Latest news with #NZ
RNZ News
an hour ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Northland businesses pitch growth plan to Ministers
Northland business leaders say the region's economy can grow six-fold by 2050, boosting incomes and the wider economy. They last night pitched to government ministers, outlining what the region needs to grow to a $60-billion economy by 2050. An NZIER report commissioned by the Northland Corporate Group - which includes big players like Northport, Northpower and Top Energy, as well as Ngapuhi, says that's indicative of sustained underinvestment in infrastructure as well as a skills shortage, and poor education outcomes. Kathryn speaks with Northland group co-chair by Rosie Mercer, chief executive of Marsden Maritime Holdings, and Andrew McLeod - chief executive of lines company and contractor Northpower. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
15 hours ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
The Politics Panel for 23 Jully 2025
Wallace Chapman and the Politics Panel discuss and analyse the main political stories of the day. He is joined this week by RNZ's Corin Dann, the NZ Herald's Fran O'Sullivan and former government minister Phil Goff. On the slate today: Nicola Willis says Kiwis are not getting a raw deal from high butter prices (after meeting the CEO of Fonterra); Defence Minister Judith Collins told a crowd of graduating Army recruits last week that they should prepare for "combat"; just 38 percent of respondents to a Talbot Mills poll say the government deserved a second term; is the government using locla councils as a whipping boy and National seems to have found a bright spot in one area of it's party policy: Education. To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
1News
16 hours ago
- Automotive
- 1News
Trump announces trade deal with Japan, lowers threatened tariff to 15%
President Donald Trump announced a trade framework with Japan on Tuesday, placing a 15% tax on goods imported from that nation. 'This Deal will create Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs — There has never been anything like it,' Trump posted on Truth Social, adding that the United States "will continue to always have a great relationship with the Country of Japan". The president said Japan would invest "at my direction" US$550 billion (NZ$914 billion) into the US and would "open" its economy to American autos and rice. The 15% tax on imported Japanese goods is a meaningful drop from the 25% rate that Trump, in a recent letter to Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, said would be levied starting August 1. Early Wednesday, Ishiba acknowledged the new trade agreement, saying it would benefit both sides and help them work together. With the announcement, Trump is seeking to tout his ability as a dealmaker — even as his tariffs, when initially announced in early April, led to a market panic and fears of slower growth that for the moment appear to have subsided. Key details remained unclear from his post, such as whether Japanese-built autos would face a higher 25% tariff that Trump imposed on the sector. ADVERTISEMENT But the framework fits a growing pattern for Trump, who is eager to portray the tariffs as win for the US. His administration says the revenues will help reduce the budget deficit and more factories will relocate to America to avoid the import taxes and cause trade imbalances to disappear. The wave of tariffs continues to be a source of uncertainty about whether it could lead to higher prices for consumers and businesses if companies simply pass along the costs. The problem was seen sharply Wednesday after General Motors reported a 35% drop in its net income during the second quarter as it warned that tariffs would hit its business in the months ahead, causing its stock to tumble. A staff member distributes an extra edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper reporting that President Donald Trump announced a trade framework with Japan (Source: Associated Press) As the August 1 deadline for the tariff rates in his letters to world leaders is approaching, Trump also announced a trade framework with the Philippines that would impose a tariff of 19% on its goods, while American-made products would face no import taxes. The president also reaffirmed his 19% tariffs on Indonesia. The US ran a US$69.4 billion (NZ$115 billion) trade imbalance on goods with Japan last year, according to the Census Bureau. America had a trade imbalance of US$17.9 billion (NZ$29 billion) with Indonesia and an imbalance of US$4.9 billion (NZ$8.1 billion) with the Philippines. Both nations are less affluent than the US and an imbalance means America imports more from those countries than it exports to them. The president is set to impose the broad tariffs listed in his recent letters to other world leaders on August 1, raising questions of whether there will be any breakthrough in talks with the European Union. At a Wednesday dinner, Trump said the EU would be in Washington on Thursday for trade talks. ADVERTISEMENT "We have Europe coming in tomorrow, the next day," Trump told guests. The President, earlier this month, sent a letter threatening the 27 member states in the EU with 30% taxes on their goods to be imposed starting on August 1. The Trump administration has a separate negotiating period with China that is currently set to run through August 12 as goods from that nation are taxed at an additional 30% baseline. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would be in the Swedish capital of Stockholm next Monday and Tuesday to meet with his Chinese counterparts. Bessent said his goal is to shift the American economy away from consumption and to enable more consumer spending in the manufacturing-heavy Chinese economy. "President Trump is remaking the US into a manufacturing economy," Bessent said on the Fox Business Network show Mornings with Maria. "If we could do that together, we do more manufacturing, they do more consumption. That would be a home run for the global economy."
RNZ News
16 hours ago
- Business
- RNZ News
The Panel with Jo McCarroll and Mark Knoff-Thomas Part 1
Tonight on The Panel, Wallace Chapman is joined by panellists Jo McCarroll and Mark Knoff-Thomas. First they discuss the RNZ story by Guyon Espiner about NZ First's relationship to the nicotine industry. They then examine proposed changes to allow more housing on food productive land, and, finally, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says New Zealanders are not getting a raw deal on butter: discuss! To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following: See terms of use.
RNZ News
18 hours ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Alleged ties between NZ First and vaping companies a 'dangerous risk' to New Zealanders, anti-vape group warns
Photo: RNZ An advocacy group set up to keep children off nicotine wants New Zealand First to be stripped of the tobacco and vaping portfolio. The call from Vape-Free Kids comes after RNZ published documents alleging close ties between tobacco giant Philip Morris and New Zealand First. "Having such an influential party in government appearing to have a strong allegiance to the tobacco industry poses a dangerous risk to the health of New Zealanders," Vape-Free Kids co-founder Charyl Robinson, said. The documents, released as part of lawsuits against US vaping company JUUL, claim Philip Morris allegedly pitched draft legislation to NZ First as part of a lobbying campaign for its Heated Tobacco Products (HTPs). The documents also claim Philip Morris (PMI) corporate affairs staff "reached out to NZ First to try and secure regulation to advantage IQOS" - the HTP with a monopoly in the New Zealand market. Bower Group Asia, which advised JUUL on plans for a New Zealand launch, claimed NZ First leader Winston Peters "has a relationship with PMI" and "any regulation he champions is likely to be very industry friendly and highly geared towards commercial interests in the sector". The documents - largely dated from 2018 and 2019 - shed new light on controversial policy changes led by NZ First in the current coalition government, and the party's relationship with the nicotine industry. NZ First MP Casey Costello, as associate health minister, has delegated responsibility for tobacco and vaping policy. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Last year, NZ First MP and Associate Health Minister Casey Costello halved the excise tax on HTPs at a potential cost of $200 million, a move Treasury said would mainly benefit Philip Morris as the sole importer. Costello acted despite health officials telling her there was no strong evidence that HTPs worked as a smoking cessation tool or that they were significantly safer than cigarettes. Two senior corporate communication positions at Philip Morris are held by people who previously held top roles in NZ First. David Broome, chief of staff for NZ First between 2014 and 2017, is external relations manager at Philip Morris. Apirana Dawson - who was director of operations and research in the office of Winston Peters between 2013 and 2017, and led the election campaigns for the party in 2014 and 2017 - is the company's director of external affairs. Vape-Free Kids said it was time for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to remove the tobacco and vaping portfolio from New Zealand First. "He must step in and at the least reassign this portfolio to make it clear that public health policy in Aotearoa is not for sale," Robinson said. Vape-Free Kids co-founder Charyl Robinson Photo: Supplied But Luxon, addressing reporters on his way to Parliament, said Costello was a "great minister" and he was "very proud" of her record. RNZ put a detailed list of questions to Peters two days before publication but he did not address any of them, instead posting on social media that he was proud of NZ First's record on tobacco control. "Since New Zealand First's smokefree policy was implemented in 2020, the smoking rates have drastically decreased to the point where we are now one of the leading two countries in the world for lowest smoking rates. The smokefree legislation that we implemented is working." He did not address the allegations that New Zealand First received material from PMI, but his social media post said engagement with the tobacco industry was legitimate. "Multiple government departments have themselves proactively reached out to, and met with, 'big tobacco' for direct feedback and advice on tobacco legislation," he said on X. "Is [RNZ reporter] Guyon [Espiner] saying now that government departments including Customs and Health, have dodgy links to 'big tobacco' and that officials should be subject to his 'lynch mob' reporting," he asked. "This convenient omission by Guyon that government officials meet with 'big tobacco' for advice is palpable in its bias and contradiction." As a signatory to the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), New Zealand promises to "protect policies from the commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry". "There is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry's interests and public health policy interests," the FCTC says. The Health Ministry says the FCTC requires signatories to "observe complete transparency in their dealings with the tobacco industry". Since 2011 it has kept a public record of meetings with tobacco lobbyists. The allegations were among a trove of documents released on the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents online archive. Photo: RNZ Auckland University honorary research fellow Melissa-Jade Gregan - whose PhD explored how the alcohol, food, gambling, and tobacco industries influence politics - said New Zealand's lobbying laws were too lax. Gregan has extensively searched the JUUL papers, which are hosted on the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents archive, created in 2002 by the University of California San Francisco Library. The archive, which is still being updated, contains nearly 19 million documents, including 3.8 million relating to JUUL. "What we see through these documents isn't a conspiracy - it's standard practice for how these industries operate in New Zealand," she said. "The tobacco and vaping industries, alcohol, junk food, they've developed a sophisticated, effective approach to political influence that takes full advantage of our complete lack of lobbying regulations." Gregan said New Zealand's reputation for open and transparent government was largely a myth. "We have this political system where the industries causing health harm ostensibly have systematic and primarily unseen access to decision-makers." Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said RNZ's revelations showed why her members' bill, which would tightly restrict the influence of the tobacco industry on government, was needed. "Around the world, tobacco companies have a long history of influencing and weakening health policies to better suit their bottom line and here we see evidence of it happening in New Zealand." Verrall's bill, which would need to be drawn from the ballot to come before Parliament, would prohibit governments supporting the interests of the tobacco industry. It would also impose a six-month stand-down period before officials involved in tobacco policy could work for the industry. "It's time we get rid of the smokescreen and protect Kiwis from big tobacco's lobbying tactics - they have no place in health policy," Verrall said. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
