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The Reserve Bank of Australia has kept its OCR on hold at 3.6 percent at today's monetary policy review. This has come after 10 months of consecutive cash rate hikes since May 2022. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is set to announce their OCR decision tomorrow.  HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham says the RBA's decision to leave their OCR unchanged makes sense, as the economy is weakening, consumer...

TVNZ's CEO Simon Power is stepping down after 15 months in the role. He will leave the company on June 30th, and says it's "been a privilege" to lead the company while it worked through the now-scrapped TVNZ/RNZ merger. BusinessDesk managing editor Pattrick Smellie suspects it wasn't the dumped merger that pushed Simon Power to quit. Pattrick Smellie says several TVNZ board members have just been...

Bad news for clothing and homewares retailer EziBuy. The company has been put into administration by its Australian owners - which is likely to be the end of the line for the business. Owner Mosaic Brands says EziBuy’s sales have fallen 51 percent year-on-year in the first half of the financial year. Head of retail at Devon Funds, Greg Smith says the business had been starting to decline for some...

I am so disappointed to hear Rob Campbell finally admitting that the health system is in crisis. He said it this morning in a round of interviews talking about his speech last night, which was all about him slamming the health reforms. He said the new health system is in a "crisis situation".   Yes, it is in crisis. We can all see that. So why didn’t he say that when he was still in charge of the...

One Australian state is banning mobile phones in high school classrooms. It'll take effect in New South Wales public schools from term four. Local Secondary Principals Council President Craig Peterson says they had preferred not to impose a blanket ban. "We're concerned that for a lot of our disadvantaged communities, the only technology that students and their families have access to is their mob...

The Rotorua Council wants business owners to shoulder the cost of recovering abandoned trolleys. Ratepayers are currently paying $5000 a month for hundreds of shopping trolleys to be collected from the streets. Rotorua District Residents and Ratepayers chair Dr Reynold Macpherson says the supermarkets should help cover the costs of these trolley hunts, as opposed to ratepayers. "The trolleys are a...

Petrol prices are expected to hit Kiwi's back pockets hard this year. The Automobile Association is warning petrol could shoot up 40 cents by July, a rise it says will be fuelled by global petrol organisation Opec +. AA Principal Policy Advisor, Terry Collins says they're choking supply to drive up prices. "All I can see is it going upwards, probably for the rest of the year. And what they've sign...

Donald Trump is in New York ahead of his court appearance. The former US President is due to appear in court overnight, New Zealand time, over allegations of hush payments to porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. Media requests to broadcast it have been rejected. Newshub US correspondent Lisette Reymer says so far, there are fewer Trump supporters than expected. "New York is very Democratic, so you wo...

The Prime Minister has accepted an apology from Cabinet Minister Kiri Allan for comments made at her fiancée Māni Dunlop's farewell from RNZ. Allan says they could be interpreted as her telling the state broadcaster how to manage its staff or company. She says that wasn't her intent, and she was speaking in a personal capacity. ZB's senior political correspondent Barry Soper says Chris Hipkins has...

The Australian Government has announced TikTok will be banned on all federal Government devices. This decision puts Australia in line with their Five Eyes intelligence allies, as New Zealand, the US, Britain and Canada have put similar restrictions in place amid security concerns.  Australian correspondent Murray Olds says the Government had been sitting on reports from intelligence agencies for q...

National Party officials have been made aware of some resurfaced comments from their Maungakiekie candidate. 19 years ago, National's Greg Fleming had previously compared same-sex civil unions to polygamy and incest. Fleming has since distanced himself from the remarks, saying he supports the current state of marriage laws. Political commentator Brigitte Morten says turning this into a big scandal...

Manchester Arena bombing survivors have filed legal action against a conspiracy theorist who claimed the attack was faked. Martin and Eve Hibbert were left with severe disabilities after the 2017 attack and are suing author Richard D Hall for defamation and harassment. UK correspondent Gavin Grey says this conspiracy theorist had been spying on Martin and Eve, as well as several other victims to s...

Tonight on The Huddle, Trish Sherson from Sherson Willis PR and NZ Herald senior writer Simon Wilson joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day: Does Napier need a by-election? Stuart Nash has confirmed he'll retire from politics after this year's election, but should he stay if he's clearly checked out of the role? Chris Hipkins has announced some new measures designed to ens...

Property prices have risen in Australia for the first time in over 10 months. New data shows that the media value of houses sold across Australia rose by 0.6 percent in March. Australian correspondent Oliver Peterson says this is due to an increase in demand from permanent migrants relocating to the region.  Oliver Peterson also warns that Australia will be 127,000 homes short by the end of the ye...

The company formerly known as Vodafone celebrated their first day of trading as One NZ. To mark the occasion, One NZ has also unveiled details of a new partnership with Elon Musk-owned Starlink to provide 100 percent mobile coverage to New Zealand. One NZ CEO Jason Paris says this partnership will be rolled out some time in 2024, starting as a text service with voice and data capability to follow....

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has today introduced some new measures to regulate the lobbying industry. The removal of the swipe cards from lobbyists and calls to develop a voluntary code of conduct come after a series of RNZ articles highlighting the close relationships between lobbyists and politicians. These measures also follow the removal of former minister Stuart Nash after it had been reveal...

The increases to minimum wage and benefits kicked in on Saturday, and the living wage will go up by 10 percent. This will lead to at least 18 percent of the workforce getting a pay increase to alleviate the rising costs of living. Finance Minister Grant Robertson says it remains an importance balance that vulnerable people are taken care of while inflation is brought down. "These are some of the l...

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has introduced moves to ensure there's more transparency around the lobbying system. These new measures include revoking swipe cards from lobbyists, establishing a voluntary code of conduct and commissioning policy advice in order to regulate the industry. ZB's senior political correspondent Barry Soper says this crackdown on lobbyists is obvious window-dressing follow...

The Warriors achieved an impressive comeback against the Cronulla Sharks and won 32-30. After trailing 20-0, the Warriors surged ahead to take the lead and move to second overall on the NRL ladder. Weekend Sport's Jason Pine explained this latest victory in their impressive NRL season. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australia's population is set to get an extra boost, with 650,000 migrants predicted to arrive by 2025. This data is based on recent adjustments made by Treasury officials to the fiscal statement’s economic forecasts ahead of the upcoming federal budget. These figures have worried Australians, as several believe the nation is already at capacity and one Western Sydney mayor voiced his concerns abo...

Another court outing is likely for David Benbow, after a Christchurch jury failed to reach a verdict in his murder trial. Benbow was accused of killing childhood friend Michael McGrath over his relationship with Benbow’s former partner- his body has never been found. The jury deliberated for 23 hours, after a seven-week trial. The Herald's Kurt Bayer says Benbow's been remanded on bail before a de...

Chris Hipkins has taken steps to ensure there's more transparency around the current lobbying system. Hipkins has written to Parliament's Speaker to revoke swipe cards from lobbyists and requested that they develop a voluntary code of conduct, with assistance from the Ministry of Justice. Saunders Unsworth lobbyist Mark Unsworth says he's not going to miss his swipe card access- and isn't opposed...

Napier MP Stuart Nash is resigning this election. He was stripped of ministerial portfolios and kicked out of Cabinet after recent scandals, the latest that he revealed information about Cabinet decisions to two donors. Resigning at the election means he hasn't forced an electorate by-election. National's Napier candidate, Katie Nimon says no one would want one. "A lot of our electorate can't actu...

Nearly 5000 Kiwi nurses are crossing- or set to cross- the ditch. Thousands of nurses have registered to work in Australia since August, often to take up lucrative short-term contracts of up to NZ$8500 a week. Rotorua nurse Tracey Morgan is among the wave of nurses departing for Australia, having finished her last day at her community clinic on Thursday. "You don't really want to have to do this,...

There is a very good chance that it will prove to be a mistake going after Donald Trump on the porn star charges.  It’s not that he should get away with anything. No one’s above the law, not even a former president.  But I'm not sure this is the charge they should've gone after him on.  This case is so technical that it’s not clear it’s even going to work against him, and it’s going to be hard to...