afraid we’re doing disgracefully.”

He said it also came at a significant cost – more than $5.4 billion in the last year was spent on compensation, re-training and addressing the psychological harm to family, friends and workmates.

The findings come as the government shifts its work health and safety regulator’s priorities from enforcement to advice, saying it will address concerns about underfunding and a culture of fear.

Peace said the Pike River disaster revealed inadequate legislation and that directors were not doing enough to meet health and safety requirements, or being held to account for those failings.

He said the subsequent Health and Safety at Work Act that was introduced in 2015 was based on the United Kingdom’s legislation, but the outcomes there were better because the law was applied sternly and consistently in workplaces.

“In New Zealand, we’ve gone almost in the opposite direction, we’ve lost the people with experience in WorkSafe, we’ve hired a whole lot of new inspectors, hoping that they will do something in an advisory way that will turn the tide but that isn’t how it works, sometimes you have to be an enforcer.

“Being an advisor really doesn’t get people to understand they’re dealing with risk to people, risks of killing them, seriously injuring them, maybe leaving people incapacitated for the rest of their lives.

Anna Osborne, whose husband Milton died at Pike River, said she was shocked but not surprised there had been little change in the rate of workplace fatalities since then.

“We lobbied the government for stronger health and safety rules and regulations in the workplace, but to find that they’re being watered down at the moment by the government, it just makes me sick to think that another Pike River could actually happen again.”

She wants to see health and safety regulations strengthened.

“I’d really like to see heavier penalties, to be honest, like corporate manslaughter, fines that are way higher than what they are now because you look at Australia and they’re doing so much better than what New Zealand is.”

She and Sonya Rockhouse, whose son Ben died in the mine, are meeting the Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden in Wellington next week, on the 15th anniversary of the Pike River disaster.

“Hopefully get her to understand that this is not a joke, if your husband or your son or anybody doesn’t return home from work in New Zealand, it’s just not acceptable, people should be able to go to work and come home after their day is done.”

Van Velden said too many people die at work and she has proposed reforms she said would help businesses better manage critical risks.

“The government wants [businesses] to focus on the direct results of the actions they are taking on the ground and identifying which actions could cause death and serious injury, spending less time ticking the box, and more time focusing on critical risk.”

She said a decade after the Health and Safety at Work legislation was introduced, there had been no significant reduction in workplace fatalities and she was confident the proposed changes would result in fewer workplace deaths.

“The whole law and the purpose behind it is that there will be more information given to businesses upfront, there will be [more] inspectors than we have ever had under this government, going out to businesses and letting them know what it is they should be doing right and for prosecutions, we will be focusing on genuine areas of negligence.”

Nigel Hampton KC, who represented some of the Pike families, said he was worried the nation had forgetten the lessons from the disaster, and that another health and safety calamity was inevitable.

“We saw what de-escalation of the regulator looked like in Pike, there was no rigidity of a regulator at all, and indeed it was almost non-existent on the Pike River site.

“A regulator has to be at a distance, it’s got to be objective and it’s got to be prepared to take enforcement action, including prosecutions, if needs be.”

He said the move away from enforcement was concerning, and prescriptive regulation was not about ticking boxes.

“It is ensuring that the health and safety protocols within a particular business are up to scratch and are being applied, and if they’re not being applied, then enforcement notices made by the regulator and then if that fails, then prosecutions are taken.”

Pike families are now waiting for police to reveal whether they plan to lay any criminal charges as a result of the mens’ deaths, with a decision is expected before Christmas.

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