Author Rachel Loo
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Australia’s toll roads are mainly built and operated by public–private partnership contracts to shift financial risk from government . The New Zealand government is actively encouraging the same funding model here — a private operator finances, builds and maintains a road in return for the right to collect tolls — often for decades at a time. The problem is that investors build these risks back into the contracts they have with governments.
A Future Fund would secure New Zealand’s infrastructure pipeline, a positive step towards long-term, non partisan infrastructure planning, says a member association which promotes best practice for transport, energy, water, telecommunications and social infrastructure. “Labour’s proposed New Zealand Future Fund could also depoliticise key aspects of the funding process – a long overdue move,” says Infrastructure New Zealand chief Nick Leggett. The Future Fund should complement, not replace, other investment tools.
A survey by Content Partner McKinsey reports that nearly nine out of 10 survey respondents say their organizations are regularly using AI although most have not yet embedded them deeply enough into their workflows and processes to realize material enterprise-level benefits. Organizations are also beginning to explore opportunities with AI agents — systems based on foundation models capable of acting in the real world, planning and executing multiple steps in a workflow.
Election year brinksmanship games are underway early with voters promised free doctor visits from one side and now a call for rate caps in 2027 from the incumbent government. Infrastructure New Zealand’s Nick Leggett warns that the Government’s proposed rate capping policy risks weakening councils at a time when the country urgently needs stronger, better-resourced local government to maintain and build the infrastructure that communities rely upon.
Link Financial has partnered with AI technology company Afterburner to transform the workday for hundreds of advisers, loan writers and administrators in Link’s network. Afterburner automates administrative tasks including mortgage recommendations, analysing business financial statements, bank handover forms, compliance documentation and client interview notes, drafting mortgage applications and writing up expert-level communications to clients and banks. Tasks that previously could take up to a couple of hours can now be completed in seconds.
McKinsey takes a 16-country look at the productivity of micro, small and medium-size enterprises which account for more than half of global GDP, make up more than 90 percent of companies worldwide and provide 21 percent of total banking revenue pools. New Zealand was not one of the study countries but Australia was and offers valuable information for SME on both sides of the ditch.
Certified builders welcome mandatory warranties
New Zealand Certified Builders Chief Executive Malcolm Fleming says the industry has been preparing for these changes for some time, following the Government’s [prior]announcement that it would be moving toward a proportionate liability system in 2027. Continue →
Insolvencies rise despite economic optimism
The BWA Insolvency report shows Q3 total insolvencies rose five percent from the previous quarter, from 738 in Q2 to 777 in Q3. Continue →
The Drug Detection Agency has a stark warning for employers as the festive season approaches. It recommends educational activity before year-end social events, which often coincide with an unwarranted social tolerance for substance use. Its latest report details the most pressing issues for employers following an eight percent jump in cannabis detections nationwide and concern that opioid positivity rates “remain stubbornly high at 18.6 percent.”
Multitudes of studies conducted over decades have failed to find compelling evidence of a link. Still, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has publically softened its stance that vaccines do not cause autism over the objections of career staff and counter to years of scientific evidence, the latest proof according to the subscription based Atlantic magazine, that health secretary and longtime vaccine sceptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is remaking US Health and Human Services in his own image.
A real-time waste analytics platform is transforming workers from manual sorters into data-driven decision-makers, upskilling teams rather than downsizing them. “We wanted to make our data accessible and usable with as little training as possible. As an operator, you want to use tools that are tailored to your needs. That’s why we spent a lot of time developing intuitive dashboards that make data easy to understand and act on,” says Gaspard Duthilleul from Greyparrot
Think donor registries not a bank of materials
Across the infrastructure and construction sectors, material passports are emerging as a promising tool for enabling circularity. Continue →
If your business owes more than $1000 in tax debt that is between six months and five years old, you might receive a call from IRD soon. They will encourage you to pay up or set up an instalment arrangement. If you owe $10,000 or more you will still have a chance to call on support from IRD but the options start to tighten up after that if you ignore warnings.
While it is hard to imagine that there is any business in New Zealand that does not need to be aware of its obligations for handling hazardous substances, not enough seem to realise that there are cost-effective compliance tools and services, including monthly alerts, available through membership of our national chemical industry association, Responsible Care NZ, part of a global voluntary chemical industry safety, health and environment protection initiative
Seventy years on and still building for the future
Calder Stewart is advancing projects in wind and solar energy and is developing property funds that allow New Zealanders to co-invest alongside the Stewart family in industrial and commercial assets. Continue →
There’s no doubt the past decade has been one of the most extraordinary periods for New Zealand’s construction industry, says QV CostBuilder Quantity Surveyor Martin Bisset. While the last decade included dramatic spikes — particularly through 2021–2022 when global supply chains were disrupted and material costs soared — more recent years have brought greater stability.
Construction costs rise double inflation rate
There’s no doubt the past decade has been one of the most extraordinary periods for New Zealand’s construction industry, says QV CostBuilder Quantity Surveyor Martin Bisset. Continue →
