Best of Business

There's a sense of if you can't beat them join them about this He Waka Eke Noa scenario. Farmers don't like it much, but they do know they're not going to be excused from facing up to agricultural emissions forever. Sooner or later, regulation is coming, so it makes sense to be proactive and try to influence things as much as you can. The alternative is to have some bureaucrat in Wellington who do...

Freshwater ecologist Mike Joy has been forthright in his opinion about the nitrate levels in Canterbury waters, stating that herd sizes and unsuitable farm land is a major cause of our high nitrate levels in our water.  He's proposing that our herd sizes need to be diminished 12-fold to be able to combat the levels, even suggesting a government buy back of land to reverse the effects in Canterbury...

After a long weekend, the idea of a regular four day working week often sounds more tempting. In the UK, more than 3000 workers are taking part in the world's largest trial of the four day week. They'll get their normal pay, as long as they can maintain productivity. Andrew Barnes is the Kiwi that helped launch The 4 Day Week global movement and he joined Kate Hawkesby from the UK. LISTEN ABOVE Se...

A headline this weekend caught my eye: “The office monsters are trying to claw their way back to 2019”. The office monsters are apparently the corporate leaders trying to force people back into the office, back from working from home, like we used to do in 2019 before Covid. What’s brought this on is the email from Elon Musk to his staff last week, telling them to get back into the office for at l...

Sky TV has confirmed it is in talks to buy mediaworks. Due diligence is still underway, and a deal is not certain, the company says. If a deal does go ahead, it would not require Sky to raise new equity, but it would require shareholder and regulatory approval. Sky investors haven't reacted with excitement about the news, with the share price down almost 7% since the news broke. BusinessDesk manag...

Concerns for cyber-bullying, after Apple shares plans to offer a new delete and edit feature in iMessage. It's part of its upcoming software upgrades, and will give users 15 minutes to make changes after sending a message. Former NetSafe Chair Rick Shera told Heather du Plessis-Allan the easiest way to ensure users retain proof of messages they've received is to screenshot them. He says it's the b...

Auckland Central businesses feel let down by the targeted hardship fund. Only just over half of applications to the CRL Targeted Hardship Fund has been paid or accepted. Auckland Council and The Crown set up the fund in September last year to help inner-city businesses affected by City Rail Link construction. The fund has paid out more than $1 million as of last Friday. Auckland Business Chamber C...

The City Rail Link say they are working very hard to get money out the door. More than half of applications to the CRL Targeted Hardship Fund have been paid or accepted. Auckland Council and the Crown set up the fund in September last year to help inner-city businesses affected by City Rail Link construction. City Rail Link CEO Sean Sweeney told Mike Hosking the applications require a reasonable a...

The law to ban supermarket covenants is going through Parliament at the moments. Over the course of the week, we learned some interesting things about the inner workings of supermarket leases from the Food and Grocery Council. One of these aspects is their ability to block other businesses going into malls if they’re in them. Business commentator Rod Oram joined Heather du Plessis-Allan. LISTEN AB...

According two new reports out this week, national house values have fallen in the latest quarter. One Roof's Velocity House Value Index and the latest Core Logic Data found residential property values in the quarter to the end of May down by precisely the same amount - 0.9 per cent. While dropping property values may be a concern for homeowners, questions have been asked as to whether it is a good...

Calls for a sugary drink tax in New Zealand. New research has found sugary drink taxes decrease sales by 15 per cent - without causing job losses or hindering manufacturing. Dental Association spokesperson Rob Beaglehole told Mike Hosking we need to treat sugar the same way we treat tobacco. He says Coke and other soft drink companies target kids, teenagers and low income adults, just like tobacco...

A transitional housing provider says we've gone from a housing crisis to a catastrophe. The amount of money set aside for transitional housing has nearly doubled in two years, with $330 million spent last year alone.  Monte Cecelia Trust Chief Executive Bernie Smith told Mike Hosking the problem has got worse, and the state can't tackle it alone. He says if we put emergency housing and transitiona...

New research shows taxes on sugary drinks, result in a drop in sales by 15 per cent. AUT Emeritus Professor of Nutrition Elaine Rush told Kate Hawkesby how much things cost matters. She says price is the biggest factor in most purchasing decisions. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More money to go down the drain, as Christchurch City Council prepares for another round of consultation over the city's costly stadium. Some Cantabrians are angered by the latest setback, with the budget's blow out up to $150 million. The projected new price tag is now at least $673 million. Christchurch Central Business Association chair Annabel Turley told Kate Hawkesby they've been given a lar...

My brother travels a lot, both for work and to visit family – my nephew's studying in the US. So he’s made about three trips during the pandemic, done MIQ twice, and since MIQ was dropped he’s made about three more trips, he left again on another one yesterday. Given I’m not flying anywhere I always appreciate the update on his experiences.  Yesterday, he sends me a text from the airport, he’s mad...

The wellness industry is very much a booming sector overseas, with studies showing more people have experienced unwanted weight changes and are wanting to move on from the stress of the pandemic. But it's an industry that's still building here in New Zealand. Australia's largest body shaping and wellness company Body Catalyst has this week opened its first clinic in New Zealand. Founder and CEO Sa...

Seeing kids sneak into R rated movies is not a new phenomenon, but the UK are attempting to crack down on it. They're trialling an ID app called Yoti that confirms a kid's age with an uploaded official document that the UK Cinema Association is hoping will be successful, to be rolled out around the country as a permanent legal proof of age. Suggestions have been made that New Zealand should implem...

The outlook for residential construction is not looking too promising. It comes as the ANZ Business Outlook Survey has shown the situation is "rapidly deteriorating". ANZ Chief Economist Sharon Zollner told Mike Hosking this could be caused by a combination of expected demand to dry up or a lack of supplies, such as GIB. She says it could affect whether we see a sharp bounce back, or a sudden stop...

Supply chains could continue to be an issue, even as the world's biggest port re-opens today. Shanghai has been operating at a severely reduced capacity since March. Many shipments have either been cancelled, postponed or rerouted to other Chinese ports. Infometrics economist Brad Olsen told Mike Hosking supply chain issues could get worse as manufacturing sites reopen. He wonders if ports in Euro...

I think I’m going to be the only person in New Zealand today who’s going to say ‘stop beating up on the supermarkets’. The Government has released details of what it’s going to do to try and help us pay less for our food and groceries at Pak ‘n’ Save, Countdown, New World, Four Square, Fresh Choice and Super Value. The whole lot of them. It comes after the Commerce Commission looked into how the s...

We've seen the ugly side of the community lately with the ram raids and shootings and burglaries galore. But here is an example of the good side. Doug Jarvis is a butcher and has been for 44 years - his stores had been frequently targeted in burglaries recently and as a result he was due to close one of them because of the effects it was having on his blood pressure. But the community rallied behi...

Banks are starting to lift mortgage and deposit rates following last week's OCR hike. Kiwibank has lifted its headline rate for a two-year fixed mortgage to 5.19 per cent and ANZ has signalled changes to its interest rates. Mortgage broker Marcus Hull told Kate Hawkesby people are feeling the pinch. People look to tighten the belt and find ways to do a better budget, so brokers are seeing an incre...

The Food and Grocery Council says new supermarket regulations will start to make real change for the sector. The Government will put in a regulator, a code of conduct and mandatory unit pricing. The council says getting rid of exclusivity in leases should free up spots for non-duopoly competitors in malls and shopping centres. Chief Executive Katherine Rich told Mike Hosking measures like the code...

Banks are preparing for further hikes following last week's Official Cash Rate increase. The Reserve Bank raised the OCR by 50 basis points to 2 per cent and signalled it'll go higher still. ANZ and Kiwibank have both increased mortgage and deposit rates in the wake of the hike, Kiwibank lifting its headline rate for a two-year fixed mortgage to 5.19 per cent. Kiwibank chief executive Steve Jurkov...

There is confidence the Government's moves to tackle the supermarket duopoly will increase competition. It's matched 12 of the 14 Commerce Commission recommendations,  and gone further on two of them. It's going to do annual competition checks on supermarkets instead of the report's suggested checks every three years. Night 'n Day is our third biggest grocery retailer, and General Manager Matthew...