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1 week ago | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Ian Llewellyn |Deb Te Kawa
Lobbying about lobbyistsThere have been more calls for greater regulation and transparency around the lobbying sectors and how they operate.It follows ongoing stories about potential ministerial conflicts of interest and the somewhat opaque rules about managing those conflicts.Every politician and official has conflicts of interest.
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3 weeks ago | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Deb Te Kawa |Andrew Body |Peter Griffin |David Chaplin
Minister for the Public Service Judith Collins is right. The public service needs a reset.The number of public servants has grown significantly since 2017, yet few would argue that services have improved.The Government’s just-announced move to amend the Public Service Act 2020 is well-judged.New Zealanders expect public service to deliver better results with the resources it has, but at the moment, it isn’t.
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2 months ago | 
businessdesk.co.nz | David Chaplin |Dileepa Fonseka |Cameron Bagrie |Deb Te Kawa
“In the spirit of universalism,” writes James Greig in a hit job for online travel zine Thrillist, “you might defend the right of digital nomads to live wherever they want, but this right is not under threat: they are pandered to at every turn; economically disadvantaged countries are competing to entice them … ”And last month, New Zealand joined the list of those down-at-heel desperado economies with a grovelling and lame appeal to the estimated 35 million individuals who identify as digital...
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2 months ago | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Pattrick Smellie |Ian Llewellyn |Deb Te Kawa |Jem Traylen
New Zealand’s monitoring of “politically exposed persons”’ leaves much to be desired and is one of the factors underpinning an apparently entrenched decade-long slide in the country’s corruption rating by the anti-corruption lobby group Transparency International.
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2 months ago | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Dileepa Fonseka |Cameron Bagrie |Deb Te Kawa |Maria Slade
Golden visas are a lever countries pull when they need growth fast, but the political consensus around them has an expiry date.After pulling the golden visa lever hard post-pandemic, many countries are now rolling back their golden visa programmes.
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2 months ago | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Deb Te Kawa |Cameron Bagrie |Maria Slade |Simon Robertson
It’s me again. By now, you will have worked out I’ve got a keen interest in public service efficiency and public sector delivery.I’ve also got strong opinions about calendars and the importance of letting the frontline get on with their jobs.That’s why I was intrigued to read the Public Service Commissioner’s letter to his chief executives.Let’s talk about what he said about meetings.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Oliver Lewis |Deb Te Kawa
If you are reading this article, congratulations. 2024 was awash with signals of an emerging post-literate culture, where the spoken word once again has been gaining the upper hand and confident speakers thrive as written language merely survives.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Jem Traylen |Oliver Lewis |Deb Te Kawa
Employers have welcomed the axing of the much-maligned median wage rule for work visas, but unions say it leaves a vacuum that could lead to migrant exploitation.Just before Christmas, Immigration Minister Erica Stanford announced an overhaul of the accredited employer work visa (AEWV) – the centrepiece of Labour’s 2022 immigration reset.Topping the list of the reforms, which take effect in March, is ditching the requirement that AEWV holders be paid at least the median wage.Blunt...
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Cameron Bagrie |Pattrick Smellie |Deb Te Kawa |Dileepa Fonseka
Arnie’s line from The Terminator, “I’ll be back”, could well resemble a potential story of 2025, namely inflation.This week’s inflation read in the United States (Thursday morning NZT) is shaping up as critical for market sentiment and the central bank's credibility.There are growing concerns over the trajectory for inflation in the US.
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Jan 13, 2025 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Oliver Lewis |Deb Te Kawa
Oliver Lewis spent three months working remotely from the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. He shares his lessons for Auckland.After several years as a vegetarian and, latterly, a pescetarian, I knew my diet was likely to undergo a meat-orientated metamorphosis upon arrival in Argentina. And so it proved.
