New Zealand consumer confidence edged up in December from November, with more kiwis expecting their families to be better off in a year’s time and the nation to have better times over the next five years. The ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence rose to 114.7 this month from 114.1 in November. A reading above 100 indicates there are more optimists than …

An Employment Relations Authority decision has whacked Ports of Auckland with a $40,000 fine for employing strike-breakers when its unionised workforce was picketing earlier this year. ERA member Anna Fitzgibbon yesterday found the port took a calculated risk in using an external contractor under the guise of a training programme while Maritime Union staff were on strike in February this …

The New Zealand and Australian governments should settle once and for all the long-running argument over the tax treatment of imputation credits, which currently penalises trans-Tasman investors, says a new report from the two country’s productivity commissions. write college essays for money The commissions suggest such a move could cost Australia as much as $1 billion a year in lost …