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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 …

The hunt for the Islamic State killers of British and American hostages has been hampered by Edward Snowden’s leaks about western spycraft according to claims reported in The Times on September 6. The Times report says intelligence officials, MPs and academics said revelations about the ability of GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, and America’s National Security Agency to intercept emails, …

The anti-corruption campaign which has swept across China in the last two years has gone global, as Beijing seeks to enlist the help of western democratic governments in pursuing officials who flee overseas. Underlining Beijing’s rising economic and political clout, Communist party officials have already launched an investigation into assets and individuals based in New Zealand, a country that counts China as …

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 …

The Australian is today reporting that Australia is on track to sign free-trade agreement with China at about the time of the November G20 meeting in Brisbane, after the latest round of negotiations left senior ministers believing the deal can be clinched by the end of the year. The Oz story hedges bets somewhat about where the expected signing will …