Tariffs and Kiwisaver
RNZ / REECE BAKER
New Zealanders have withdrawn more than $1.3 billion from KiwiSaver for hardship in the past five years. The growing withdrawals could result in over $5b missing from retirement funds by 2045.
New Zealand is being hit with 15% tariffs, and Stats NZ is set to release unemployment rates next week.
New Zealand Herald business editor-at-large Liam Dann is here to break it all down.
Liam Dann
Photo:
Eleanor Dann
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
25 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Auckland Council's recovery office removes more than 250 storm-damaged or risky homes
Houses in Candia Drive sit abandoned and have been subsequently vandalised since the floods at the start of 2023. Photo: RNZ/Nick Monro Auckland Council's recovery office has so far removed more than 250 storm-damaged or risky homes in the region, as it prepares to wind up buyouts. The council expects to buy just over 1200 high-risk homes by the end of this year as part of the $1.2 billion buyout shared with the government. Council said homeowners needed to have sale-and-purchase agreements signed no later than 19 December, with settlements continuing into early 2026. Group recovery manager Mace Ward said 1189 houses had been deemed eligible for buyout so far, with hundreds settled. "We're moving at a good pace - 843 buyouts have been settled, giving those whānau the ability to move on with their lives," he said. "We're now dealing with the more intricate cases and some of these are the hardest we've had to navigate. Shared ownership, for example, presents some really challenging situations, especially for the people involved." Ward said they were also dealing with many who felt like they had missed out on a buyout. "As expected, we are also dealing with a lot of people who feel like they missed out, so the next question is how we help Aucklanders, not just to understand, but adapt in a time of climate instability. We all have a role to play." Council had identified 145 high-risk properties, but that could be reduced. "We're supporting about 145 homeowners to make their homes safer, so they can continue living in the communities they love," Ward said. "This includes practical measures, like building retaining walls, or lifting or shifting homes to reduce their risk." More than 250 homes have been removed, of which a third have been relocated. Milford has 140 high-risk homes eligible for buyout, the most of any Auckland suburb, and of those, 17 have been removed. Council aims to remove about 30 storm-damaged homes a month until November 2027. Ward said most of the work ahead involved removing the high-risk homes and deciding what to do with the land council had bought. "This process has only just begun and, with buy-outs still underway, it'll take time to carefully assess each site's potential," he said. "We have a region-wide policy guiding this work. Safety remains our number one priority, but we also need to deliver value for Aucklanders, especially given how expensive this recovery effort has been." Meanwhile, in partnership with the government, Auckland Council has confirmed four major flood resilience projects - two in Mangere , and the others in Wairau Park and Ranui . Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Sweeping reforms to money laundering laws
Photo: 123RF The government has unveiled sweeping reforms to the country's anti money laundering laws to crack down on dirty money. Set to be in place by the next election, the changes to New Zealand's Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) regime aim to shut down dodgy deals, tighten financial loopholes, and take on the criminal underworld, while cutting unnecessary red tape for law-abiding citizens. It is estimated that a staggering $1.35 billion is generated from money laundering in New Zealand every year. The Detail talks to Lloyd Kavanagh, a financial services lawyer and deal maker from Minter Ellison Rudd Watts, about the changes, which include giving police greater powers to freeze bank accounts more quickly, banning cryptocurrency ATMs, introducing a more risk-based system for selling property from family trusts, and making it easier for parents to open bank accounts for their children. Kavanagh also welcomes efforts to streamline and simplify the system by introducing one supervision layer to oversee the rules. "Currently, we have three supervisors who supervise different segments of the market," he tells The Detail. "You have the Reserve Bank, who is the AML supervisor for banks, you have the FMA who oversees securities market participants broadly, and then you have the Department of Internal Affairs, who looks after casinos and everybody else... lenders, lawyers, accountants, real estate agents, and quite a wide range of smaller businesses. "What the government is proposing is... we should have a single supervisor so that they can be consistent in the guidance that they give to reporting entities, and have a total overview of what's going on in the sector. So that is one measure which I think will have a significant impact. "Some of the other measures ... are actually to relieve the administrative burden - one of them is, at the moment, you have to verify your customer's address, which proves to be really difficult for a lot of people.... so, the change will mean you only have to do that if you have got reasons for thinking it's a high-risk customer. "I am actually optimistic that by removing some of the mandatory bureaucracy, resources will get refocused in doing what I think, and I certainly hope all New Zealanders are keen to do, which is to use the pressure on what happens to the proceeds of crime to help us detect crime in the first place." He does have some concerns about giving greater powers to police - "I'm a little reserved about simply giving additional powers to the police if you don't have the right checks and balances" - and questions the ban on cryptocurrency ATMs, which are kiosks that allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrency using cash. "I'm somewhat puzzled by that inclusion because I haven't seen the evidence as to why that would be a particular priority." But ultimately, he believes the law changes will make a difference. "We all benefit if there is less crime in New Zealand. These people [money launderers] make business decisions as to which countries are easier to operate in and profitable to operate in. "And we know from the reports that have come from the government over the last year that New Zealand has an increasing level of drug abuse. We know that we are more and more connected in a world where there are all sorts of transactions going on. "What we need to do is just make ourselves a little bit harder to do bad things in. So, I think these [law changes] are positive steps." Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
National pins re-election hopes on economy
Christopher Luxon is busy trying to convince people that National, not Labour, is the steady hand on the tiller amid choppy global waters. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro Analysis: Saturday's National Party conference set out an early 2026 challenge to voters - stick with what we've got or risk it on who-knows-what. It's a line National used successfully in 2014 (remember Eminem-esque?), but that was a different National, and a different looking government. At roughly the same point in that electoral cycle, National was polling in the late forties. National in 2025 is struggling to get past the early thirties. Labour has emerged as the party New Zealanders think has the best handle on the cost of living, according to the Ipsos Issues Monitor. Of course, there is a long way to go yet. The prime minister knows this, and is counting on sunnier economic fortunes this time next year. But to borrow a well-worn Christopher Luxon phrase, the cost of living is the barnacle that won't get off the boat, and Luxon spent his speech - and much of the week leading up to it - trying to convince people that National, not Labour, is the steady hand on the tiller amid choppy global waters. The government is at pains to say it can't control global events, although it spent a lot of time criticising the previous government for blaming global events. The Trump administration's increased tariffs landed like a lead balloon on Friday, and prompted some late additions to the conference's run sheet. In his speech, Luxon acknowledged the tariffs, but said New Zealand can't just "batten down the hatch" and hope for the best. Trade minister Todd McClay took some time out of his rurals session to say he's already spoken to his US trade counterpart, and dispatched top trade diplomat Vangelis Vitalis to Washington. McClay will follow in the coming weeks. Domestically, National is still blaming the previous government for the economic conditions it inherited, and pitching that it needs a second term to truly sort it out. The party's putting a stake in the ground and saying next year's election will be all about the economy. Last Monday's 10-minute sermon from the podium , which set out the steps National had taken to address the cost of living, was a harbinger of what was to come at the weekend. Inside the cavernous National Air Force Museum, Luxon told media New Zealanders would have a "very simple choice" at the next election: "Do you trust the guys that actually crashed the economy and have no plan, or do you trust the guys in the government that's actually inherited a mess and is sorting it out and is making progress before that election?" Luxon did not mention the other "guys in the government" on Saturday. That's not unusual. This was, after all, a National Party event, full of National Party stump speeches. The party's deputy Nicola Willis, however, gave Luxon a shout-out for the "energy" it takes to keep Winston Peters and David Seymour under control. While joking he was targeting 100 percent of the vote in 2026, Luxon said after his speech that it was natural to disagree with his coalition partners, but they were aligned on the things that mattered. National leader Christopher Luxon speaks at the party's annual conference. Photo: RNZ / Giles Dexter National party supporters that RNZ spoke to were largely happy with how things were going, and how Luxon was keeping things in line. "We are very co-ordinated, very co-ordinated. We respect each other's policies and respect each other's decisions," said one member. "They're very aggressive people that he's in Parliament with, but he's handled it extremely well," said another. "It's like you're the mother in the house, and you have to herd two cats, who do co-operate sometimes, and other times they've got other agendas. From a managerial point of view, I think he's doing excellently in the light of the type of political system we've got." Some expressed wariness of what Peters would do next year, others sung from Luxon's songsheet that this was the maturity of MMP on display. "It's taking some managing, but it's all good. It's what MMP is about." "Everybody's looking at next year's election again, and obviously they want to get back in. So there's a bit of leverage, and nobody's got more experience at that than Winston." They were also convinced the country was going in the right direction, and that Luxon was the right person to steer it there. "We're starting to turn the corner. The last 18 months has been the clean-up job, and we're actually getting ready to turn the tank around now." "It just takes time, and people have got to be patient. They're doing everything that they possibly can, it's just a timing issue. Everybody's impatient." National's membership thinks the polls will firm in their favour as the public look more critically at the alternative. A Labour Party bereft of policy, juggling the niche demands of the more extreme Greens and Te Pāti Māori. Luxon wants the country to "say yes" to more. More mining, more infrastructure, more housing, more tourism, more growth. Opening up more concessions on Department of Conservation land, and charging international visitors to visit some DOC sites is part of that "say yes" strategy. Twenty to forty dollars is not a large sum to fork out for people who have paid thousands to come here, and it adds $62m to the conservation estate that New Zealanders won't have to pay for. There are still some implementation issues to work through. It remains to be seen whether New Zealanders will have to take a passport or bank statement to Cathedral Cove to get out of a fee. It's a small change, and one the government did not campaign or consult the public on, or put in its latest quarterly plan. There will be more to come as parties start to differentiate themselves and sound the election battle drums. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
