Business

Photo: 123rf Westpac New Zealand are apologising for an error, which caused online banking customers to receive a Westpac One notification from "123456789012345678901234567890" with the message "123456789012345678901234567890123456789" between 4 and 4.30pm on Thursday. In a Facebook post, Westpac said customers had received a string of numbers instead of a message, which had been published to its Westpac One messaging service. Photo: Supplied / Westpac New Zealand One person RNZ spoke to said they were also unable to login to their account. However, all services were operational, according to the Westpac status page, and no incidents had been reported by 5pm. There have been more than 1000 reports of Westpac outages across New Zealand, according to Downdetector, a site which monit...

By Antje Fiedler and Benjamin Fath* of Many businesses are doing it tough - squeezed between rising costs and increasingly frugal customers. Photo: RNZ / Alexa Cook Opinion - With rising costs and drops in consumer spending, small businesses have been struggling lately. Continuous economic pressure is causing significant stress and burnout among small business owners, while confidence continues to decline. Data from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment shows company liquidations are up 40 percent in the first eight months of 2024, compared to 2023. Construction, retail and hospitality have been hit hard due to rising costs and declining spending. The economic climate has been compared with the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC). But ...

More than 100,000 houses were empty in the latest census. Photo: MINT IMAGES More than 100,000 houses were empty in the latest census - and not just because their normal inhabitants were away. But commentators say only a small portion of them are likely to be true 'ghost houses'. In total, the census recorded 111,666 dwellings that were empty. Another 113,499 had their residents away when the Census was conducted. In 2018, 97,842 were empty. Brad Olsen, chief executive at Infometrics, said houses could be empty for a number of reasons - including being a holiday home, being under renovation or having been recently constructed and not moved into yet. He said, overall, 10.8 percent of total dwellings were unoccupied in the census, up from 10.2 percent in 2018 and 10.6 percent in 2013. In ...

Photo: befunky.com Health New Zealand's financial position has continued to worsen, according to its latest quarterly report. However, wait times are showing some improvement. For the year to June, the deficit (from preliminary unaudited results) has now blown out to $934 million - a dramatic downgrade from the $299m surplus forecast in quarter three. Chief executive Margie Apa said the gloomier outlook was partly due to one-off factors including write-offs to surplus Covid-19 stock, Holidays Act remediation, cuts to Hauora Māori funding, unbudgeted staffing costs and "higher outsourcing across all employment groups". Health NZ chief executive Margie Apa. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone "We are committed to resetting Health NZ to ensure that every hour and every dollar we put into ou...

By Georgie Hewson, ABC Sofia Qistine (left) said she was surprised about how expensive the cookies were. Photo: Supplied/ Sofia Qistine For Sydney foodies with a sweet tooth, the chance to try treats from a famous cookie brand only sold in the US was too good to pass up. So, a pop-up store selling the cookies advertised on TikTok in Bondi over the weekend was met with long lines down the block. Many had high expectations for the treats, which were being sold for $AU17.50 ($NZ19.40) each. But soon, social media was flooded with complaints about the quality of the cookies and their high price. Then an even-more confusing story emerged: The pop-up was not approved or run by the US brand Crumbl, and the organisers has gone to unusual lengths to bring the product to Australia. It was the ...

Winstone Pulp International will close after 45 years today. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER It is the last day for Winstone Pulp International after operating for 45 years in the Ruapehu District, providing hundreds of jobs and millions of dollars for the local economy. For many of the mill's workers, the place was more than just a job, they have spent years there - building lifelong friendships and communities, and growing their skills in the industry. As worker Zach Ryan headed into his final shift at the mill, he told RNZ that he first walked in the doors 14 years ago, fresh out of high school. "I've done my apprenticeship here and learned a lot of good things, it's definitely somewhere that I hold a lot of fond memories of," he said. Like many others, he was still processing the loss of...

Photo: Unsplash/ Simon Kadula Renee Joblin runs a small engineering company that has been built up through hard work over the years. Right now, she's waiting for $10,000 in payments that should have come in on the 20th of the month and she has suppliers "breathing down her neck" for $6000. "My family has to go without groceries because I have to pay my rent and staff wages." It's often bigger companies that try to set their own payment terms, she said. "Even though we ask those big companies for deposits on bigger jobs they don't pay them, just wait until the whole invoice is due - which creates a knock-on effect... we have no debt older than 30 days but there is stuff owed to us that is older than 50 days and that's why sometimes we don't pay on time." Accounting platform Xero has relea...

Thousands of levy invoices were sent to to New Zealand tax residents who had declared foreign employment or service income in their tax return. File photo. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver ACC is chasing thousands of New Zealanders for levies on income they earned while working overseas. The department said it had sent 4300 levy invoices for the 2023 tax year to New Zealand tax residents who had declared foreign employment or service income in their tax return. These invoices can run into thousands of dollars. It said ACC was generally charged on employment income taxable in New Zealand, which meant people who went overseas to work but retained tax residency might remain liable for ACC levies. To give up tax residency, people generally need to be away from New Zealand for more than 325 days i...

Some people are reportedly putting BNPL payments ahead of everything else. File photo. Photo: 123RF Financial mentors are concerned that buy now pay later loans are snowballing into major debt problems for some borrowers. While Centrix data shows buy now pay later (BNPL) arrears have dropped, mentors say people who are in a cycle of BNPL debt are prioritising its payments over their other obligations. "Financial mentors are getting really stretched by unaffordable buy now pay later loans," said Fincap senior policy adviser Jake Lilley. "They've told me that some whānau are presenting for food support after one initially affordable purchase through a buy now pay later loan snowballed into multiple loans. The apps seem to encourage people to spend more and more through buy now pay later l...

Photo: Unsplash / RNZ When you drive south down State Highway 1 to get to the Cannabis Clinic in Auckland, you can't ignore the exit number: 420. The number - spoken as four-twenty - is cultural slang for weed. But Dr Waseem Alzaher assures me that isn't why he chose the swanky beachside suburb of Takapuna for the location of what would become New Zealand's largest prescriber of medicinal cannabis. Really, it was convenient and Takapuna doesn't scream weed (it gives off more of a sneaky-bit-of-cocaine, $100 bottle of red kinda vibe). "It is part of why the universe ended up putting us here," says Alzaher, who spent time as an emergency room doctor and as a GP before setting up the Cannabis Clinic. "It was all meant to be: exit 420, a big cannabis clinic, big cannabis pharmacy and then we...