PM Edition: Top 10 Business Articles on LiveNews.co.nz for May 6, 2026 – Full Text

Source: Radio New Zealand

The Interislander is hiking its fuel surcharge to 54 percent on commercial vehicles and trucks crossing the Cook Strait due to soaring energy prices from the Middle East conflict.

KiwiRail and the Minister for Rail Winston Peters say the ferry is experiencing cost pressures and can’t keep absorbing the increases.

It comes as international shipping company Maersk announced its own 27 percent fuel surcharge and experts say costs will fall back on the consumer as the conflict continues to play out.

KiwiRail chief customer and growth officer Adele Wilson said Interislander’s increased charge – through its fuel adjustment factor – rose to 54.4 per cent from Monday. That had risen from 27.7 percent, Transporting NZ said.

A fuel adjustment factor has been described as a surcharge, added on top of a base freight rate, which can go up or down depending on fuel prices.

“Fuel is one of Interislander’s largest operating costs, and sustained increases in marine fuel prices are creating material cost pressures on operations,” Wilson said.

“Like other transport operators, KiwiRail does not receive fuel subsidies, so prolonged periods of elevated fuel prices must be actively managed to ensure services remain financially sustainable over time.”

Transporting New Zealand chief executive Dom Kalasih said the fee would be imposed on companies transporting a huge variety of goods.

“That could be anything from furniture, some grocery stuff, could be some livestock – basically every commercial truck [that] travels from north to south, and vice versa, will be paying this additional fee.”

Kalasih said it’s likely transport companies will have to pass these costs on to businesses, who will in turn pass that on to consumers.

“More than likely they’ll be paying higher rates for that transport than they had originally intended, so then they will have to make the business decision, so that they can remain financially sustainable, as to how they manage that increased cost.

“Ultimately, I suspect, all of this stuff, will flow to a consumer.”

Kalasih said just how much Interislander’s increased fuel charge will affect New Zealanders depends on the product being transported.

Many transport companies have been imposing their own [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/591220/trucking-firm-says-fuel-bill-has-increased-110-percent-due-to-middle-east-conflict

fuel surcharges] through Fuel Adjustment Factors due to the soaring fuel prices, Kalasih said.

New Zealand Shipping Federation executive director John Harbord, said the ferries had been hit by significant diesel cost increases.

“The Cook Strait ferries, at the moment, are spending approximately about $600,000 more a week on diesel then they were previously, and so you know they can’t absorb that amount of cost increase themselves.”

‘Completely standard’

KiwiRail and the Minister of Rail Winston Peters declined to be interviewed for the story. However in a statement, Peters said Interislander shouldn’t be expected to absorb fuel price increases.

“There isn’t a trucking firm in the country that would be prepared to absorb fuel prices increasing, so why would the Interislander be expected to do that?”

He said Interislander was taking steps to keep costs low, but no transport business could control fuel prices, which was why fuel adjustment factors existed.

“It is completely standard in the transport industry to adjust rates based on fuel prices – so standard in fact that Bluebridge adjusted theirs a few weeks ago and Interislander is following suit.

“We were briefed on the planned increase for the month of May and were assured that these increases are tied to the freight customer share of Interislander’s fuel operating costs.

Wilson said fuel prices remained “volatile” and KiwRail recognised it was implementing a large monthly increase, and it would continue to monitor fuel prices.

She said commercial customers had been told last Thursday of the increase. The adjustment was being set monthly, and could go up or down depending on fuel price changes – though when prices fall, there could be a lag before that flows through into prices.

Wilson said at this stage, Kiwirail was not making more regular price increases.

“KiwiRail is monitoring the situation and making every effort to continue to absorb cost increases across a monthly period to provide certainty for customers.”

International surcharges could cause ‘massive’ cost

Harbord said Maersk’s 27 percent fuel surcharge would also result in increased costs for businesses and consumers.

He said if the shipping giant was charging hundreds of extra dollars on each container it moved in and out of New Zealand, that would put pressure on both importers and exporters.

“If you think about the implications of that, in that 99 percent of New Zealand’s import and exports are moved by ship, that is a massive increased cost on the New Zealand economy.”

Lisa Coleman, director at New Zealand freight company Rocket Freight, said fuel surcharges for international shipping were changing rapidly due to the uncertainty of global fuel prices.

She said all international shipping companies were imposing extra fuel costs, through different mechanisms, and under different names.

Usually rates are set every few months, now they are changing every couple of weeks.

Coleman said companies – even if they had allocated fuel out months in advance or were in transit – were trying to safeguard themselves if they couldn’t get the product, or the cost increased.

“I absolutely think it’s going to keep going up, it’s going to keep going up until it becomes unsustainable – I am very prepared to see covid level freight costs, which was ten times the cost of normal freight.”

Coleman said ultimately this meant higher prices for products on the shelves.

She said Australia was seeing 50 percent fuel surcharges added to local transport services from international shipping companies.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the government had been monitoring global shipping costs.

She said the impact would be different depending on the exporter.

“This is what we are talking about when we talk about the secondary impacts that come through for overall inflation – it’s not just how much the petrol price increases, but it’s how this conflict in the Middle East puts price pressure on across the board, that eventually gets reflected in our economy.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

New Zealand has passed the “tipping point” where most people buying solar panels will save more money than they spend on them, researchers say, but more could be done to unlock households’ ability to make use of solar power.

Josh Ellison, research lead for Rewiring Aotearoa, said the country was one of the first where the electrification of homes and vehicles could deliver cost-of-living savings and reductions in emissions at the same time.

He said the tipping point was probably passed about three years ago but has now been crossed for battery storage systems, too.

It was helped by solar installation costs reducing and power prices increasing.

“It does depend on how much electricity the household consumers.

“A household consuming a lot of electricity, and especially a lot of electricity during the daytime – a household working from home for example, will be likely to save more…

“There will likely still be some households in more shady areas that are rarely using any electricity during the day where it might be harder to stack up. Although with today’s solar prices I would say that probably even those households might stack up.”

He said even houses that were not facing north now found solar paid off.

“Not every home will be in the sunshine but most New Zealand homes will. And for the average sunlight in New Zealand on a household, buying a solar system, including making the repayments for the system at the moment will save about $1000 per year net or create about $1000 of profit per year. And so, we’re now at that point where if households were able to finance solar in the same way that energy companies are allowed to build their assets and put it onto consumer bills, then most homes in New Zealand could have $1000 a year lower bills today.”

He said energy companies installing poles and wires could finance them over 50 years.

“They get to amortise that asset cost and then apply it to your bill and increase your bill based on the cost of the asset. If you were allowed to do the same thing with solar today, it would create about $1000 a year in net savings.”

He said it was cheaper to put solar on houses than build solar farms but only about 20 percent of households had access to green loans from banks to do so, because they often require sufficient equity in a house and for the homeowner to have an active mortgage.

Just under 84,000 customers now have solar power, up from 20,000 in 2018.

The largest number by zone are in the upper North Island, followed by the central North Island and then the upper South Island.

Ellison said even areas like Dunedin and Stewart Island were past the tipping point.

“They are a lot lower than the average in New Zealand, central Otago has some of the highest generation…. but the difference is actually not that large. We see similar savings across the country.”

Tim Sparks, Electricity Authority general manager of networks and systems change said there were a number of changes in progress that could boost household returns from solar power.

“We’re interested in enabling new technologies and we’re updating a bunch of industry rules so we can make better use of rooftop solar generation that’s being generated in communities.”

From next week, lines companies will be required to have a default export limit for people putting power back into the network of 10 kilowatts.

“That means people can basically put more solar power into the network than they could before.

“A lot of lines companies in the past have had much lower limits down at five kilowatts. And so, in some cases people were pushing up against that limit.”

He said the authority was also requiring distributors to pay rebates when power was supplied by household and small business customers in peak times.

That took effect on April 1, although electricity retailers reported different plans for how that would be handled.

Sparks said retailers would have different strategies but it was expected that they would use the rebates to compete.

He said the authority was also looking at ways to make the application process easier for people investing in solar panels. It is also reviewing rules around plug-in solar.

In some other countries “balcony solar”, where panels are plugged in and sit on an apartment balcony, for example, can be a popular solution.

“It’s big in Germany and it’s especially useful for people who rent or have an apartment. So, we’re looking at what rules might need to be changed or updated to enable plug-in solar here.”

Powerswitch general manager Paul Fuge said the economics of solar would usually stack up well if a house got good sun.

He said a recent survey showed 48 percent of households said they had considered installing solar. That was up from 42 percent in 2022.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: New Zealand Government

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has concluded a two-day visit to Singapore, where he met Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong and shored up critical fuel supply with the signing of the Agreement on Trade in Essential Supplies (AOTES). 

“The visit was an opportunity to bolster New Zealand’s resilience to global shocks and strengthen our economic ties to Singapore,” Mr Luxon says. 

“The inaugural Annual Leaders’ Meeting between Prime Minister Wong and I was an important step in turning our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership into practical action.

“The AOTES, signed by Trade and Investment Minister Todd McClay and Singapore Minister-in-charge of Energy and Science & Technology Dr Tan See Leng, protects the movement of essential goods, such as fuel and food.

“In these uncertain times, having a reliable and trusted partner such as Singapore matters more than ever.

“Singapore is a critical partner in New Zealand’s economic development and there is huge scope for us to deepen our trade and investment links. That was the focus of the Singapore-New Zealand Leadership Forum, and it was exciting to see our senior government and business leaders coming together to explore new opportunities to work together.”

The Prime Minister also visited Jurong Island, the centre of Singapore’s refining and chemicals industry, with Finance Minister Nicola Willis.

“Jurong Island showed in practical terms why Singapore matters to New Zealand. As the supplier of a third of our fuel, Singapore is central to the fuel supply chains and infrastructure that support our economic and energy security.

“We spoke to executives from the major fuel companies to better understand how they are responding to the global fuel crisis and are confident that Singapore will continue to supply fuel to New Zealand,” Mr Luxon says.

The Prime Minister also called on President Tharman Shanmugaratnam during the visit.

“It was a valuable opportunity to reflect the depth of the New Zealand-Singapore relationship and our shared commitment to a stable and prosperous region.”

Mr Luxon visited Changi Naval Base for a defence engagement showcasing uncrewed surface vessels and new capabilities.

“This is a defence partnership forged over time and proven in practice. For generations, our troops have trained in each other’s countries. 

“Built on trust and shared service, our defence ties continue to support national and regional stability while evolving into new areas of capability and commercial collaboration,” Mr Luxon says.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

ANZ has been unsuccessful in its fight in the High Court against a class action from borrowers.

The court has awarded summary judgment against the bank in relation to the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act 2003 (CCCFA) class action proceedings.

Between 2015 and 2019, the law said that a lender that was in breach of its disclosure requirements had to repay borrowers all the interest and fees they were charged during the time when they were not compliant with the rules.

The class action claims that between 30 May, 2015 and 28 May, 2016, a coding error in one of ANZ’s systems failed to take into account interest that had been accrued and not yet charged.

As a result, loan variation letters contained incorrect information. ANZ said it meant customers were undercharged by about $2 a month.

ANZ said it was considering the judgment and its potential next steps, including an appeal.

“We opposed the claim because we felt strongly that the law was not intended to operate in the way the plaintiffs and the litigation funders suggested,” chief executive Antonia Watson said.

“We maintain that the potential consequences under the current law are disproportionate and not aligned with any actual harm caused.”

The class action case against ANZ NZ relates to around 17,000 customers who on average underpaid their mortgages between 2015 and 2016.

ANZ NZ identified the issue itself, reported it to the Commerce Commission, and effectively wrote off the underpayments.

“ANZ NZ self-reported the issue, took accountability and paid more than $35 million to affected customers,” Watson said.

“As a result, all customers were left better off than they would have been if the issue had not occurred.”

The High Court found that ANZ breached section 22 of the CCCFA and that the representative plaintiffs were not liable for costs of borrowing on their loan for the period of breach and has directed ANZ to refund them $32,728.42.

ANZ NZ is considering how this judgment may apply to other members of the class.

ANZ NZ’s estimate of its maximum potential liability for costs of borrowing arising from this decision is approximately NZD$125 million.

Earlier, ASB agreed to pay $135,625 to settle a class action against it for similar breaches.

The Finance and Expenditure Select Committee has recommended changes to the law that confirm the court’s ability to make orders that are just and equitable in relation to costs of borrowing between 2015 and 2019 where lenders breached their disclosure obligations.

In 2019, the law was amended to apply to breaches from that point, but this change would apply to breaches before that time, too, if they had not been dealt with by a court already.

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Source: Privacy Commissioner

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Source: Radio New Zealand

• Unemployment expected to remain steady at 5.4 pct – data due 6 May, 10.45am
• Middle East conflict likely to dampen previous tentative recovery signs
• Labour market recovery now likely a 2027 story
• Wage growth to remain subdued at 2 percent, lagging inflation
• Stagflation risks grow – high inflation, low growth, rising unemployment
• Data not likely to change RBNZ rates on hold policy – for now

Unemployment looks set to linger around a near-decade high as the Middle East conflict dampens tentative signs of a recovery this year.

Major bank economists expect the unemployment rate to stay unchanged at 5.4 percent or nudge slightly higher for the three months ended March.

ASB economist Wesley Tanuvasa said the data would largely show the state of the market before the conflict broke out, but he expected a bigger workforce and greater demand for work to push unemployment higher.

“[The] labour market data is expected to reflect a firming employment trend and strong labour supply response, but headline numbers will likely remain weak. This is expected to push the unemployment rate up to 5.5 percent. Labour cost growth should remain modest.”

Labour market numbers can be a statistical lottery, with the unemployment rate moved by the size of the workforce, how many are participating, are doing training, have stopped looking for work, irrespective of how many jobs may have been created.

BNZ economist Matt Brunt said business surveys, such as the Institute of Economic Research’s quarterly survey (QSBO), have shown a slide in confidence, which would most likely show a more pronounced hit to employment intentions.

“The latest QSBO showed some softening in hiring intentions. However, the responses deteriorated as the month progressed … when employment intentions were much weaker and consistent with net labour shedding.”

The BNZ now expected unemployment to hit 5.8 percent later in the year.

Toxic stagflation

ASB’s Tanuvasa said labour market recovery was now likely a story for next year because of the Middle East conflict.

“We do not envisage a labour market recovery unfolding until 2027 and cite heightened stagflationary risks over 2026 given higher near-term unemployment and higher near-term inflation.”

Stagflation is a toxic mix of slow economic growth, high unemployment, and high inflation.

The Reserve Bank no longer has a specific instruction to help the labour market and maximise employment, but nonetheless always casts an eye over labour market health.

Tanuvasa said the RBNZ was faced with how soon before it moved to dampen inflation caused by the conflict and the negative effects on the economy higher interest rates might have.

“[This] makes the trade-offs of monetary policy significantly more complex and painful for the economy. There are few, if any, winners in a situation like this.”

The RBNZ next meets in three weeks, with financial markets pricing in a 40 percent chance of a 25 basis point rise in the official cash rate to 2.5 percent. However, the majority view remains a series of rapid fire rises from September to 3 percent by the end of the year.

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Source: Radio New Zealand

How can food products that travel into New Zealand from other countries end up being cheaper than those produced locally?

It’s a question some shoppers have been asking because US butter Burtfield’s & Co is being sold at Pak’n Save supermarkets for $6.99 a block, compared to $8.39 for the Pam’s product.

But it’s not the only imported product that is available more cheaply than locally produced options.

The cheapest frozen spinach this week, for example, was packed in Belgium from local and imported spinach. Frozen baby carrots were also imported.

Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said imported butter had been cheaper than export prices for the past two years.

“The main thing is the US has a record dairy herd. They’ve had some problems in terms of exporting to China because of the trade wars, they have a bit of a glut locally. It’s not normal for us to have import prices that are less than export prices.”

But he said the amount of butter being imported was “tiny”.

“Four percent of our consumption in the last 12 months, so a really small amount. It comes with all the issues of logistics, of transporting a bulk commodity around the world.”

‘… some things we don’t have a competitive advantage in’

Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold said people often thought of transport as being the main factor in the cost of a food product but it was not always. Things like the cost of energy could affect the price of products that were energy-intensive to make, like fruit juice, he said.

The cheapest one-litre bottle of fruit juice at Woolworths on Tuesday was a Keri juice product made from imported ingredients.

He said about a third of fruit and vegetables were imported. “That reflects the fact that fruit and vegetable supply is seasonal.”

ANZ agricultural economist Matt Dilly said there had been an increase in frozen vegetable imports that was creating competition for the local growers.

“New Zealand doesn’t really have the cost-of-labour advantage or the cost-of-energy advantage. There’s also a lot of tropical fruits and whatnot that we don’t do a very good job of growing ourselves.

“That’s the counterpoint to all the great agricultural exports we have – some things we don’t have a competitive advantage in and we do import them.”

Dilly said the US butter being cheaper would be a short-lived phenomenon.

“It’s pretty unusual right now, where butter prices in the US are at a significant discount to butter prices in New Zealand and Europe. All those things do have a tendency to even out over time.

“While it seems unusual on its face, it is something that can be good for consumers to give them that choice of a lower-priced product, especially when there’s cost of living concerns for a lot of New Zealanders at this point in time.”

Price of agricultural land a factor

Otago University senior lecturer Robert Hamlin said food had become progressively more expensive over the past 30 or 40 years.

“And the primary driver of that has been the building up within this country of the value of agricultural land. Now, the trouble with that is if you end up paying 10 times as much for your land as you used to 30 years ago, it puts the land under pressure. It obviously puts the farm operation under pressure because that’s not actually doing anything to help you produce the product. It’s simply making it more expensive.”

He said while New Zealanders were often told that the price they had to pay was influenced by global price of food, in most places the majority of food was produced and consumed within the region.

“So although we describe Fonterra as a titan of the international dairy trade, which it is, the fact is that the international dairy trade is a very small pond and Fonterra is a big fish in that pond, but it is a very small fish in global terms.

“And this means that you’ve got the majority of food being bought and sold in individual jurisdictions, you’ve got a small percentage of food swilling around internationally.

“New Zealand is really rather unusual in that it has such a very large proportion of its agricultural production is going into this international market for food, which is highly volatile because you’ve got people coming into the market to sell food that they’ve got too much of and then coming into the market to buy food because they haven’t got enough and that food, that means the international price gyrates around more or less continuously.

“But what it boils down to is that we are a high cost producer and we are a higher cost producer than an awful lot of the major producers around the world and therefore you will find out from time to time that food that is produced in this country can be accessed for a considerably lower price overseas than it can be accessed here. And that’s pretty much what’s happened here.”

He said it potentially made New Zealanders vulnerable to the moves of other countries.

“The supply and demand for food across the world is very tight. The amount produced is very close to the amount demanded and this means that it would only take a fairly minor problem within other people’s domestic food market for them to generate a demand in the international market that would make the food in that international market unaffordable for a country that was paying that for all of their food.

“So if we take for example the People’s Republic of China and let’s say that they have a problem with their agricultural production, they could then decide, well we’re going to pay $60 a kilo for milk solids to acquire that small amount of our domestic demand that we need from overseas.

“That will increase the price overall of milk products in China by a relatively small amount, but it would put the price in New Zealand up to $60. So you would essentially be paying $80 a kilo, probably nearly $100 for tasty cheddar and pretty much $100 for butter.

“It’s certainly quite possible given that this country and its exporters believe that they should be allowed to export to global markets for the highest price can achieve and to hell with the consequences for the local population, I’m a little bit concerned about a situation like that could arise very, very quickly.”

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