Latest news with #Sanitarium
NZ Herald
6 days ago
- Sport
- NZ Herald
Kiwi Kid Filo Scores Big with Weet-Bix and Rugby Legends
This article was prepared by Sanitarium and is being published by the New Zealand Herald as advertorial. Reporter Filoialii caught up with Black Ferns Alana and Chelsea Bremner, and All Blacks Scott Barrett and Ardie Savea, to find out who was the biggest Weet-Bix kid. Sanitarium is now taking the
NZ Herald
28-07-2025
- Health
- NZ Herald
Weet-Bix Kid Cuba kickstarts his day dishing up big smiles at Kingsford Primary School
This article was prepared by Sanitarium and is being published by the New Zealand Herald as advertorial. It's not every day a Kiwi kid gets to be a reporter – but for Cuba, a proud Weet-Bix Kid, that's exactly what happened. The young star took the mic as a guest reporter for Kea Kids News, covering a very special morning at Kingsford Primary School with a KickStart Breakfast session where kids gather to share kai, connection, and community before the bell rings. 'What's the best thing about being a Weet-Bix Kid?' Cuba grins. 'I get energy to tackle the day and start it off bright!' This was Cuba's first time reporting for the media, and he admits he was nervous at first. 'I was shy when I was first asked and said I didn't want to do it,' he says. 'But my mum convinced me – Kea Kids said I did well at the reporter training when they came to my school.' With cameras rolling and breakfast being served, Cuba stepped up with confidence, asking questions, sharing smiles, and helping spotlight the importance of starting the day with a good meal. The KickStart Breakfast programme, delivered in partnership with the Ministry of Social Development, Fonterra and Sanitarium, fuels thousands of young New Zealanders every week. Asked what advice he'd give other Kiwi kids who might want to try something new, Cuba is full of encouragement: 'Be brave – and if you muck up, just keep on trying. Anything is possible. Give it your best!' And his favourite breakfast? 'Weet-Bix, of course,' he says proudly. 'With some sugar and warm milk.'
NZ Herald
12-06-2025
- General
- NZ Herald
Sanitarium breakfast cereals Honey Puffs, Granola, Weeties roll off production line for final time
As the last of some of New Zealand's most iconic cereals rolled off the production line at Sanitarium, staff gathered for a final farewell of decades-long pantry staples. Sanitarium announced last year it was discontinuing its Honey Puffs, Muesli, Clusters, Granola, Light n Tasty, Weeties and Puffed Wheat lines due
The Spinoff
09-06-2025
- Business
- The Spinoff
What happened to Nicola Willis's plan for charities tax reform?
New reporting helps explain why the finance minister decided to leave charities' tax affairs out of the budget, writes Catherine McGregor in today's extract from The Bulletin. A budget backtrack When finance minister Nicola Willis announced a consultation in December on charities' tax exemptions, she signalled that change was imminent. The government wanted to close 'any loopholes that are being exploited that would allow entities that are structured as charities to avoid tax they should otherwise pay', she told reporters. The review, led by Inland Revenue, was explicitly aimed at charities operating business arms tax-free while competing with commercial firms. Willis hoped to include new rules in Budget 2025. But in late April, she confirmed that wouldn't happen after all. 'The consultation has uncovered a lot of complexity,' she said, adding that while she remained committed to reform, 'I don't want to rush it and get it wrong.' The about-face leaves intact a system under which charities earned a $2 billion tax-free surplus last year, including prominent examples like Sanitarium and BestStart that compete directly with taxpaying businesses. Level playing field or unfair advantage? Charities are permitted to run businesses without paying company income tax, provided all profits are reinvested into charitable activities. According to a story by Stuff's Emma Ricketts, this includes well-known operations like Sanitarium, owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church; Trinity Lands, Zespri's largest shareholder, linked to the Open Brethren; and Ngāi Tahu's extensive tourism and seafood businesses. AUT lecturer Dr Ranjana Gupta is among the critics who argue these arrangements undermine the principle of 'horizontal equity' – that similar taxpayers should be treated alike. 'Sanitarium competes with Kellogg's and Hubbards, but only the latter pay tax,' she noted in The Conversation. Gupta and others don't question tax exemptions for charities' core purposes such as education, religion or poverty relief, but say unrelated business activity should not be shielded from tax. Consultation cools appetite for reform The reason for Willis's reversal became clear this week with the release of documents obtained by the NZ Herald's Matt Nippert (Premium paywalled). Of 901 submissions received during the two-month consultation, 86% opposed changes to charity tax exemptions. 'There was also much work flagged for tax and charity lawyers in determining what was and what was not unrelated business activity, with separate accounts needed to be generated for each,' Nippert writes. Major charities warned that increased compliance costs could harm their ability to deliver services. As for the potential tax take, the biggest targets would have been a handful of large, commercially successful charities. Meanwhile, the vast majority of New Zealand's charities, many of them small and community-focused, would have been ultimately untouched, thanks to de minimis thresholds and other carve-outs. 'This narrowed scope saw the eye-popping $400m estimate of fresh tax revenue almost vanish entirely,' Nippert writes. According to IRD calculations, the benefit to the government would be just $50 million a year at most. Donor-controlled charities still a live issue However, not all parts of the sector have escaped scrutiny. Donor-controlled charities – entities in which donors retain effective control over how their funds are used – may still face reform. The IRD's February discussion paper outlined concerns including circular arrangements that let donors claim tax credits for donations that are then reinvested into their own ventures. The government is considering stricter rules, and the charities sector seems much less opposition: only 46% of submitters objected to setting a mandatory minimum of distributions for donor-controlled charities, Nippert reports, and just 43% opposed placing restrictions on what such charities can invest in. As KPMG's Darshana Elwela put it, this was one area 'with some genuine concerns' and a clearer pathway forward.
