Business

Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone The government has outlined its upcoming changes to the law to clarify whether a worker is an employee or a contractor. The changes are part of the coalition agreement between National and ACT, which states they would "maintain the status quo that contractors who have explicitly signed up for a contracting arrangement can't challenge their employment status in the Employment Court". The amendment to the Employment Relations Act will add in a test with four criteria: a written agreement with the worker, specifying they are an independent contractor the business does not restrict the worker from working for another business (including competitors) the business does not require the worker to be availa...

Photo: 123RF Car importers are grappling with excess stock and high storage costs as demand evaporates for electric vehicles. Sales of electric vehicles have plummeted since the end of the Clean Car Discount and the introduction of road user charges for the vehicles. "Under the previous government, the message was simple: transport emissions were a major concern, EVs were the solution, and because EVs were expensive, rebates would make them more affordable to encourage uptake," said Motor Industry Association chief executive Aimee Wiley. "This combination of incentives and a clear, focused message to consumers produced tangible results. In 2023 January through August, one in four new light passenger vehicles sold were EVs. Fast forward to 2024 and EVs make up just one in 11 new light pas...

Lisa Quarrie, together with her husband Brent Quarrie, have owned and run eateries in Hamilton since 2007. Mrs Quarrie said the last few years have been even harder than when they set up their first business during the global financial crisis. Photo: Libby Kirkby-McLeod The owner of two Hamilton hospitality businesses says the industry has been picked up, shaken up and spat out as something quite different. Lisa Quarrie, together with her husband Brent Quarrie, have owned and run eateries in Hamilton since 2007. She said the last few years have been even harder than when they set up their first business during the global financial crisis. "We are like a household, but on steroids. All the pressures that households are feeling, we are feeling," she said. Their experience mirrored researc...

Photo: Sigmund / Unsplash Chocolate prices could be set to rise further as the cost of cocoa keeps pressure on. Stats NZ said this week that chocolate blocks were part of the reason that grocery food prices were up 2.4 percent in the year. Consumer prices manager James Mitchell said the average price of a 250g block of chocolate was up 20 percent over the year. The average price of a block had risen from $3.27 in mid-2006 to $5.56 in August. Foodstuffs said customers were still buying chocolate, but at a lower volume. "Our retail pricing for chocolate is driven by the market and wholesale pricing from our suppliers. In the last year, global commodity costs for cocoa were up by more than 170 percent, driven by global supply shortages, which impacts the cost that suppliers are charging us ...

RNZ's money correspondent Susan Edmunds. Photo: RNZ Send your money questions to susan.edmunds@rnz.co.nz. I fixed my home loan earlier this year, for three years at what looked at the time like a good rate. Now that rates are dropping, I'm regretting my decision. Should I break my fixed term to refix? If you decide to break your fixed term, you will usually pay a break fee. This can vary, but is based on what term you signed up for, the rate that you agreed to pay, and what rate the bank could lend the money to another borrower for now. The further rates fall from the rate you fixed at, the larger your break fee is likely to be. Sometimes, people decide it is not worth trying to break and refix because the break fee can sometimes be about as much as the interest you might save. If you f...

Ranjna Patel and her husband broke with convention as they built a large, successful healthcare network. What they did with the millions they made broke the mould, too. A roof over your head, food on the table, and a car to get around is multimillionaire Ranjna Patel's definition of wealth. "It becomes ridiculous if you have more. You've got to know when you've got enough." Patel and her doctor husband Kantilal could certainly afford a lot more. The couple founded Tāmaki Health, starting with a single clinic in Ōtara in 1977, building it into the largest independent primary health care provider in the country. Patel has collected a host of business awards and accolades along the way. The Patels sold their last remaining stake in the business in 2022, leaving them to focus on their communit...

Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Wellington City Council has banned e-scooter company Beam from operating in the capital after breaking its fleet cap. Two weeks ago, following whistleblower allegations the council suspended Beam's license leading to its scooters being removed. Wellington City Council said a report from platform Ride Report showed Beam had operated on average an extra 100 e-scooters more than it was meant to between 26 July 2023 and 21 June 2024, which was a breach of its licence. Chief planning officer Liam Hodgetts said after considering information provided by Beam, Ride Report and the whistleblower the council concluded the license had been materially breached. "It is now clear to us that there have been breaches of Beam's licence to Trade in Public and the Operator Code...

Sophia Kwon, Nina Bailey and Billy Blamires are the co-founders of Te Wiki Āhua o Aotearoa. Photo: Ryan McKenna/Ryan Patrick Photography A new fashion week has risen from the ashes after New Zealand Fashion Week's cancelled plans early this year and an all-around bleak climate for retail continues. Te Wiki Āhua o Aotearoa, an event billed as "Tāmaki Makaurau's underground fashion week" is about to wrap its first multi day event on Friday. Dozens of designers, dancers, musicians and other artists showcased their work across the five day event in Auckland. The three organisers, all women under the age of 25, were frustrated by the lack of places to showcase New Zealand's creative scenes so they started their own event. It focuses on up-and-coming New Zealand designers and, unlike typical ...

Photo: 123RF An AI-based management tool for the creative sector has been singled out for investment by global pre-seed venture capital firm Techstars. Shutterspeed was the third New Zealand company to be backed by the US global startup network with a portfolio valued at US$116 billion. The software tracks time across different stages of production without manual input from users, automating the tracking administrative tasks. Co-founders Freddie Mckenzie and Henry Collinson said they designed Shutterspeed to help content creators and creative professionals focus on what they do best. "Production companies need to a better way to understand how time is spent, who is spending it on what, what resources are in use, and what client needs to be billed for it all, so we decided to build Shutte...

REINZ chief executive Jen Baird said the numbers suggested some market stability, with increased enquiries from buyers and sellers. Photo: REINZ The housing market remains subdued, with little change in prices and sales volumes. The seasonally adjusted REINZ House Price Index fell 0.4 percent in August over July, with national prices still marginally lower than a year ago and a median price of $765,000. REINZ chief executive Jen Baird said the numbers suggested some market stability, with increased enquiries from buyers and sellers. "This month, we saw further signs of a change in market sentiment, with local agents reporting increased confidence in vendors and purchasers, the return of investors, and increased activity, particularly at open homes over the last two weeks of August," she...