Luxury retail giant Duty Free Shoppers closing New Zealand stores
The Hong Kong-headquartered company confirmed the closure of its Auckland, Queenstown and Sydney locations after three decades in the Oceania market.
Duty Free Shoppers (DFS) stores in New Zealand are
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NZ Herald
15 hours ago
- NZ Herald
ANZ Premiership final: Live updates as the Northern Mystics host the Mainland Tactix at Trusts Arena
The Northern Mystics and Mainland Tactix will meet for a third time this season in front of a sold-out Trusts Arena crowd to determine the 2025 ANZ Premiership title. Netball NZ update eligibility laws, opens door for overseas-based Silver Ferns The Netball New Zealand (NNZ) board has voted to update the eligibility criteria for national selection, allowing players based overseas to be available for the Silver Ferns. After reviewing the criteria, NNZ has introduced a formal exemption process to adapt to the changing face of the sport. Players presently choose between higher-paying opportunities overseas, or remaining in Aotearoa – where they can be eligible for the Silver Ferns. The new criteria will come into effect before this year's international netball season, with what the national organisation has described as 'clear guidelines and assessment measures for any exemption applications'. 'We've listened to the game and believe this is a positive step forward,' said NNZ board chair Matt Whineray. 'This update strikes a balance between flexibility and fairness, acknowledging the increasingly global nature of netball while continuing to protect the integrity of our domestic competitions and the mana of the Silver Ferns.' Players wanting to remain eligible for national selection while based overseas will need to go through a formal process, although the updated criteria has not been made available. 'Ultimately, the purpose of this proposed process is to ensure that all exemption requests are evaluated fairly, consistently, and transparently,' said NNZ chief executive Jennie Wyllie. 'It safeguards the athlete through a structured and transparent approach, while upholding the broader interests of Netball New Zealand, the Silver Ferns, and the ANZ Premiership competition.' NNZ has said the updated criteria will not be made public, adding to what has been a murky saga regarding overseas players' availability. Earlier this year, Silver Ferns captain Ameliaranne Ekenasio told Newstalk ZB that players must have 100 test caps to be eligible for an exemption to play offshore and still play in international fixtures. Australian-based Grace Nweke confirmed the same to Fox Sports - saying it was Netball NZ's 'black and white' rule. However, a spokesperson for the national body has clarified no such 100-test rule exists, and each case was at the board's discretion. In the time since, multiple players have expressed to Newstalk ZB that they have been forced to choose between overseas offers – largely out of Australia – and remaining in NZ and the ANZ Premiership.
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
Heather du Plessis-Allan: We are being irrational about the price of butter
Unless you're into commercial scale baking, butter is not the thing putting the most pressure on household budgets. Try power. This winter power is costing the average household almost a block of butter every day. Or rates. That's costing the average Wellingtonian more than a block of butter every day. Those expenses have no alternatives. You have to pay them. With butter we at least have alternatives. If we don't like the price we can do a swap. I don't want to be Marie Antoinette but at least we have the option to switch to margarine. Not only have we abandoned logic, but also facts. Even the Finance Minister briefly took to complaining that butter is cheaper in Australia than in the very country that produces it. Except that's not true. At the time of writing, if you take Woolworths' salted butter, which is available both sides of the Tasman, adjust for currency and the fact the Australian Government does not charge their equivalent of GST on butter, we actually pay 30c less. Discounting butter domestically is impractical, as it would require subsidies, impacting farmers and shareholders. Actually, the price of butter is a good news story for New Zealand. Because if we're paying our farmers more, the world is paying our farmers more. And they're buying a lot more blocks of butter than we are. So that means they're paying a good chunk towards our tax take, our health, our roads, our schools. It's become slightly fashionable to suggest the solution is to discount butter domestically. That's a nutty idea. A discount is a subsidy. A subsidy has to be paid by someone. Who? Fonterra? The shareholders will probably object to that. Maybe, if this drama runs on long enough and there is enough reputational damage to Fonterra, it might be in the business' interest to cut the price to make the pain stop. That would not be a good day for farmers and shareholders. Miles Hurrell attributes the 46.5% rise in butter prices to global demand and supply issues. Photo / Alyse Wright The Government? Again, bonkers. If New Zealand is too broke to afford the full Dunedin hospital build, we're too broke to help commercial bakers afford their butter. The truth is there is no fix to the price of butter that isn't stupid or temporary. We simply have to pay the price that we pay. And the Finance Minister knows this. She knows this because she is a very clever woman. And because she worked for Fonterra for six years. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has turned butter into the cost-of-living symbol. Photo / Mark Mitchell So, she should never have turned butter into the cost-of-living symbol she has. This really started with her in April when she visited Costco and was taken by the fact it could sell butter for about half the price mainstream supermarkets were selling it for. It became her evidence that supermarkets were ripping us off. But then somehow, Fonterra got dragged into it and one of their regular ministerial briefings became a please-explain. And then the TV news was chasing the CEO Miles Hurrell around the forecourt of Parliament and going live to air while the meeting was under way. And there were expectations. And then nothing happened. And it has become yet another example of the Finance Minister, disappointingly, talking big but doing nothing. Just like with the retail banks. And just like with the supermarkets, so far. Spare a thought for Hurrell. The man is one of the most impressive Kiwi CEOs of his generation but had to spend his week cast as the villain of the butter story. There is no story. It's not even the biggest pressure on our weekly bills.
Otago Daily Times
2 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
US 'will sell so much' beef to Australia after relaxed restrictions: Trump
The United States will sell "so much" beef to Australia, US President Donald Trump said today after Canberra relaxed import restrictions. He added that other countries that refused US beef products were on notice. Australia on Thursday said it would loosen biosecurity rules for US beef, something analysts predicted would not significantly increase US shipments because Australia is a major beef producer and exporter whose prices are much lower. "We are going to sell so much to Australia because this is undeniable and irrefutable Proof that US Beef is the Safest and Best in the entire World," Trump said in a post on Truth Social. "The other Countries that refuse our magnificent Beef are ON NOTICE," the post continued. Trump has attempted to renegotiate trade deals with numerous countries he says have taken advantage of the United States – a characterisation many economists dispute. "For decades, Australia imposed unjustified barriers on US beef," US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement, calling Australia's decision a "major milestone in lowering trade barriers and securing market access for US farmers and ranchers." Australia is not a significant importer of beef, but the United States is, and a production slump is forcing it to step up purchases. Last year, Australia shipped almost 400,000 metric tons of beef worth $US2.9 billion ($NZ4.8 billion) to the United States, with just 269 tons of US product moving the other way. Australian officials say the relaxation of restrictions was not part of any trade negotiations but the result of a years-long assessment of US biosecurity practices. Canberra has restricted US beef imports since 2003 due to concerns about bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease. Since 2019, it has allowed in meat from animals born, raised and slaughtered in the US but few suppliers were able to prove that their cattle had not been in Canada and Mexico. On Wednesday, Australia's agriculture ministry said US cattle traceability and control systems had improved enough that Australia could accept beef from cattle born in Canada or Mexico and slaughtered in the United States. The decision has caused some concern in Australia, where biosecurity is seen as essential to prevent diseases and pests from ravaging the farm sector. "We need to know if [the government] is sacrificing our high biosecurity standards just so Prime Minister Anthony Albanese can obtain a meeting with US President Donald Trump," shadow agriculture minister David Littleproud said in a statement. Australia, which imports more from the US than it exports, faces a 10% across-the-board US tariff, as well 50% tariffs on steel and aluminium. Trump has also threatened to impose a 200% tariff on pharmaceuticals. Asked whether the change would help achieve a trade deal, Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell said: "I'm not too sure." "We haven't done this in order to entice the Americans into a trade agreement," he said. "We think that they should do that anyway."
