LanzaTech makes senior leadership changes, further cost savings
Kiwi-founded and Nasdaq-listed carbon recycling company LanzaTech has introduced key leadership changes that it hopes will save around US$1 million a year.
The company's share price plunged a futher 6% on the news, to US 24 cents.
The changes in the leadership executive team include Sushmita
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7 hours ago
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Worsening Poverty And Social Misery In New Zealand
Press Release – Socialist Equality Group The government is seeking to solve the worsening economic crisis by ramping up the exploitation of the working class, while protecting the fortunes of the super-rich. Last week New Zealand's Treasury released a Child Poverty Report, which forecast that the proportion of children living in poverty will increase from 17.7 percent in 2024 to 18.4 percent in 2029. The report was released along with the National Party-led government's austerity budget, which starves public services, while cutting workers' wages, reducing government contributions to retirement savings and barring thousands of unemployed teenagers from welfare. The government is seeking to solve the worsening economic crisis by ramping up the exploitation of the working class, while protecting the fortunes of the super-rich. Asked by a TVNZ interviewer why the government had not done more in the budget to address child poverty, Finance Minister Nicola Willis declared: 'there is not actually a magic money tree that allows me to show such generosity that I can solve every problem at once.' Year after year, successive Labour and National Party governments have trotted out this refrain, even as they have handed tens of billions of dollars to the corporate elite through tax cuts, subsidies and bailouts, and spent billions on the armed forces. The National-led coalition government—with the support of the opposition Labour Party—will spend an extra $13 billion over the next four years as part of its plan to double the size of the military and integrate New Zealand further into US-led imperialist wars. Sarita Divis of the Child Poverty Action Group, a non-government organisation, pointed out in a New Zealand Herald column last month that the $3 billion annual increase in defence spending is exactly what the Treasury itself estimated it would cost to halve the level of child poverty by 2028. The government's Child Poverty Report actually understates the extent of child poverty. Its data is more than a year old, covering the period from July 2023 to June 2024. Over the past year, the number of people in full-time work has fallen by 45,000 as unemployment increased from 4 to 5.1 percent, and living costs have continued to rise while wages stagnated. Moreover, the government defines poverty as less than 50 percent of the median household income after paying for housing costs—an extremely low bar. While the percentage of children below this poverty line was unchanged in the year to June 2024, the number of children living in 'material hardship'—the poorest of the poor—increased by almost a third between 2022 and mid-2024, from 10.5 percent to 13.4 percent. 'Material hardship' is defined as lacking access to six or more 'essentials,' such as decent housing, heating, healthy food, warm clothes and shoes, etc. Another survey, by the Ministry of Health, found that last year 27 percent of children 'lived in households where food ran out often or sometimes,' up from 21 percent the year before. Numerous reports illustrate an increasingly severe social crisis. The Christchurch Press wrote on May 22: 'Some families have moved into one heated room to keep warm, while others are taking out loans to pay their power bills as costs rise and temperatures drop.' It noted that last year, 'Consumer NZ estimated 140,000 households had to take out a loan to pay their power bill, and a further 38,000 households had their power cut at least once as they couldn't pay their bill.' In Wellington, the Post reported on May 10 that 'Food charities are facing an unprecedented surge in demand from struggling middle income earners.' In February, one soup kitchen 'served 7930 meals, 1200 more than across the same month in 2024.' Nationwide 500,000 people, one tenth of the population, relies on food banks on a regular basis. Homelessness continues to become more visible in every major centre. The government has boasted about reducing the number of emergency housing places from 4,000 in September 2023 to around 500 in December 2024—despite the 2023 census finding that 112,496 people, or 2.3 percent of the population, are 'severely housing deprived' (up from 99,462 people in 2018). According to government data cited by the Press, 'the number of emergency housing special needs grants, which fund temporary accommodation for people in need, have dropped from 8873 in July 2023, to just 1338 in March 2025.' Growing social misery and hopelessness is reflected in an unprecedented surge in the use of dangerous drugs. In Northland, the poorest region, as well as Southland and Otago, wastewater testing shows methamphetamine use has tripled in the past year. Nationwide, the amount of meth consumed between October and December 2024 was 78 percent higher than the average over the previous 12 months. There is also a profound mental health crisis, particularly affecting young people. A May 14 report by UNICEF revealed that New Zealand had the worst youth suicide rate of the 36 countries in the OECD, with 17.1 suicides per 100,000 people aged 15 to 19 (based on data from 2018–20). UNICEF appealed to the government to increase welfare payments for families with children and to address food insecurity by expanding the provision of free school lunches. The government has made cruel cuts in both areas. The government has deflected blame for young people's poor mental health onto social media. It is seeking to ban under-16-year-olds from social media platforms. This has nothing to do with protecting children but is aimed at strengthening state control over the internet and stopping teenagers from accessing political material, especially socialist articles explaining the real causes of inequality, poverty and war. While the Labour Party has criticised the latest budget cuts, this is entirely hypocritical. Homelessness, child poverty and the cost of living all became worse during the 2017–2023 Labour government, which is why it lost the 2023 election in a landslide. Labour transferred tens of billions of dollars to the super-rich through corporate bailouts, subsidies and quantitative easing measures during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year's National Business Review Rich List, profiling more than 100 of the country's richest individuals and families, showed that their collective wealth increased from $72.59 billion to $95.68 billion in just one year. More than half of this figure, over $50 billion, was held by just 10 billionaires. This enormous wealth, accumulated by exploiting the labour of working people, must be expropriated, along with the money being wasted on war, so that it can be used to eliminate poverty, expand schools and hospitals and meet all other social needs. The task facing workers and young people is to reject all capitalist parties, including Labour and the Greens, and the union bureaucracy which has suppressed any resistance from workers to the government's attacks, and to take up the fight for the socialist reorganisation of society. By Tom Peters, Socialist Equality Group 30 May 2025
Scoop
9 hours ago
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NZ's Budget For Austerity And War
Article – Socialist Equality Group The money for war comes at the direct expense of the working class. Notably, the govt expects to save $12.8 billion over four years by cancelling 33 separate pay equity negotiations, which were to increase pay for hundreds of thousands of … The budget announced by New Zealand's right-wing coalition government on May 22 represents a major escalation in the assault on workers' wages, living standards and public services, in order to fund tax breaks for the rich and to build up the military in preparation for war. Finance Minister Nicola Willis asserted that the budget was 'not austerity—far from it,' saying that it contained 'much-needed investments' in health and education. This flies in the face of reality. The government slashed the budget's operating allowance (total increase in spending) to $1.3 billion—the lowest figure in a decade. Over the next four years it intends to reduce total spending from 32.9 to 30.9 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The government cited deepening economic turmoil as a result of the Trump administration's tariffs, which come on top of last year's recession in New Zealand. The country's economy shrank by 0.5 percent in 2024, and unemployment rose from 4 to 5.1 percent, with tens of thousands of workers sacked across the public sector and by private companies. There is a stark social crisis, with soaring living costs, an estimated 500,000 people (one in ten) relying on food banks and one in five children living in poverty—all of which will get worse as a result of the budget changes. The most significant new spending is on the military, in line with demands from the US, Australia and the NATO imperialist powers. The defence budget will rise from 1 to 2 percent of GDP over the next eight years, starting with an investment of nearly $13 billion over four years. Far-right ACT Party leader and government minister David Seymour warned in parliament that the 'the chances are higher than ever' that New Zealand will need to use its military. The increased spending, he said, 'allows us to be part of a network of like-minded democratic societies committed to defending our freedoms in an uncertain world.' In fact, as was made clear in last month's Defence Capability Plan, the aim is to integrate New Zealand into aggressive US-led military preparations targeting China. As a minor imperialist power, New Zealand is already contributing to the brutal war in Ukraine and the bombing of Yemen, which are part of the imperialist countries' efforts to solve their economic crisis by violently redividing the world. The opposition Labour Party supports this agenda: its leader Chris Hipkins did not mention the vast military spending boost in his response to the budget. His ally, Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick stated that the government 'think it's harder to feed the poor [than] to arm up for somebody else's war.' The Greens' alternative budget, however, is silent on the rearmament program. As part of the last Labour-led coalition government from 2017 to 2023, the Greens supported increased military spending and the decision to send troops to Britain to assist in training Ukrainian conscripts for war against Russia. The party has recently adopted the militarist slogan of making NZ 'a country worth fighting for.' The money for war comes at the direct expense of the working class. Notably, the government expects to 'save' $12.8 billion over four years by cancelling 33 separate pay equity negotiations, which were to increase pay for hundreds of thousands of workers in female-dominated roles, including teachers. Other attacks include: Reduced government contributions to KiwiSaver, a retirement savings scheme covering most workers. Currently, members of the scheme can get $521 a year from the state, but this has been halved to $260.72 in order to save the government $2.46 billion over four years. Around 9,000 unemployed 18- and 19-year-olds will be kicked off unemployment benefits 'if it is determined that their parents or caregivers can support them.' The move is particularly brutal given that 13.2 percent of under-25-year-olds are not employed or in education—more than double the overall unemployment rate. The Best Start tax credit, given to parents in the first year of their child's life, will be income-tested, which will lead to 'a reduction in income' for around 61,000 families, according to government officials. $1 billion will be cut over five years to emergency housing for the homeless, under conditions where 2.3 percent of the population is severely housing deprived. None of these cuts will be offset by the pitifully small 'relief' touted by the government, consisting of a $7-a-week increase in tax credits for some working families. The government's rhetoric about increased investment in health and education is likewise a sham. Total annual health spending has increased by just 4.77 percent ($1.37 billion)—not enough to address the crisis of unmet need and understaffing of public hospitals and medical centres. With inflation at 2.5 percent and annual population growth of 1.5 to 2 percent, Auckland University health policy professor Tim Tenbensel wrote in the Conversation that a 4–5 percent funding increase 'amounts to merely standing still.' Doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers have held strikes over the past year-and-a-half to protest below-inflation pay offers and a hiring freeze in public hospitals. Funding for public education is being cut in real terms. Radio NZ reports that school operations grants have received an increase of just 1.5 percent. Meanwhile government subsidies for private schools, including several elite institutions, will rise by 11 percent. The budget will increase subsidies for university tuition by 3 percent or 4.75 percent, depending on the subject. Tertiary education providers, which have had their funding slashed by successive governments, will be permitted to increase fees by 6 percent, driving up student debt, which reached a total of $15.6 billion at the end of 2024. The government anticipates that its austerity measures will fuel social opposition and conflict and is therefore strengthening the repressive arms of the state. There is $472 million over four years to expand prisons and hire 580 more Corrections staff, in addition to 685 funded in last year's budget. Some $33 million over four years is allocated to expand military-style boot camps for young offenders. Labour Party leader Hipkins denounced several cuts in the budget, as well as $200 million in subsidies for fossil fuels development at gas fields. 'More people are homeless, more children are going hungry and women are going to be paid less. That's what Nicola Willis and [Prime Minister] Christopher Luxon will be remembered for,' Hipkins said. Such statements are typical of Labour's blatant hypocrisy. The National-led coalition government is, in fact, building upon the attacks of the last Labour government. Labour lost the 2023 election in a landslide defeat, fuelled by mass anger over soaring living costs, the crisis in the health system, increased child poverty and homelessness, as well as Labour's support for Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza. The Public Service Association's Fleur Fitzsimons similarly denounced the budget as 'wage theft on a national scale against New Zealand women.' The PSA, the biggest union, has enforced thousands of job cuts across the public sector, while also openly supporting the multi-billion dollar increase in military spending. The budget's austerity and warmongering will accelerate the movement to the left by workers and young people, who will come into conflict not only with the government, but with the opposition parties and the pro-capitalist union apparatus. The crucial task facing the working class is to establish its political independence from all these organisations and to consciously take up the fight for the socialist reorganisation of society. This means joining and fighting to build the world Trotskyist movement, which in New Zealand is represented by the Socialist Equality Group. 26 May 2025
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9 hours ago
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Rocket Lab Enters Payload Market With Agreement To Acquire Geost
Press Release – Rocket Lab The strategic acquisition would create an entirely new category for Rocket Lab, positioning the Company as a disruptor for national security space. Rocket Lab Positions Itself As Disruptive Prime To U.S. National Security LONG BEACH, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Rocket Lab Corporation (Nasdaq: RKLB) ('Rocket Lab' or the 'Company'), a global leader in launch services and space systems, announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire the parent holding company of Geost, LLC ('Geost'), a Tucson, Arizona-based electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) payload development and manufacturing company and provider to high-priority national security satellites, from Lightridge Solutions, a portfolio company of ATL Partners, for $275 million in a mix of $125 million of cash and $150 million in privately placed shares of Rocket Lab common stock, plus up to $50 million in potential additional cash earnout payments tied to revenue targets. The acquisition marks Rocket Lab's formal entry into the satellite payload segment, strengthening the Company's position as a provider of end-to-end national security space solutions. The acquisition is expected to close in the second half of 2025. The acquisition marks Rocket Lab's formal entry into the satellite payload segment, strengthening the Company's position as a provider of end-to-end national security space solutions. With more than 20 years of flight heritage across classified and unclassified missions, Geost delivers advanced EO/IR sensor systems for missile warning and tracking, tactical intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, Earth observation, and space domain awareness—core capabilities for achieving the U.S. Department of Defense's goals for resilient, proliferated space architectures, like the proposed Golden Dome architecture and the Space Development Agency's Tracking Layer. By bringing these mission critical payloads in-house, Rocket Lab enhances its ability to rapidly deliver integrated spacecraft systems purpose-built for U.S. national security, while reducing integration risk, reducing costs, and accelerating timelines. Geost's full suite of sensing solutions enables warfighters and mission operators to protect, defend, and execute with speed and precision in increasingly contested space environments. The acquisition adds Optical Systems as a new category within Rocket Lab's deep portfolio of capabilities, cementing the Company's role as a disruptor in national security space. Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck, says: 'Rocket Lab was founded to disrupt the traditional space industry and we're doing just that by expanding our ability to deliver complete, mission-critical space solutions. With the acquisition of Geost, we're bringing advanced electro-optical and infrared payloads in-house to support secure, responsive, and cost-effective systems at scale. These technologies enable spacecraft that can detect, interpret, and respond to threats in real time, enhancing our role as a trusted provider of end-to-end space capabilities for the United States and its allies—with greater speed, intelligence, and operational control.' Bill Gattle, Geost's General Manager and CEO of Lightridge Solutions, adds: 'Integrating Geost's advanced optical capabilities is a natural next step for Rocket Lab as the company expands its end-to-end space systems. By bringing high-performance optical technologies in-house, Rocket Lab is strengthening its ability to deliver responsive, full-stack solutions for government and commercial missions. Backed by the infrastructure to produce these systems at scale, Rocket Lab is well-positioned to meet accelerating demand for high-performance space solutions. The addition of payloads to its vertically integrated portfolio not only expands mission capability but also elevates Rocket Lab's standing as a leading end-to-end space systems provider.' In acquiring Geost, Rocket Lab will gain the company's extensive product assets and manufacturing facilities and laboratories across Tucson and northern Virginia, intellectual property, and product inventory. The addition of Geost's 115 highly trained professionals will bring Rocket Lab's total headcount to more than 2,600 employees across its space manufacturing complexes, test facilities, and launch sites in California, Virginia, Colorado, Maryland, New Mexico, Toronto, New Zealand, and now Tucson. Rocket Lab will host a conference call for investors at 2:00 p.m. PST (5:00 p.m. EST) today to discuss the agreement. The live webcast and a replay of the webcast will be available on Rocket Lab's Investor Relations website: + About Rocket Lab Founded in 2006, Rocket Lab is an end-to-end space company with an established track record of mission success. We deliver reliable launch services, satellite manufacture, spacecraft components, and on-orbit management solutions that make it faster, easier, and more affordable to access space. Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Rocket Lab designs and manufactures the Electron small orbital launch vehicle, the HASTE suborbital launch vehicle for hypersonic tests, a family of flight proven spacecraft, and the larger Neutron launch vehicle for constellation deployment. Since its first orbital launch in January 2018, Rocket Lab's Electron launch vehicle has become the second most frequently launched U.S. rocket annually. Rocket Lab has deployed 200+ payloads from its launch sites in the United States and New Zealand for private and public sector organizations, enabling operations in national security, scientific research, space debris mitigation, Earth observation, climate monitoring, and communications. Rocket Lab's family of spacecraft have been selected to support NASA missions to the Moon and Mars, as well as the first private commercial mission to Venus. Rocket Lab has three launch pads at two launch sites, including two launch pads at a private orbital launch site located in New Zealand and a third launch pad in Virginia. To learn more, visit + About Geost Founded in 2004, Geost, LLC, a LightRidge Solutions Company and portfolio company of ATL Partners, is a rapidly growing producer of affordable high-performance optical systems for critical national security space missions. The company has served its core National Security Space customer base since its founding and employs over 100 high performing professionals. For more information on Geost visit: + About ATL Partners:
