New Zealand

Anzco chairman Sir Graeme Harrison – who also leads the NZ International Business Forum – has pledged business support for a “fighting fund” to promote free trade. The Harrison pledge was made a a breakfast with Prime Minister John Key in Beijing earlier today. It appeared to be in response to the anti- TPP protests which have dominated NZ headlines …

It might be churlish to note that the United States wasn’t making a great deal of the anti-competitive nature of other nation’s currency settings when it was in the thick of quantitative easing That unpalatable truth hasn’t featured at all among the issues up for negotiation during the lengthy Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations. But the Financial Times is reporting that the Obama …

By Charles Finny With the Republicans back in control of both the House and Senate in the US there are positive signs that the dysfunction apparent in recent years on the hill may be ending.  With both President Obama and the Republican Leadership stating a desire to work together on matters of national importance APEC 2014 and ancillary meetings offers …

Fonterra Cooperative Group cut its forecast 2015 milk price payout by about 12 percent, citing weaker global dairy prices and said there is a risk of further declines given strong global milk production.  New Zealand’s biggest company revised its forecast payout to farmers while releasing its results for the year ended July 31, which showed sales climbed 19.5 percent to …

New Zealand shares jumped, led by MightyRiverPower, after the National Party’s convincing election victory on the weekend wiped out any regulatory fears for the power companies. Meridian Energy, Genesis Energy and Contact Energy paced gains. The NZX 50 Index advanced 54.947 points, or 1.1 percent, to 5236.292. Within the index, 27 stocks rose, 13 fell and 10 were unchanged. Turnover …

The ruling National Party has been very comfortably re-elected at the weekend’s election in New Zealand, delivering Prime Minister John Key a third three year term as the countries leader. Mr Key’s personal popularity with the electorate was a crucial feature during the election, and despite the various late attempts to throw the campaign off track National were actually able …

Would-be Kiwi politician Kim Dotcom’s “moment of truth” passed with some concerning (but not unexpected) revelations about government spying activity in New Zealand. Despite the heavy press presence and the rather dramatic way in which the “evidence” was unveiled, there didn’t appear to be much that would have surprised the Prime Minister, or which will hurt him in the last …

You have to feel sorry for John Key that he’s been subjected to so many off-stage alarums and excursions during this, the dirtiest election campaign of my lifetime. It started with Hager’s Dirty Tricks book, dropped close to the campaign, leaving insufficient time to check the details. Hager calculated on our media being sufficiently full of gullible journalists who would …

It was the bomb that was supposed to flip the election on its head. The documents set to unveil a vast conspiracy by the Prime Minister against Kim Dotcom. John Key’s Moment of Truth. What a flop. There was no smoking gun. No game-changing piece of information. Instead, politically charged hearsay recounted as claims about New Zealand’s mass surveillance drew …