PM Edition: Top 10 Business Articles on LiveNews.co.nz for May 24, 2026 – Full Text

Source: Radio New Zealand

One week from now, the government will open the books on its third Budget, the last of this term.

So far, there has been a great deal of focus not on where the money might go, but where the money to pay for it is coming from.

On Tuesday, the Finance Minister revealed plans to find $2.4 billion in savings, and reduce the public service headcount to 55,000 full time equivalent employees by 2029 – or around 1 percent of the population.

Where are the savings being found?

The centrepiece of pre-Budget announcements has been the Finance Minister’s plan to find $2.4b in savings from the public service.

This, Nicola Willis said, would come from reducing departments’ operating budgets by 2 percent in the coming year, and then by 5 percent in each of the following two years.

And while that lid sinks, agencies would be asked to find other ways to cut costs, including exploring mergers, or integrating AI and digital tools.

“We are open to proposals that involve you investing something upfront in order to release those savings. We’re open to you rearranging the way that you do things currently, coming up with mergers, coming up with IT solutions to replace existing functions,” Willis said.

“Come to us with the ideas, but here’s what’s not changing: we are going to be releasing funds from your administrative budgets. Because that money, that $2.4 billion, can now be used to invest in new hospitals, and more nurses, and better resources for our schools, and a better equipped defence force, and resources for our police.”

Departments would also be asked to “get our core public servant numbers back to the historic norm”.

In other words, job losses.

Those headcount reductions would come from a mixture of redundancies, normal attrition, and department amalgamation.

Some departments are excluded from the baseline savings exercise, including the likes of Corrections, Education, and Police.

They are not, however, excluded from the job cuts, meaning the 8700 job cuts Willis is demanding would come from a wide pool.

What about MFAT?

There were questions, prompted by a prediction from Winston Peters that the Budget would depend on the election, over whether the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFAT) would also have to find savings.

Peters has in the past managed to exclude MFAT from savings exercises, such as in 2024 when departments were asked to find savings of 6.5 or 7.5 percent.

This time, however, MFAT was not on the list of agencies excluded from the reduction in operating budgets.

It turned out he had managed to secure a deal to exempt the 2 percent reduction, but MFAT would still have to face the 5 percent reductions in the subsequent two years.

Willis said she would not be surprised if Peters campaigned against any “efficiency dividends” at MFAT, but she would differ as National’s finance spokesperson.

“My view is that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its global network of diplomats does a very important job. But just like every other organisation under the sun it should always be asked, are you getting maximum bang for buck? It’s had significant budget increases, are you doing things as efficiently as we’re asking everyone else to do them? I think they should be subject to the same discipline.”

How much is there to spend?

Nicola Willis has again reduced the operating allowance, whittling it down from $2.4b to $2.1b.

The operating allowance is the money available for ‘new’ initiatives and revenue reductions, offset by savings and reprioritisations.

At the same time, the government has increased capital expenditure from $3.5b to $5.7b.

This is the spending on capital projects, such as investment in defence or school assets.

What’s already been announced?

Governments always make a series of pre-Budget announcements in the buildup to the main day.

So far, that has included $131 million for new education investments, such as money for more hands-on resources, digital tools, and workbooks, as well as intervention programmes for children falling behind.

A further $212.4m would go towards keeping the Healthy School Lunches programme going through 2027.

In health, $15.5m over four years would be spent on setting up a nationwide paediatric palliative care service.

There will be more announcements in the coming days, before attention turns to the state of the books next Thursday.

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

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/21/how-the-governments-savings-exercise-will-work/

Source: Media Outreach

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 22 May 2026 – According to a WeChat official account release by TECSUN SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD. （stock code: 002908）on May 21, the company has recently officially reached an ecological cooperation with QingCloud Technologies Corp. (stock code: 688316). Driven by the dual engines of “Artificial Intelligence Plus” and the market-oriented reform of data factors, the two sides will jointly explore a new paradigm of livelihood services featuring “AI + Cloud + Computing Power Collaboration”. This cooperation will focus on livelihood sectors including healthcare, employment and government services, connecting the full chain from computing infrastructure to scenario implementation, and unlocking room for large-scale growth.

As a full-stack self-developed provider of enterprise-grade AI infrastructure (AI Infra) and solutions, QingCloud Technologies Corp. deeply understands enterprise demands and implementation scenarios, and has built end-to-end digital and intelligent solutions. With deep roots in livelihood services, TECSUN SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY CO.,LTD. boasts integrated capabilities of “Data + Algorithms + Scenarios”, self-developed innovations such as government affairs large models and AI-powered employment services, as well as profound industry customer resources and operational experience. Oriented by solution collaboration, the two parties will combine TECSUN’s scenario-based intelligent applications with QingCloud’s private cloud, information technology application innovation cloud, intelligent computing platform and MaaS services to form solid technological synergy.

Focusing on core sectors including employment, healthcare and government services, the two sides will promote the integrated deployment of employment Agent and intelligent computing platform to achieve precise job matching and intelligent recommendation; advance the implementation of a fusion architecture of contactless medical payment systems and edge AI inference cloud; and accelerate the joint optimization of government affairs large models and intelligent guidance systems in the information technology application innovation cloud environment.

In terms of delivery, the two parties will jointly conduct compatibility tests and performance verification to ensure the compatibility and stability of the joint solutions, and jointly deliver secure, controllable and ready-to-use intelligent livelihood solutions. Meanwhile, they will actively explore the co-construction of regional intelligent computing centers in mature areas to consolidate the computing infrastructure for “AI + Livelihood Services”.

Looking ahead, the two sides will take joint solutions as the anchor, jointly explore the closed-loop operation model of “Urban Livelihood AI Operation Base”, connect the full chain from computing supply, model iteration to service delivery, help elevate the intelligence of urban governance, and jointly build a new engine for livelihood services.

Hashtag: #Tecsun

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.

Source: Radio New Zealand

Craigs Investment Partners is buying Hamilton Hindin Greene’s investment advisory business for an undisclosed sum.

Christchurch wealth management firm Hamilton Hindin Greene has been in business for more than 125 years.

Craigs has been on a recent buying spree with last year’s purchase of Hawke’s Bay firm Somerset Smith Partners, and last month’s deal to buy Dunedin-based financial planning and wealth management firm Phwealth.

Craigs chief executive Simon Tong said the acquisitions were integral to Craigs’ growth strategy.

“The agreement with Hamilton Hindin Greene aligns strongly with Craigs’ growth strategy and strengthens our position as an independent, nation-wide leader in personalised wealth management,” Tong said.

Tong said that while Craigs was continuing to pursue opportunities throughout New Zealand, growing the firm’s presence in Christchurch was timely, and would see its  20-strong Christchurch branch and satellite office in Rangiora grow to 28 investment advisers. 

“Canterbury is the fastest growing region in New Zealand, with strong demand for local wealth management services backed by global reach that Craigs offers.”  

The purchase of Hamilton Hindin Greene would see the Craigs’ group expand to more than 210 advisers across 24 locations, with more than $35 billion in funds under management. 

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

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/20/craigs-investment-partners-makes-another-big-acquisition/

Source: Radio New Zealand

David Seymour has unveiled a report from his Ministry of Regulation showing there are 267 regulators across New Zealand, but offering no specific solution.

The regulations minister says the analysis shows a “twisted spaghetti of regulators who don’t just cost money to fund, but suck up people’s time and force others to give up completely”.

But 43 percent of the regulators get no government funding, compared to 33 percent that are mostly government funded, and 19 percent funded mostly by fees and registrations.

The report also finds other OECD countries typically face similar challenges.

The State of New Zealand’s Regulatory Systems report maps out:

• 96 in central government (36 percent), including 50 departments, 36 Crown entities, 3 departmental agencies, two non-Public-Service departments, a statutory corporation and three “others”
• 79 in local government (30 percent), including 61 territorial councils, 11 regional councils, 5 unitary councils, the Chatham Islands council, three Outlying Islands and the Department of Internal Affairs and Minister of Local Government
• 60 statutory bodies, committees and tribunals (30 percent), including 56 statutory bodies and four independent tribunals
• 32 charities and companies with regulatory functions (12 percent), including 29 companies or incorporated societies, two state-owned enterprises, and one statutory monopoly

The report found regulation was a core tool for managing economic, social and environmental outcomes, and most countries were responding to similar challenges around the design, coordination and maintenance of regulation over time.

“These comparisons do not provide a benchmark for the ‘right’ structure. Instead, they highlight how different design choices shape how regulatory systems operate in practice,” the report said.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Ministry of Regulations urged further work on defining the regulatory landscape, calling for a general effort to “understand”; “strengthen”; “reduce cumulative complexity”; and “reform”.

However, it “does not propose a single solution”, stating that the “opportunity is to use this evidence to improve how regulation is designed, coordinated and managed over time”, and that this is “easier to manage when the system is understood”.

“It brings together information that has been dispersed across government agencies and datasets and provides a clear picture of New Zealand’s regulatory landscape, for the first time. It does not assess individual agencies or propose specific reforms. Instead, it helps us understand how the system operates,” the report said.

“There is no single ‘right’ model. Consolidation can reduce interfaces but can also increase internal complexity. Structural change alone does not resolve underlying challenges.”

The 63-page analysis includes 13 pages of appendices like a three-page glossary, maps of the regulatory functions of the Department of Internal Affairs and the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment, and lists of the names of the country’s regulators.

The day after the government announced a push for more departmental amalgamations, the report also pointed to complexity specifically in “four multi-function agencies” – the Department of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry for Primary Industries, and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

It also warns of a “high risk” the new mega-Ministry for Cities, Environment, Regions and Transport would end up administering “outdated legislation”, with 130 principal acts and a lot of secondary legislation much of which has not been updated in the past 30 years.

Number of regulators ‘not a problem in itself’ – Seymour defends report

Seymour defended the report, saying it did add value because it was part of an overall goal of getting to a point where a person trying to do something could deal with just one regulator.

“None of that is possible if you don’t first understand how many regulators there are, what they do, where the overlaps are, and sitting behind this report is quite a sophisticated database now that links together the regulatory agencies… the laws and the regulated parties.

“There’s not a problem with the number [of regulators] in and of itself, but what the Ministry for Regulation have done is begun to map out how these different regulators overlap and how many regulators a person who wants to do something might have to engage with.”

He pointed to the regulation of dogs, saying there were 11 laws and five regulators and suggested that could be simplified, making it easier for government ministers.

“When you have a problem – such as there’s been some dog attacks recently – the minister sets out to try and fix that and change New Zealand policy towards that.

“I’m not saying he hasn’t done a manful job of it under the circumstances, but you can’t help but think his task would be all the easier if we had a more rational constellation of regulators and regulatory instruments.”

He acknowledged many of the regulators – like the Dental Council, Nursing Council, Teaching Council and Law Society – were aimed at ensuring professional standards through registration, but said there were good reasons to change that setup.

“When you have a dozen different medical regulators all protecting turf you may miss the point of protecting consumer or patient safety and instead have them captured by a particular profession.”

He defended having set up the Charter School Agency, saying that was “not a regulatory body”, despite it being named in the report as one.

“This is not a proposition that we’re going to eradicate everything in the report. In the case of the Charter School Agency I would say that there is a specialist type of assessment of the outcomes rather than the inputs to a school and in this particular instance it makes sense to have a group of people off to the side of the Ministry of Education that specialise in that.

“They actually share most of their back-office activities, there’s only one group of people that have to interact with them, so the kinds of duplication that we’d be concerned about don’t exist in that case.”

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

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/20/ministry-uncovers-267-different-regulators-seymour-urges-consolidation/

Source: Media Outreach

HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 20 May 2026 – Phancy Group Co., Ltd. (Stock Code: 6682.HK), a leading Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) company, today announced that it has entered into a strategic cooperation and joint venture framework agreement with Huanxi Media Group Limited (“Huanxi Media”, stock code: 1003.HK), a prominent player in film and television entertainment.

By combining Phancy’s comprehensive full-stack AI capabilities with Huanxi Media’s extensive film and television data, intellectual property (IP) assets, and production expertise, the two companies aim to drive the entertainment industry’s shift from digitalization to true intelligence.

Under the framework agreement, the parties plan to set up a joint venture as the collaboration platform. They will pursue in-depth cooperation across several key areas, including data collaboration, development of large models and Agents for film and television, exploration of AI applications in new entertainment scenarios, AI-powered joint production and content creation, IP derivative development, and broader resources collaboration.

In addition, the two parties have signed a framework agreement for large model API services. Huanxi Media intends to adopt Phancy’s advanced large model and API services, with a targeted cumulative service value of no less than US$200 million through Token consumption over the next three years. The substantial long-term commitment highlights strong market confidence in the reliability and commercial strength of Phancy’s AI Platform, and is expected to provide the Company with stable, recurring revenue streams.

Dr. Dai Wenyuan, Founder and CEO of Phancy, said: “The entertainment sector is one of the most valuable and promising application scenarios for AI. This in-depth strategic partnership with Huanxi Media represents a strong alliance between our two companies and our shared vision to build a new industry ecosystem. As a leader in full-stack AI infrastructure and technical services, we at Phancy will fully leverage our core strengths in large model development, Agentic AI, heterogeneous computing power scheduling, and our Token ecosystem to empower the entire value chain of the entertainment industry. Moving forward, we will work closely with Huanxi Media, combining our respective technological advantages and industry resources to unlock new growth potential in the AI-powered entertainment sector.”

Strategic Significance of the Partnership

Phancy’s full-stack AI capabilities have taken a major step forward, moving from general platform services into deep vertical integration within the entertainment ecosystem. By embedding its self-developed AI technologies into Huanxi Media’s rich data, production environments, and IP assets, Phancy can integrate cutting-edge tools directly into content creation and daily operations, turning advanced technology into real business impact.

The film and television industry is going through a fundamental transformation. From assisted creation to intelligent production, and from virtual actors to interactive film and gaming experiences, AI is reshaping the entire content production process. The two parties will collaborate on frontier areas such as co-productions, digital human actor development, AI-generated realistic dramas, and interactive film-game projects. This partnership will move AI beyond a supporting tool and make it a core driver of content creation. Leveraging Phancy’s strengths in domestic computing power adaptation and integrated hardware-software solutions, the collaboration will significantly reduce the barriers and costs of using AI in the entertainment industry and speed up its adoption in actual productions.

This strategic alliance is an important move for Phancy as it expands its presence in real-world AI applications and deepens its industry impact. It is also expected to set a new benchmark for intelligent transformation in the entertainment sector. The two companies will continue to explore innovative ways to integrate AI with entertainment, create high-quality intelligent content, and help drive the industry into a new stage of high-quality intelligent development.

Hashtag: #PhancyGroup

The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.

Source: Radio New Zealand

Auckland’s Heart of the City has been ordered by the Employment Relations Authority to reinstate chief executive Viv Beck on an interim basis.

Heart of the City (HOTC) represents more than 15,000 businesses in Auckland’s CBD and receives Business Improvement District (BID) funding through a targeted rate paid by businesses.

Beck, chief executive for 10 years, was suspended on 27 March.

The ERA on 15 May found that Beck had an “arguable case” that she was unjustifiably suspended, and that there was strength in her submissions that the suspension was enacted before it was decided what the allegations were.

The decision by authority member Nicola Craig outlined that HOTC placed the start of the breakdown in relationship with Beck to October 2025, with the unanticipated release of a business survey’s results.

Beck disputed this, and said tensions were more recent.

The decision gave a timeline showing Beck was notified of her suspension a week after she raised concerns about the constitutional eligibility and conflicts of interest of the new chairperson, appointed in February.

It quoted the suspension letter dated 27 March, which included high-level concerns with Beck including “poor communication”, “breakdown of trust and confidence between you and the committee”, “hostile behaviour towards committee members” and “withholding of information said to be important to the committee’s functions”.

Craig said it took two weeks for the committee to provide details of those concerns to Beck, three weeks before an independent investigator was appointed, and another week to send draft terms of reference for comment.

“I am satisfied on an interim assessment that Ms Beck has an arguable case that Heart of the City failed to act as a fair and reasonable employer could have done, including the procedural steps outlined in s 103A(3) of the act, raising concerns and giving an opportunity for response.”

Craig said HOTC’s grounds for suspension were largely related to potential impact on the upcoming investigation and stakeholder implications.

She said while HOTC had since provided detailed concerns for Beck’s actions, “there is little to establish that the nominated risks make it impractical or unreasonable for her to be reinstated”.

There are steps HOTC could put in place to reduce difficulties, including having a key contact person from the committee for Beck to liaise with, and instruct her to not discuss the investigation with her colleagues, Craig said.

Craig also concluded that Ms Beck had an “arguable case” for permanent reinstatement, but added that her case may be altered on the basis of further evidence on why her removal from the workplace was necessary.

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

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/21/ruling-backs-viv-beck-in-heart-of-the-city-stoush/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is considering coming to the rescue of Kaitāia’s beleaguered timber mills – but in his capacity as a private businessman.

The Japanese company that owns the two mills, Juken NZ, has said it will close them down, with the loss of about 200 jobs, if a buyer cannot be found.

The two-month sale period is due to end this week.

Brown, a two-term former Far North mayor who already has extensive business interests in Kaitāia, told RNZ he was considering buying the Triboard and Northland mills as going concerns.

“I’m chewing it over, would be the best I can say at the moment. Chewing it over.”

However, he said it was too early to divulge more, including who he was working with.

Brown has previously developed a number of large commercial properties in the North Park area, next to the mills, and is a landlord to private businesses and government agencies.

He has also developed properties in Mangōnui and Kerikeri, also in the Far North.

During his time as Far North mayor he revived and pushed through a stalled project to build the Te Ahu Centre, which included a library, community hall, cinema, museum and council service centre at the southern end of Kaitāia.

Northland MP Grant McCallum earlier told RNZ he had met a consortium of local and national investors keen to keep the mills operating, but could not say who was involved.

When announcing its plan to exit Kaitāia earlier this year, Juken NZ said the mills had been affected by declining export markets and high costs, especially electricity.

The mills are also major water users, consuming about a third of Kaitāia’s town supply.

Juken is planning to keep its Masterton mill, which is newer and makes similar products.

on Wednesday, Workers First Union organiser Marcus Coverdale warned closure of the mills would have a “devastating effect” on the town – not just on the 200 workers and their families, but also on a construction firm that used Triboard to build prefabricated homes, trucking firms, supermarkets, and every other business that relied on workers spending their wages in town.

The union has called a public meeting at Te Ahu from 4.30pm on Saturday.

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

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/21/chewing-it-over-auckland-mayor-wayne-brown-mulls-buying-at-risk-kaitaia-mills/

Source: Radio New Zealand

Replacing public servants with artificial intelligence could come with more costs that will eat into any savings, say critics.

The government says the plan to cut another 8700 people sector jobs in about 40 core agencies will save $2.4 billion over four years.

The coalition government’s basic recipe for cutting the public sector size and wage bill is to reduce the head-count and increase use of artificial intelligence (AI) technology.

When Roger May, a retired forestry consultant of Motueka heard this, he emailed Finance Minister Nicola Willis to say that “is going to take time and money”.

He then told RNZ: “8700 knowledgeable bureaucrats are about to be axed. She expects that AI will replace a lot of these people.

“But there’s not been any explanation of the costs and time involved, and I wouldn’t mind betting that’s going to eat into their $2.4 billion.”

He got back an acknowledgement from the minister’s office.

‘I’m not aware of a current local AI provider’

Labour tried to get some details on Wednesday afternoon in Parliament, asking what the rollout and licensing cost of AI would be.

Digitising Government Minister Paul Goldsmith responded: “I don’t have that exact figure at the moment, but of course it varies.

“And what we inherited, of course, was a wide variety of arrangements in place across many government departments, and that is precisely why we’re putting together a more coherent and centrally guided system.”

Goldsmith was then asked if it would use local or overseas AI technology.

“Mister Speaker, I’m not aware of a current local AI provider in the scale of Claude or Copilot, but what I would say is that we’ll be making use of the best technology available.”

Claude and Copilot are leading AI models from US companies Anthropic and Microsoft.

ACT’s David Seymour then asked if the public sector would build its own silicon chips or import them.

Goldsmith replied, “My suggestion is that we focus on the things that we do well and sell them to the world and then we purchase the things that other people in the world do better than us and hopefully if we have made enough money in our economy we can afford to have the best ones.”

Professor Alexandra Andhov, chair of law and technology at the University of Auckland, foresaw huge challenges to the government’s savings goal, quite apart from the lack of clarity at how it settled on the $2.4b figure.

“The published material doesn’t really show the cost side of the AI,” she said on Wednesday.

Enterprise-scale AI was not a one-off buy but had ongoing costs in licence fees, model upgrades and responding to companies dictating when and how models were replaced or integrated, plus audit and oversight of its operations, Andhov added.

“And even I think more importantly, it’s to recognise that the costs that we pay for AI today are heavily subsidised while the AI companies are trying to capture as much of the market, these are not the real costs that AI will cost.”

Real-world pricing, and cyber security demands “will push up the cost of AI and generally any kind of digital infrastructure to such an extent that I think that we are not yet even in a position to foresee”, Andhov said.

The security landscape is in flux after Anthropic released its new model Mythos recently to a select few organisations to test how good it was for hacking. In response, one of the world’s largest cybersecurity firms Palo Alto Networks put out 26 security advisories at once last week – when it normally issues five a month – because Mythos had found so many more vulnerabilities than usual.

“We intend to fix every vulnerability we find before advanced AI capabilities become widely available to adversaries,” the US firm said.

Here, Treasury told public agencies last year they must prepare for the encryption-breaking threat of quantum computing due in 2030.

Andhov said there was still more cause for pause.

“But wait a second, who we are actually using, who are these AI providers?” she asked.

“To my understanding, the majority of the providers that government is considering are not New Zealand companies, not the companies that are governed by New Zealand law, but they are US-based companies that only need to comply with the US law, given the fact that also New Zealand doesn’t want to regulate AI.”

(The government has chosen a lighthanded approach to regulation.)

“If the New Zealand government ultimately uses, let’s say, Microsoft’s AI … then they’re paying OpenAI, which is based in California, which doesn’t pay any taxes [here].

“All of this amount is taken to the US and actually brings nothing back to New Zealand … and it has involved loss of jobs here.”

Australia is undergoing its own AI moves across its public sector AI, and it also relied on US Big Tech, said Jeannie Paterson, Professor of Law and director of the Centre of AI and Digital Ethics at the University of Melbourne.

But it had some things New Zealand did not have, like a new AI Safety Institute and a new AI Employment and Workplaces Forum that just had its first meeting with unions and businesses.

Australia also has a new central registry the public can use to check how agencies are using AI, [www.gov.au/articles/new-central-register-ai-transparency-statements-commonwealth-entities stating], “Bringing this information together in one place provides a clearer, more complete picture of AI use across government.”

“The first question to ask is, what’s the framework for deploying AI?” said Paterson.

“Because we know that AI is not the genie … and that there’s a number of risks. AI only works well with expert humans around it.

“So unless there’s an investment in training and resources from humans and a pretty clear democratic commitment to what role AI should be playing in society, then it’s sort of a rush to lowest, to the bottom.”

The New Zealand government has issued a Digital Government Target State for a centralised approach to improve tech while saving billions.

RNZ approached ministers Willis and Goldsmith for comment but they did not respond by deadline and they declined to do a recorded interview.

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

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/21/replacing-public-servants-with-ai-could-come-with-hidden-costs-critics-warn/

Source: Radio New Zealand

A massive, co-ordinated effort to help more people into electric vehicles could reshape the country’s entire energy system, a new report says.

EV advocacy group Drive Electric launched its ‘State of the Nation’ report at Parliament today, calling for consistent, cross-party policies to get more battery EVs and charging infrastructure on the road.

New Zealand’s access to renewable energy gave the country a huge structural advantage, but policy changes that axed many incentives meant uptake was now lagging, the report said.

EVs should no longer be thought of as “just vehicles”, it said.

Their ability to store power made them “mobile energy assets that could reshape how New Zealand generates, stores, and uses electricity”.

About 18 percent of New Zealand’s total emissions – and nearly half of all carbon dixoide emissions – come from the transport sector.

But electrifying transport would do far more than just helping New Zealand meet its emissions reduction targets, the report said.

“It strengthens energy security, reduces reliance on imported oil and allows more of New Zealand’s transport system to run on locally produced renewable electricity.”

New Zealand spent $7-$9 billion on petroleum imports every year, and local research had estimated the social costs from transport emissions were $10.5b annually.

That included 9000 hospital admissions and more than 2000 premature deaths every year from respiratory and cardiac conditions caused by air pollution.

The report called for “a long-term, durable cross-party strategy”, with consistent, co-ordinated policies to drive uptake across passenger vehicles, business fleets, and heavy vehicles.

“It is not idealism – it is the minimum requirement for investors, who make decisions over multi-year horizons, and to give consumers confidence.”

The report honed in on the potential of ‘vehicle-to-grid’ technology, where off-peak electricity can be stored and then exported back to the grid from parked household and business EVs at times of peak demand.

Australia had gone from piloting the concept, to having it ready to launch this year, in just 18 months, the report said.

New Zealand could do the same, with vehicle-to-grid capability available in many EVs now but not enabled.

“The constraint is not hardware. It is co-ordination.”

Household and business EV owners should be allowed to earn revenue from vehicle-to-grid technology, and there had to be consistency across lines companies, the report said.

Enabling vehicle-to-grid could help balance supply and demand across the electricity system.

“If 30 percent of New Zealand’s fleet were V2G-enabled, the combined output would be comparable to all of New Zealand’s power stations running at full capacity.”

Even without full vehicle-to-grid capability, there were huge benefits to individual households and businesses from increasing the number of EVs, it said.

The stored energy could be used to power appliances and tools and run household and building electricity systems – including during network outages.

Despite the benefits of electrifying transport, and building momentum around the world, New Zealand’s own transition had slowed.

The report pinned the blame firmly on the government’s decision to axe most incentives, including the Clean Car Discount and road user charge exemptions for EVs, along with weakening the Clean Car Standard that penalises importers for bringing in higher-emissions vehicles.

EVs fell from 27 percent of all new vehicle sales in New Zealand in 2023, to 11 percent last year, although increased to 18 percent in the first quarter of this year as a result of the fuel crisis.

The government has defended its decisions, saying the discount was largely being used by people who did not need the help, while importers were unable to source enough low-emissions vehicles to avoid penalties.

It has since announced $53 million in zero-interest loans to help Meridian and ChargeNet to keep building out their charging networks, which will more than double the number of public EV chargers from 1800 to 4500 by 2030.

However, the report pointed out that would still fall well short of the government’s target of 10,000 public chargers by that date.

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

Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/05/20/evs-could-reshape-the-entire-energy-system-report/

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