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A Southern Star Oil rig platform in Taranaki. Photo: Supplied Analysis - For the second time in three months the whiff of panic has enveloped the country's power sector. In May it was a case of plunging temperatures, rising demand, scarce supplies and the threat of lights out. The country got through without blackouts by the finest of margins. And now a scarcity of gas, and a lack of wind and rain have sent wholesale power prices skyrocketing and forced big industrial users to reduce usage and cut production, in some cases even to shut up shop. This time the world's biggest methanol maker and New Zealand's biggest gas user, Canadian based Methanex, has come to the rescue with a deal to shut its production until the end of October, and sell the gas it would have used to power generators ...

KiwiSaver has been criticised for continuing to invest in companies linked to Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Photo: IRD/screenshot An ethical investment group is raising fresh concerns about KiwiSaver funds invested in companies involved in constructing and financing Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. Research from Mindful Money showed investment in such companies increased by 20 percent in the six months to March to $85 million. Last month, the United Nations' highest court said Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories were illegal, though it was disputed by Israel. Mindful Money chief executive Barry Coates said the charity identified a number of companies involved in settlements, covering a broad range of categories, including demolition...

Photo: Ziming Li First Union says its members who are Woolworths staff aren't happy at having to pay for their own Disney costumes as part of a promotion at the supermarkets - but the chain says it's completely voluntary. Woolworths is running a new promotion in which customers are given cards featuring Disney characters. As part of that, staff are being asked whether they want to dress up as Disney characters - though they must provide the costumes themselves. The union said staff were told were to dress as accurate Disney, Marvel and Star Wars characters with licensed Disney clothing, and were not allowed to dress as DC characters or mix their costumes. Staff have been involved in industrial action with the company over pay and staffing levels. First Union national secretary of retail ...

An EFTPOS card being swiped at a terminal. Photo: 123RF Retail NZ says they understand that an Eftpos outage that occurred earlier on Tuesday is now over. Eftpos had posted an advisory on their website, saying they were experiencing a technical issue which was preventing some of its transactions from being processed. Retail NZ chief executive Carolyn Young said they had since heard that the service was now working again. RNZ has approached Eftpos for comment, but have not received any reply. The advisory on their website has now been removed however. Kiwibank, ANZ and BNZ were also not aware of any of their customers having issues. Source link

Jordan Rondel, aka The Caker, will be based in LA, working on other pursuits. Photo: thecaker, Instagram Jordan Rondel, aka The Caker, has decided to call it a day on her successful baking business, selling the boxed cake kits company along with the name she has become known for. "The Caker brand has been built on the sturdiest of foundations - honesty, commitment and passion. Anouk (Jordan's sister) and I dedicated a huge chunk of our lives to upholding its purpose and values, ingraining the business into every part of us. My name became synonymous with it, I became The Caker," Rondell wrote on Instagram to her 71.1K followers on Tuesday afternoon. "But while stuck on the exhilarating rollercoaster of entrepreneurship for almost 15 years (the last 3 being the most relentless), I've com...