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IRD has been giving hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' details to social media platforms for marketing campaigns. File photo. Photo: AFP Inland Revenue (IRD) has confirmed it will look into the safety of how it anonymises the taxpayers' details it provides to Facebook and other social media platforms. IRD is giving hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' details to social media platforms for marketing campaigns, despite legal and computer experts saying it is not safe. It earlier said all the details were fully protected by anonymisation using a "hashing" process, in which letters are replaced by numbers. 'Hashing' substitutes long strings of letters and numbers for taxpayers' names, dates of birth, address, phone, and email contacts, which have been provided by IRD in lists of up to half ...

Photo: Alexa Cook/RNZ The final decision on whether a Central North Island forestry products mill will close down has been pushed out to Tuesday. Winstone Pulp International is proposing to close its two mills indefinitely due to high wholesale power prices, and a final decision was expected on Monday. However, Winstone chief executive Mike Ryan told RNZ that has changed. "Winstone Pulp International has extended the timeframe for a decision on its future until the afternoon of Tuesday 10 September," he said. Mayors, forestry companies and ministers have met several times over the past few weeks in a bid to find a solution that would prevent the loss of 230 jobs. Some locals have not stuck around for the final decision and have already left to work in Australia, but many are anxiously aw...

Federated Farmers' meat and wool chairperson Toby Williams. Photo: RNZ / Jimmy Ellingham It is looking like another challenging season ahead for the country's already struggling sheep farmers. Beef and Lamb New Zealand's new season outlook showed while global demand for red meat was forecast to improve slightly next season, farm profitability will remain a challenge - especially for sheep farming. The report said farm profit margins were being hit by high costs, especially interest payments, reaching low levels similar to those seen in the 1980s and 1990s. It described the current forecast for farm profitability this coming year as "sobering" - with profitability for red meat forecast to drop 7.4 percent to an average of $45,200 per farm. It said the 1 percent expected increase in reven...

The regulator's work programme will include breaking down barriers to competition. Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski A new power sector investigator will work on bringing more generators and independent retailers into the electricity market to strengthen competition. The Commerce Commission and the Electricity Authority established the Energy Competition Task Force last month to tackle high prices on the wholesale market. The regulator's work programme will include breaking down barriers to competition. Commission chair Dr John Small said for example, new market entrants need to know the sector can support them if the wind did not blow or the sun did not shine. "A big issue for independents who are investing in renewable technology such as wind and solar [is] these are intermittent sources o...

Photo: FREELANCEIMAGES/UNIVERSAL IMAGES A long list of 147 solar, wind and geothermal projects have been announced by companies eager to find investment for a renewables boom. Massey University mathematics professor and climate writer Robert McLachlan said if every solar or wind farm that was announced got built, New Zealand would be flush with renewable energy. The Electricity Authority's generation pipeline said 10,000 gigawatt hours of new supply were being actively pursued out to 2026, equal to between a quarter and a fifth of the country's annual power consumption. But McLachlan said less than a fifth of that was fully committed or close to committed before the end of next year. "In the short term there will be more projects approved. "I don't think there's enough for next year," he...