If commentators are reading the tea leaves right, the government is gearing up to put its money where its mouth is and help businesses caught in New Zealand’s infamous funding gap. Lisa Friis doesn’t strike you as the sort of woman who needs help getting in front of potential investors. Tall, with a stylish blonde … Read more
The 36th America’s Cup may still be two years away but Emirates Team New Zealand’s campaign is already near top gear and Kiwi industry is winning. Imagine having to raise northwards of $100 million within four years just to run your business, and not being entirely sure how you’re going to do it. It’s not … Read more
Briscoes boss Rod Duke continues to fight to have a helipad protruding over a picturesque Auckland beach, just so he can get to his golf games quickly. Despite its geographical status as an isthmus, central Auckland is not flush with good swimming beaches. Would-be bathers are at the mercy of time, tide and parking availability. … Read more
After years of watching its income dwindle as it transitioned into the digital age the New Zealand music industry has turned a significant corner. Recorded Music New Zealand CEO Damian Vaughan is cock-a-hoop that the wallets of the artists and labels he represents are looking a lot fatter. The doom and gloom that had hung … Read more
Anointed by Forbes magazine as one of Asia Pacific’s rising entrepreneurial stars, Ben Forman has a vision for building an honourable advertising industry in his home town. This week Wellington adman Ben Forman was one of six New Zealanders to be named in Forbes Asia’s latest ‘30 Under 30’ list of the region’s hottest young entrepreneurs. Some … Read more
One of the most powerful tools of the 21st century is being allowed to operate with impunity and it’s hurting humankind, according to a silicon valley-based New Zealand AI expert. Artificial intelligence expert Sean Gourley is in the business of creating machines that can read and write. The Kiwi is the founder and CEO of … Read more
Tim Ashton was one of the police officers who shot dead Aramoana gunman David Gray. The Christchurch mosque shooting has hardened his resolve to effect meaningful gun control reform. Until 10 days ago the 1990 Aramoana tragedy in which 13 innocent people died was New Zealand’s worst mass shooting. Tim Ashton was one of the … Read more
The government’s language so far is imprecise and it must word its ban carefully to stand up against a ferocious lobby from pro-gun groups. New Zealand lawmakers will need to write the law banning semi-automatic weapons so that it can’t be defeated, a gun safety expert says. In the wake of the Christchurch shootings the … Read more
Australia has had no mass shootings since the 1996 massacre in Tasmania. Not one. New Zealand has much to learn from Australian gun laws, an expert says. US late night talk show host John Oliver took a short break from poking fun at New Zealand this week to praise the country for its collective strength … Read more
As New Zealand grapples with the aftermath of the Christchurch mosque shooting anger is growing over the ‘gaps, omissions and errors’ in our gun laws. In a day of extraordinary contrasts on Monday, the prime minister this afternoon said gun law reform would urgently pursued, while the man who sold weapons to the man charged with … Read more
A report commissioned by Uber says Auckland wins Australasia’s traffic congestion Grand Prix and needs to embrace ‘point-to-point’ transport. It’s official: Auckland is the most congested city in Australasia, according to Uber. It hired international management consultancy Boston Consulting Group to look at transport in the region’s major cities and what role ridesharing services such … Read more
Researching ancestry is a spiritual matter for Māori, and platforms like ancestry.com just don’t cut it. Ahau, a Māori-led startup, believes the mysterious technology of blockchain holds the answer. Dan Walker was a bit nervous when he put his great-great-great grandfather Tuwhakaruru Katene into ancestry.com. Tuwhakaruru lived through some of the hardest years of colonisation for … Read more
Refilleries such as GoodFor and Be Free Grocer say their time has come, with consumers from Ponsonby to Palmerston North seeking a zero-waste option. Horror stories such as sea turtles being found with hundred of pieces of plastic in their gut are shocking people into realising the planet will slowly strangle if we don’t stop … Read more
The business partnership behind the controversial LGBTI Awards has gone nuclear with one director accusing the other of theft. Maria Slade reports One of the biggest rows Linda Riley ever had with her business partner Silke Bader was over the Topp Twins. The story as Riley tells it is that the twins were due to … Read more
‘Dependent contractors’ say they are forced to fight numerous battles against corporates like the Australasian company owing to New Zealand’s lack of regulation, reports Maria Slade There are those who can’t face the day before they’ve had their Vogel’s toast. Maybe you want your Molenberg. Or perhaps your kids refuse to eat bread with “bits” … Read more
‘A mangy dog’, ‘an assault on the Kiwi way of life’ and ‘yesterday’s cold porridge’: Business groups and opposition politicians are less than flattering about the proposed new tax. The business community is unsurprisingly less than impressed that the Tax Working Group (TWG) has recommended by a majority of eight to three that New Zealand … Read more
The Sallies are so fed up with mobile traders preying on poor areas and trapping people into crushing debt that they’re firing back with a rival service. When the Salvation Army first started in New Zealand in the 1800s it noticed the bakers of the day were exploiting people with extremely high bread prices. So, … Read more
From extracting hemp oil to African artificial insemination programmes, a Christchurch-developed super refrigerator is taking the business of freezing to new levels. An obscure piece of kit that began life in a government science lab is now on the verge of creating a new $100 million export industry for New Zealand. Christchurch company Fabrum Solutions … Read more
A team of researchers at Unitec believes it has come up with a biological way of breaking down asbestos and making soil safe again. Renovation shows like The Block are unwittingly lifting the veil on a problem many homeowners thought was a long lost toxic issue of the past. “All the nice red roofs on … Read more
A property developer and a restaurateur have spent $10m purchasing a Queenstown mountain they plan to turn into a commercially viable eco-haven. Want to buy an affordable house with a native forest outlook in the tourist mecca of Queenstown, and do good for the planet at the same time? Treespace has the solution for you. … Read more
President Trump has been compared with Shakespeare’s autocratic Richard III. New Zealanders watching their diminishing KiwiSaver balances should take note. The first thing you’ll notice is this is the business editor writing about Shakespeare. It may be a summer rush of blood to the head; I prefer to think of it as a perk of … Read more
Drivers peeing into a bottle because they can’t afford toilet stops and migrant workers sleeping in depots: The trucking industry is in a race to the bottom, a new study says. It took AUT researcher Dr Clare Tedestedt George several days to recover from her 15-hour interview with a truck driver. The conversation lasted that … Read more
A graduate of a women-only startup incubator is using crowdsourcing to gather usable data about patterns of sexual assault. Whereas once the female of the species was expected to deal with ‘creepy’ behaviour from men as best she could, the #metoo movement has empowered women to speak out about sexual harassment and violence in our … Read more
The sons of pioneering immigrant vintner Nikola Nobilo are embroiled in legal action over the family inheritance, with one accusing the other of losing it all. This post was originally published 23 October 2018 A bitter battle over money has caused a deep rift in one of west Auckland’s original Croatian wine-making families, leaving two … Read more
After seeing so many reports over the years of the Swedish flatpack furniture giant coming to New Zealand, business editor Maria Slade is having a crisis of faith. I stopped believing in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy some time ago. Likewise, I do not believe IKEA is coming to New Zealand. My editor points … Read more
Business editor Maria Slade reflects on lessons learned from her truncated career in corporate PR and the enduring importance of journalism. Not so long ago I did a stint in the communications department of a large organisation which shall remain nameless… Oh bugger it, it was Fonterra. The corporate world was new to me. The … Read more
Howls of indignation over state housing evictions based on spurious meth testing have masked the reality of New Zealand’s two-speed P standard. Veronica Crichton admitted that she and her friends had been smoking meth in their Gate Pa, Tauranga home. She even got her landlord to help her evict one P-affected flatmate. She and another … Read more
Kiwis need to get over their cultural bashfulness and start faking it until they make it, businesses were told at Australasia’s first ‘Startup Grind’. Guy Kawasaki looks at me as if I’m a bit simple. I have just asked the corporate ‘evangelist’, speaker, author of 13 books and former Apple Mackintosh marketer whether New Zealand … Read more
Kids will spend hours playing video games anyway so you may as well hook them into an online adventure that teaches them something, an Attitude Awards nominee says. Tim Young says technology makes him “superhuman”. The founder of social enterprise Education These Days walks the talk when it comes to using tech to improve people’s … Read more