Summer reissue: Marsha Pohatu has lost two front teeth and seen friends die while working in the New Zealand trucking sector. The industry’s culture of dangerous practices has to stop, she says. This story was first published on 7 February, 2019. Exhausting and illegal hours, antagonistic and exploitative management, untreated injuries and fatalities: Driver Marsha … Read more
Rohan Hill and Ian Jorgensen are having so much fun running their boutique audio equipment firm that no amount of money could make them sell. Wellington electronics manufacturer Synthstrom Audible can only just keep up with demand for its flagship product. Engineer and musician Rohan Hill developed the portable Deluge synth/sequencer/sampler – “in my bedroom, … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Bruce Turner and Thomas Rowe from Urbanaut Brewing Co. There are probably a few people who have kept … Read more
Jo and Brendan Lindsay made millions out of plastic lunch boxes and now they are figuring out how to give back to the New Zealand that fostered their good fortune. If there is a downside to selling your company for $660 million it is that people think you’ve suddenly been transformed into an altruistic ATM. … Read more
The Spinoff is seeking applications for the role of business journalist, starting February 2020. The Spinoff is seeking a journalist to run our business section. Primarily a writing and reporting role, they will also commission and edit from within our (we think) excellent group of staff writers, and occasionally outside the room too. Our business … Read more
Most of the coal reserves on corporates’ balance sheets will never be extracted meaning they are worthless. This has implications for people’s retirement savings, writes John Berry. Westland’s mayor Bruce Smith recently rallied against proposed restrictions on West Coast coal mining, telling Radio New Zealand “coal is a critical part of how we live every … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Robyn McLean, co-founder of The Hello Cup. This week on Business is Boring is one of the co-founders … Read more
Changes to GST for overseas retailers came into effect on December 1. What do these changes mean for consumers, local businesses, and the online shopping market in New Zealand? This Christmas thousands of smart Kiwi consumers have done a lot of their gift shopping online. After all, it seems a waste of time to join … Read more
1980s corporate raider Sir Ron Brierley has been charged over alleged possession of child sexual abuse images, according to Australian media reports. The 82-year-old multi-millionaire is one of New Zealand’s most successful business people. Who is he? How did Brierley make his name? Ron Brierley set up Brierley Investments in 1961, a company which became … Read more
A book interview turns into a business and life lesson for Madeleine Chapman. Sir Michael Hill (first name Michael, last name Jeweller) gently held my hand on his superyacht. His hands were insultingly softer than mine, and he was selling me an imaginary engagement ring. “You slide the ring on the finger, straighten it up. … Read more
Kiwi startup founder Jenene Crossan has spent two years enduring jetlag and heinous London Airbnb prices as she builds her latest business. Jenene Crossan, co-founder and CEO of beauty booking service Flossie, has spent most of the past two years sitting in airport lounges and living out of suitcases in a bid to launch Flossie’s offshoot, … Read more
Online marketplace Sidekicker is taking advantage of people who have little choice but to juggle multiple low-paying jobs to make ends meet, writes artist and freelancer Ben Markley. After graduating early this year with one of the least vocational degrees, I didn’t expect the largest array of job prospects. Nevertheless, I was surprised by how … Read more
From Middle Earth to outer space, New Zealand business has covered a lot of ground in the last 10 years. Business editor Maria Slade looks back. As the world emerged blinking from the chaos of the 2008/2009 global financial crisis, New Zealand began the 2010s in relatively good shape. We’d recovered from our short and … Read more
Business is Boring is a podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Campbell Ellison from Callaghan Innovation and Alexandra Allan, CEO of FoodBowl. One of the coolest things about Business is … Read more
The government’s books are now expected to go into the red this financial year with a forecast deficit of $900 million, down from a budget forecast surplus of $1.3 billion. The government will borrow $12 billion to spend on transport, schools, hospitals and investment in the regions over the next five years, in a bid … Read more
As controversy including a $10m lawsuit and ‘ghost’ offices continues to swirl around Jamie Beaton, his fellow Rhodes scholars have slammed him for trying to recruit them. Those who gain a prestigious Rhodes Scholarship must display “truth, courage, devotion to duty, sympathy for and protection of the weak, kindliness, unselfishness and fellowship”. Given this ethos … Read more
Following the raging success of the 2018 non-goat ethical Christmas gift guide, here for you today – responsibly wrapped in reusable gift wrap – is the 2019 list of ethical, sustainable, socially conscious, or charitable gift ideas to satisfy all kinds of family members and budgets. Budget Category: ‘Can we pay you in exposure?’ Cookies … Read more
Lime brought e-scooters to Auckland and changed the way we travel in less than a year. Now, the council is replacing it and Wave with three new contenders. Josie Adams goes to the Lime warehouse to say goodbye to the original scooters. In a warehouse in Eden Terrace, almost a thousand Limes hibernate. More than … Read more
The birthplace of the Labour Party is once again at the forefront of a new movement, this time harnessing the power of the collective to step away from coal towards a low carbon future. Blackball is a small place with a huge history. This week the town, 29 kilometres from Greymouth, gained a long-awaited boost … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Jodie Fox, co-founder of Shoes of Prey. For many years, this week’s podcast guest executed every move from … Read more
From faster payments to ‘burden hunters’ that will hunt down and cut red tape, the government has announced a set of initiatives to make life easier for SMEs. Given it was actually quite good news the government’s announcement of measures to help small businesses flew surprisingly under the radar this week. Its biggest early Christmas … Read more
Rapidly growing Northland startup North Drill believes in making a profit so that it can hire more people and provide a better life for their whānau. Business editor Maria Slade reports. Ida-Jean and Bronson Murray are buying homes in Whangārei. In a region where prices are up over 9% for the year, there’s nothing revolutionary … Read more
Condemning agriculture and tarring all farmers with the same brush does nothing to further environmentalists’ cause, argues Adam Currie. Are there simply too many cows in our country? Or are urbanites just aggressively exacerbating the farming crisis from their sterile offices? The inconvenient truth is that both are true. We urgently need to change our … Read more
At this time of year, small debts can put people living on low incomes into huge hardship. A microfinance provider is doing their bit to lift people back up again. The financial pressures that come with the holiday period are difficult enough for any family to manage. They become a lot harder when there already … Read more
Posting your art online is a no-brainer: it’s a gallery and marketing all in one. It’s also a cesspit of digital thieves. Josie Adams spoke to three artists about theft online. Ardie Savea has just changed his Twitter profile picture to a drawing by Toby Morris. Morris is stoked the rugby player likes his work, … Read more
Clean tech could be a man-made solution to the man-made problem of climate change. Callaghan Innovation is encouraging local innovators to develop their ideas for a lower-emissions planet, with their 2019 C-Prize challenge. In New Zealand, far away from the rest of the world, we often forget that our knack for innovation is highly regarded. … Read more
Closing it down entirely isn’t the answer, but neither is letting it run as before. Jeanette Fitzsimons has a compromise plan. An asset or a liability? Actually, Tiwai is both, but the liability could be turned into an asset with some creative thinking. A structural change in New Zealand’s relationship with the aluminium industry could … Read more
Fletcher Building has finally addressed the elephant in the room and it has caused no more than a ripple among its conservative shareholder base, writes business editor Maria Slade. Pania Newton, shareholder, and protector at Ihumātao, is now close to an old hand at Fletcher Building annual meetings. When she rose to ask a question … Read more
Business is Boring is a weekly podcast series presented by The Spinoff in association with Callaghan Innovation. Host Simon Pound speaks with innovators and commentators focused on the future of New Zealand. This week he talks to Jeff Xu, CEO, and Ollie McDermot, co-founder and designer of Micropod. At over $60 for one kg, microgreens … Read more