60 articles
The Government has rescinded October 2025 decisions that would have forced KiwiSaver and other managed funds to report private and unlisted holdings in granular categories on the Disclose Register from March 2027.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s stock survey for the year to 30 June 2026 puts the national beef herd at 3.96 million head, up 3.3 percent, while sheep numbers fell 2 percent to 22.78 million.
Forestry Minister Todd McClay has appointed former Bay of Plenty regional chair Doug Leeder as facilitator to advise Ministers on further support or intervention for forestry in Tairāwhiti, days after Gisborne District Council launched its own independent review of consenting and compliance.
Christchurch City Holdings is committing about $300 million of public capital to an $821 million Lyttelton container expansion after rejecting a DP World–rūnanga operating lease, pairing seismic resilience with a prospective bet on dual large-ship berths and design capacity near 850,000 TEU by 2031.
Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s 20–22 August Auckland visit will launch a New Zealand–Thailand Strategic Partnership. For dairy exporters, the real test is whether Milk Board rationing of zero-tariff access ends.
Cabinet has agreed to progress a Ministry for Regulation package aimed at cutting residential solar approval costs from about $640 and three months to roughly $200 and six days, and legalising plug-in solar.
Westpac New Zealand has scrapped merchandise redemptions from its hotpoints credit cards after only 7 percent of points were used that way, shifting customers toward merchant-funded cashback offers that sit outside the bank’s classic points P&L.
New Zealand recorded 201,900 overseas visitor arrivals in June 2026, up 8.1 per cent on a year earlier and equal to 95 per cent of June 2019 levels, Stats NZ figures show.
An independent expert panel has granted Fast-track approvals for Genesis Energy’s 220 MWp Foxton Solar Farm, the 32nd project and eighth renewable cleared under the permanent regime.
Labour productivity in New Zealand civil construction fell 6% between 2020 and 2024, Newsroom reported from Te Waihanga data, erasing most of two decades of prior gains as a multi-hundred-billion infrastructure pipeline looms.
Zespri has filed a US lawsuit seeking refund of multi-million-dollar tariffs it paid as importer of record after the Supreme Court struck down President Trump’s IEEPA duties.
The Environmental Protection Authority cut its hazardous-substances release queue by more than a third in 2025/26 and posted the highest annual decision total since 2018/19, yet missed Statement of Performance Expectations targets on complex applications.
New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals has granted Matahio NZ Onshore Limited a 10-year petroleum mining permit over the onshore Taranaki Puka field, the second such grant in eight years as national 2P gas reserves sit at a record low.
New Zealand’s National Infrastructure Pipeline has climbed to $290 billion, but only about one-third of that stock is fully funded, Te Waihanga’s June 2026 snapshot shows.
Global whey powder prices rose 76% year-on-year in June, Rabobank data show, as New Zealand processors expand high-value protein capacity on the back of proteinmaxxing demand and GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
Inland Revenue imposed 4,607 shortfall penalties in the year ended 30 June 2025, nearly double the prior year, as Budget-funded compliance work drove a sharp rise in gross-carelessness sanctions.
ANZ cut 85 bank ATMs over two years and Westpac cut 54, as free cash access thins and private machines charge about $2.50 a withdrawal ahead of RBNZ’s September cash findings.
The High Court has banned convicted insider trader Peter Huljich from managing financial markets participants for seven years, closing the FMA’s Pushpay proceedings after he did not oppose the order.
An independent Fast-track panel has approved Ngāi Tahu Seafood’s Hananui open-ocean king salmon farm off Rakiura, the first aquaculture consent under the 2024 Act and a material step toward the Government’s $3 billion aquaculture revenue target by 2035.
Spark’s full-year result on 20 August anchors an NZX reporting season that will test whether near-record equities reflect real resilience—or mask a household squeeze from 5.6% unemployment, 4.1% CPI and a renewed OCR hike to 2.50%.
The Crown has signed binding deals to monetise residual interest-free Chorus fibre securities for about $702 million net, a $60 million-plus premium to book value already scored in Budget 2026 capital settings.
The Labour Party on 6 August 2026 announced a $1.56 billion package of targeted relief for small businesses, financed by repealing National's Investment Boost scheme.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer have appointed James Miller as chair of the Financial Markets Authority for a five-year term starting 6 August 2026.
Overseas investors secured consents for more than $24 billion in New Zealand transactions through the Overseas Investment Office in the 2025/26 year, transferring 106,000 hectares of land.
The Government has capped taxpayer contributions for two new Cook Strait rail ferries at $1.7 billion, securing claimed savings of $2.3 billion compared with the cancelled Project iReX.
Inland Revenue has applied to liquidate three Auckland companies tied to Olympic decathlete Brent Newdick’s former Parnell hospitality venues amid a sharp rise in sector insolvencies.
The Commerce Commission will decide by 26 August 2026 whether to clear J&P Turner Limited's proposed acquisition of T&G Fresh. The deal would reduce the number of major national fresh produce wholesalers from three to two.
Inland Revenue held $619.311 million in unclaimed money as at 30 June 2025. The total has risen each year from $446.758 million in June 2023 and $574.547 million in June 2024.
The High Court in Christchurch ordered the liquidation of six companies linked to Rangiora-based Chance Voight Investment Corporation Limited on 24 July 2026 after finding the group insolvent and reliant on new investor funds to meet existing obligations.
The New Zealand Government will provide up to $60 million to Fletcher Building’s Golden Bay Cement to sustain domestic clinker and cement production at the Portland plant near Whangārei through at least 31 December 2040.
The New Zealand Government has agreed to grant Golden Bay Cement up to $60 million to keep its Whangārei plant operating and maintain domestic clinker production until at least 31 December 2040.
The government has capped taxpayer funding for New Zealand's new Cook Strait rail ferries at $1.7 billion. This delivers a $2.3 billion saving against the cancelled Project iReX.
The Treasury released its July 2026 Strengthening Investor Assurance newsletter on 17 July 2026. The update details concrete progress on five Cabinet-agreed changes to New Zealand's Investment Management System.
Regional Development Minister Shane Jones has reappointed John Rae as Chair of Crown Regional Holdings Limited for a further three-year term.
The Government will direct $5 million from the International Visitor Levy into one-off marketing and business events programmes for the 2026/27 year to accelerate tourism's return toward pre-pandemic levels.
The Government will remove nine health and life insurers from New Zealand's mandatory climate-related disclosures regime, reducing the total number of required reporting entities to 67.
The government will expand its AI Advisory Pilot to support 150 small businesses, up from 50, drawing on the initial $765,000 allocation from existing MBIE appropriations, Small Business and Manufacturing Minister Cameron Brewer announced on 15 May 2026.
MBIE began public consultation on 9 June 2026 on a two-layer Winter Energy Reliability Obligation that shifts dry-year back-up responsibility to large electricity buyers and generators, while penalties for serious breaches rise from a $2 million cap to a maximum of $10 million, three times commercial gain or 10 per cent of turnover, whichever is greatest, effective 2027.
The Financial Markets Authority will assume regulatory responsibility for the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 from the Commerce Commission on 1 July 2026.
The Commerce Commission has released a draft decision proposing to cap interchange fees for commercial credit cards at 0.20 per cent for in-person transactions and 0.40 per cent for online transactions.
Pausing, cancelling and delaying infrastructure projects has cost New Zealand an estimated $11.835 billion over the past 25 years, according to a new report by economist Shamubeel Eaqub.
Mainfreight Limited achieved revenue of NZ$5.38 billion for the year ended 31 March 2026, up 2.8 percent, even as net profit fell 8.5 percent to NZ$251 million. Elevated fuel costs drove the margin compression and now feed directly into Reserve Bank of New Zealand inflation forecasts.
Monopoly Watch director Tex Edwards has accused large law firms of swamping parliamentary submissions on the Commerce (Commerce Commission Reform) Amendment Bill with lobbying.
New Zealand has more than 260 regulators, a new government report shows, exposing decades of overlap and complexity across central government, local councils and statutory bodies.
Ilaisaane Malupo, trading as Nane Easy Loan Finance Services NZ, was sentenced on 26 May 2026 in the Auckland District Court to 150 hours of community service, $15,000 restitution and a two-year lending ban.
Unison Networks has warned Napier City Council that its proposed shift to a capital-value transportation rate will raise electricity and telecommunications charges for Napier residents.
The Meat Industry Association has appointed Nick Beeby as chief executive effective 1 July 2026. Beeby succeeds Sirma Karapeeva and takes the role at a time when New Zealand red meat and fifth-quarter exports reached a record $11.7 billion in calendar 2025.
Inland Revenue is proposing to zero-rate GST on conference and convention attendance fees supplied to non-resident businesses. The move targets a 15 percent cost handicap that has deterred international organisers from choosing New Zealand.
The government announced a Gas Transition Loan Guarantee Scheme on 25 May 2026 to support up to $1.2 billion in bank lending for businesses reducing natural gas use.
The Commerce Commission will release its final decision this week on the default price-quality path for New Zealand's gas pipeline businesses from October 2026, testing how much cost recovery the regulator allows network owners to accelerate as supply and demand decline.
Worldclear Limited, a small Hamilton company with fewer than a dozen staff, processed around NZ$500 million in international payments annually for clients later convicted of financial crimes.
Class action proceedings against overseas online gambling operators Bet365 and Super Group have hit a jurisdiction hurdle in the New Zealand High Court, with defendants arguing that any delays stem from suing foreign parties.
EROAD Limited swung to a $161.1 million net loss for the year ended 31 March 2026 after booking a $134.7 million non-cash impairment on its North American operations. The result marks a sharp reversal from the $1.4 million profit recorded in FY25 and underscores the risks of scaling a telematics platform into volatile international freight markets.
WorkSafe New Zealand charged WasteCo NZ Ltd on or around May 4 2026 with three alleged breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 following the May 2025 death of worker Lynda Marion Kelly at the Te Anau transfer station.
Business leaders report modest gains in financial positivity while overall sentiment stays near record lows, underscoring a diverging economy where export-oriented sectors gain ground and domestic-facing industries struggle under fuel-price pressures and pre-election uncertainty.
New Zealand banks channel only 18 per cent of lending to businesses excluding agriculture, well below the 30 per cent share recorded in Australia at the same point.
The government's abrupt scrapping of a long-term energy strategy in April 2026 has left New Zealand businesses facing fresh uncertainty, as gas reserves continue their sharp decline and short-term fixes dominate policy.
No New Zealand bank has met Consumer NZ's threshold for its People's Choice award for customer satisfaction in 2026, the first time this has occurred in ten years.
Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced on 19 May 2026 that the Ministry for Primary Industries has published the terms of reference for the statutory review of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001.
Australia's replacement of the 50 per cent capital gains tax discount with a 30 per cent minimum rate on real gains from 1 July 2027 has made New Zealand the lighter-tax option for company founders across the Tasman.
