Of Interest

By Gareth Vaughan How seriously is the public sector taking the fight against money laundering and terrorism financing? This question comes up in a new episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast , featuring barrister and solicitor Fiona Hall and anti-money laundering auditor and consultant Martin Dilly. In a recent article the two raised concerns about impending job cuts to the team at the D...

The Australian Government's a Future Made in Australiainitiative could attract skilled migrants and potentially investment and entrepreneurs from New Zealand, and ultimately be a catalyst for a much more sustainable future, says Kylie Walker, the CEO of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences & Engineering. In last month's budget, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's government unveiled  a F...

The fund backing New Zealand's incoming depositor compensation scheme is going to be small, it's going to take a long time to reach its target level, and the lack of depositor preference in the scheme is a mistake, according to a deposit insurance expert. Geof Mortlock, an international financial regulatory consultant who does work for the International Monetary Fund and World Bank specialising in...

Renting in New Zealand today is more difficult than a decade ago, with fewer properties available, rents continuing to increase, and the quality of rental properties not much better, Shamubeel Eaqub says. However, the economist and co-author of the 2015 book Generation Rent, rethinking New Zealand's priorities , says it's not all bad news. Speaking in the latest episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Int...

With economic growth no longer producing benefits seen in the past such as raising living standards for the middle class, and human activity having exceeded some planetary boundaries, it's time to embrace degrowth, argues Jennifer Wilkins. Wilkins is a researcher and advocate on sustainability in business with a focus on degrowth. In a new episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast , she dis...

For open banking to really grab people's attention the focus needs to be on the services it can enable, rather than the technology behind it, says Andrew Dentice. In the latest episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast ,  Dentice, a technology lawyer and partner at HudsonGavinMartin, discusses the data sharing that enables open banking, what open banking actually is, why progress towards it...

Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds says a re-elected Labour Government would have been willing to expand its planned public sector cuts to protect key programmes.  The tax lawyer turned MP spoke on Interest.co.nz’s Of Interest podcast  about the Coalition’s fiscal policy and her role in rebuilding the Labour Party after its election defeat.  Part of that project will be rehabilitating the party’...

The departing Chief Executive of the Insurance Council of New Zealand says if Wellington is hit with an earthquake on a similar scale to the Canterbury quakes, it would “raise some questions” on whether NZ insurers would be able to continue to purchase reinsurance at an affordable cost. “I think reinsurers would still be there. But the ability to purchase reinsurance at a good rate and the degree...

In five years' time we would see things we can't imagine today if the Government adopts the Commerce Commission's recommendations to boost competition for personal banking services, Commission Chairman John Small says. Speaking about the Commission's draft report from its banking market study in the latest episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast , Small says he'll be interested to see wha...

With a United States presidential election looming in November, Patrick Watson, Senior Economic Analyst at Mauldin Economics , says it's difficult to say what the key economic battleground will be because many voters are "living in their own realities." Speaking in a new episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast , Watson says there's not a great deal of agreement on whether the US economy i...

The "cheer squad" make it hard to have a proper debate on housing, especially when looking to address the question of what we want from the housing market from a public policy perspective. So says Cameron Murray, Chief Economist at Fresh Economic Thinking , a new Australian think-tank. In the latest episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast Murray talks about housing and his new book The Gr...

China's economy remains mired in a post-Covid hangover like much of the rest of the world, but the technology, catering and tourism sectors are encouraging, according to David Mahon. Mahon, the Beijing-based Managing Director of Mahon China Investment Management, spoke to interest.co.nz in the latest episode of our  Of Interest podcast . The relative weakness of the Chinese economy, compared to it...

The coalition government's select committee banking inquiry could look at how to encourage banks to lend more to "productive" sectors of the economy rather than having such a big focus on "unproductive" housing lending, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly says. The National-NZ First coalition agreement says the government will establish a select committee inquiry into banking compe...

New Zealand should be working towards a 100-year planning horizon when it comes to infrastructure, and viewing planning as "an exercise in dynamism and inquisition" rather than a "bureaucratic exercise." That's the view of Geoff Cooper, General Manager of Strategy at the New Zealand Infrastructure Commission. Speaking in interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast , Cooper argues planning gets a bad rap...

Although the war on inflation is being won, there are still battles to come and it's too soon to expect Reserve Bank interest rate cuts, says Kiwibank Chief Economist Jarrod Kerr. Speaking to interest.co.nz for the first 2024 episode of our Of Interest podcast , Kerr says the cost of living crisis is improving for households and businesses. "We are winning the war on inflation but there are a few...

Following COP28's call for a transition away from fossil fuels, a key test will be how quickly a rethink of the market capitalisation of oil and gas companies starts emerging, says Rod Oram. Fresh from attending COP28 in Dubai, Newsroom journalist Oram spoke to interest.co.nz for the latest episode of our  Of Interest podcast . COP28, or the 28th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Uni...

By Gareth Vaughan The first-half of 2024 is likely to be tough with rising unemployment and more businesses failing as the economy "bounces along the bottom," says BNZ Head of Research Stephen Toplis.  In a new episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast ,  Toplis delves into the swathe of domestic economic data from the past week including Gross Domestic Product, migration, Statistics New Ze...

Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr says he's "extremely confident" the world is heading back to a period of low inflation, saying the central bank is prepared to do "whatever it takes" to achieve its mandate of low and stable inflation. Speaking in in the latest episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast , Orr talks about the reaction from financial markets to last week's Reserve Bank monetary...

On the 22nd of November, while the National Party was putting the finishing touches on its coalition agreement, the European Union (EU) ratified a new trade deal with New Zealand. It was the latest in a long line of agreements NZ has struck since 1983, but it could be the last.  Speaking in in the latest episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast ,  John Ballingall, a partner at economic con...

Although trading in foreign exchange markets is inherently very risky, the Reserve Bank (RBNZ) boosting its capacity to do so makes sense both from monetary policy and financial stability perspectives, Westpac New Zealand Chief Economist Kelly Eckhold says. Speaking in in the latest episode of interest.co.nz's  Of Interest podcast , Eckhold whoformerly worked as the RBNZ's manager of foreign reser...

New Zealand should be one of the easiest places in the world to get to net zero greenhouse gas emissions and we should be planning for net negative, the next step after that, says Christina Hood. Hood, the head of energy and climate policy consultancy Compass Climate, spoke to interest.co.nz in a new episode of our Of Interest podcast . Hood is also the former head of the climate unit at theIntern...

After the 2014 election, Peter Dunne got a phone call from Prime Minister John Key to say National wouldn’t need the support of United Future to form a Government.  The same call was made to the Act and Māori parties, which had also signed confidence and supply agreements after the 2011 election.  Key invited all three parties to stay in the tent, if they wanted, but said there wouldn’t be any pol...

New Zealand's supply chains are in "a serious, if not critical condition," requiring holistic systems thinking and a long-term focus, investment and government support to become stronger and more resilient, says self proclaimed supply chain tragic Dave Christie. Christie, who has worked in supply chain roles for the army, PwC, the Warehouse, Fonterra, Coda Group, Tainui Group Holdings developing t...

The Green Party’s finance (and transport) spokesperson Julie Anne Genter has an unlikely ally on a handful of policy issues: Mayor of Auckland Wayne Brown.  Both politicians agree New Zealand needs to scale up its public transport, move more freight by rail, implement congestion charging, and build cheaper versions of big Labour projects.  The Greens already have three former mayoral candidates (o...

Labour Party finance spokesperson Grant Robertson admits to overspending in one area, his own personal home sound system, but he doesn’t regret it.  “I probably spent more money on stereo equipment than [I should’ve], but I get a great deal of joy out of it,” he said, after Interest.co.nz asked for an example. It turns out he is something of an audiophile and a huge fan of Flying Nun Records and t...