PM Edition: Top 10 Business Articles on LiveNews.co.nz for August 7, 2026 – Full Text

Source: BusinessNZ

BusinessNZ has welcomed elements of Labour’s Small Business Action Plan – A Fair Go, saying several measures reflect long-standing BusinessNZ positions, and says today’s announcement should prompt a wider, cross-party conversation about New Zealand’s outdated and unindexed tax settings, including the case for a lower company tax rate. BusinessNZ has also raised strong concerns about any move to narrow Investment Boost, warning it would come at the direct expense of the wider business investment that underpins New Zealand’s productivity.

“Small businesses are the backbone of the New Zealand economy, and any credible plan to ease their cash flow and compliance burden deserves a considered look,” BusinessNZ Chief Executive Katherine Rich said. “There is real substance here, and some of it lines up with positions we’ve held for some time. But the detail – and what’s missing – matters just as much as the headline.”

GST registration threshold: overdue

“Raising the GST registration threshold is something BusinessNZ has already called for in our election priorities,” Ms Rich said. “It has sat at $60,000 since 2009 – 17 years without adjustment – and is now well below Australia’s equivalent of $75,000. We support this move and encourage all parties to adopt this policy.

BusinessNZ has previously put this case directly to Government. In 2023, BusinessNZ wrote in support of a small-business-led petition calling for the GST registration threshold to be raised, on the same grounds it is making today – that inflation has quietly eroded the threshold’s original intent.

The bigger issue: New Zealand doesn’t index its tax thresholds

Ms Rich said the GST threshold should not be looked at in isolation – it is a symptom of a much wider problem that BusinessNZ has consistently raised: New Zealand has no mechanism for automatically keeping tax thresholds in line with inflation.

“Income tax thresholds have not kept pace with inflation and Inland Revenue’s own advice to the Finance Minister estimated this fiscal drag has cost middle-income earners an extra $2 billion a year collectively, lifting the average tax rate by 1.65 percentage points above where it would otherwise sit.

“BusinessNZ’s long-standing position is that all tax thresholds, including income tax brackets and the GST registration threshold, should be indexed to inflation as a matter of course. That would stop the country lurching from one overdue correction to the next, and remove the temptation for any government to quietly bank the proceeds of bracket creep.”

Investment Boost: BusinessNZ welcomes threshold lift, but strongly opposes narrowing it to SMEs

BusinessNZ said it supports lifting the instant asset write-off threshold for small businesses – “that helps reduce tax compliance costs for SMEs, and we’ve supported measures like it for years,” Ms Rich said. But she said BusinessNZ would be strongly opposed to funding that change by scrapping or narrowing Investment Boost for larger businesses.

“Investment Boost is one of the most important productivity policies New Zealand has introduced in years, and BusinessNZ would be very opposed to seeing it curtailed,” Ms Rich said. “It currently applies to businesses of every size, with no value limit, and Treasury and Inland Revenue estimate it will lift New Zealand’s GDP by 1 percent, wages by 1.5 percent and the capital stock by 1.6 percent over the next 20 years – with around half of those gains expected in the first five years. The latest Inland Revenue survey data shows it is already working: 40 percent of firms that invested in new assets say it increased their investment spending over the past year, and nearly half of firms planning to invest over the next five years say it is positively influencing those plans.

“Investment Boost is forecast to cost around $6.6 billion through to 2029. Redirecting that broad-based incentive into a narrower scheme for businesses under $10 million turnover – to help fund a small-business package costed at $1.56 billion – would in effect strip billions of dollars out of the future investment New Zealand’s larger employers, exporters and manufacturers would otherwise have made.

“Larger businesses account for the bulk of New Zealand’s capital investment, and it is precisely that investment – in plant, technology and equipment – that lifts the productivity and wages of the whole economy, including the small businesses that supply and work for those larger firms,” she said.

“Our message is straightforward: support small business investment, absolutely – but not by taking a proven, broad-based productivity policy away from everyone else. Any replacement for Investment Boost must remain available to businesses of all sizes,” Ms Rich said.

Company tax rates need to be part of the conversation

Ms Rich said today’s announcement, welcome as parts of it are, sidesteps the tax setting BusinessNZ believes matters most for long-run growth: the headline company tax rate.

“BusinessNZ has long held the position that New Zealand’s 28 percent company tax rate is now well out of step with our peers and is holding back investment. Australia, the UK and Canada all sit at or below 25 to 26 percent. A staged reduction in the corporate rate, paired with continued reform of the Overseas Investment Act, would do more for New Zealand’s ability to attract and retain capital than any single small-business measure. We’d encourage every party to put a credible pathway on lowering the company tax rate back on the table this election,” she said.

Prompt payment: BusinessNZ does not support a mandated model

“Cash flow is the single biggest killer of small businesses, and it’s an objective BusinessNZ shares,” Ms Rich said. “But BusinessNZ has not supported a mandatory payment period along the lines proposed today.”

A mandatory approach was legislated through the Business Payments Practices Act 2023, which caused considerable concern among BusinessNZ’s larger members. That Act was subsequently repealed, with Government instead asking BusinessNZ to help design a voluntary Business Payments Code – work BusinessNZ has already carried out in detail with its membership.

“A single, economy-wide payment rule of around two weeks doesn’t account for how different sectors actually operate,” she said. “Government payment mechanisms are relatively uniform across departments by comparison; the private sector spans a much wider range of payment cycles, contract structures and sector norms, and a one-size-fits-all rule risks significant upheaval and compliance cost in sectors it wasn’t designed for.”

BusinessNZ also pointed to tools already delivering faster payment voluntarily. “E-invoicing has been established by Government and running for several years, and many large businesses have already adopted it as a way to pay small suppliers faster,” Ms Rich said. “It takes time for businesses to change internal systems to accommodate a new requirement, and legislating a blunt, universal rule ahead of that transition is a heavy-handed way to get there.”

“There is also no agreed definition of a ‘big business’ in this context,” she said. “Any threshold needs to be very carefully designed so it doesn’t inadvertently capture medium-sized enterprises that face exactly the same cash-flow pressures this policy is meant to relieve.”

“BusinessNZ will continue to engage constructively with all parties on small business and tax policy in the lead-up to the election. We’d welcome commitments from Government and other parties to properly index tax thresholds, to protect and build on Investment Boost rather than narrow it, and to put a lower company tax rate back on the agenda – not just fixes that arrive once the political pressure becomes convenient,” Ms Rich said.

The BusinessNZ Network including BusinessNZ, EMA, Business Central and Business South, represents and provides services to thousands of businesses, small and large, throughout New Zealand.

Convergence of advanced medtech, medical knowledge sharing cloud and agentic AI heralds a new heart failure management solution for heart failure patients

SINGAPORE – Media OutReach Newswire – 6 August 2026 – Singaporean doctor Dr Wei Siang Yu, Founder of HeartSpan.ai, has led a cross-border collaboration that enabled Indonesia’s first successful implantation of the world’s smallest and lightest left ventricular assist device (LVAD). The milestone forms part of the Singapore-led healthcare platform’s broader effort to build a regional model that helps hospitals adopt advanced heart failure therapies by combining MedTech with cross-border specialist expertise, structured clinical training, medical knowledge sharing cloud and agentic AI support.

The model was put to its first real-world test at Dr Cipto Mangunkusumo National Central General Hospital (RSCM) in Jakarta. HeartSpan.ai, the heart longevity division of Borderless Healthcare Group (BHG), connected RSCM with the world’s smallest and lightest LVAD, an intensive training programme at Fuwai Hospital in Beijing and support from Fuwai specialists during the first procedure.

On 1 August 2026, RSCM’s cardiovascular team completed Indonesia’s first successful implantation of the device, also marking its first successful use in Southeast Asia. The recipient was a 45-year-old woman with advanced heart failure and a left ventricular ejection fraction of 14%. Beyond the clinical milestone, the programme tests whether a hospital can establish the multidisciplinary systems needed to sustain the therapy after visiting specialists leave.

That capability question is also relevant to Singapore, where the National Heart Centre estimates that heart failure affects 4-5% of the population, compared with 1-2% globally. HeartSpan.ai’s proposition is that Singapore can use its specialist expertise to organise regional networks through which technology, training and clinical knowledge travel together. The initiative comes as the country begins implementing its S$37 billion RIE2030 plan, focusing on advancing biomedtech and biomanufacturing, and translating research and innovation into practical healthcare solutions.

Led by Singaporean founder Dr Wei Siang Yu, HeartSpan.ai is positioning this as a new model for cross-border healthcare innovation. Its approach combines physical implementation and specialist training on the ground with a medical knowledge-sharing cloud and agentic AI, allowing clinical expertise and care models to be transferred, retained and replicated beyond an individual procedure. The Indonesia programme provides the first real-world demonstration of how this model can work.

As HeartSpan.ai expands the model into other markets, the company aims to establish Singapore as the base from which its healthcare technologies, clinical models and intellectual property can be deployed across the region. This comes as Singapore begins implementing its S$37 billion RIE2030 plan, with biomedtech and biomanufacturing among its priorities and an emphasis on translating research and innovation into practical applications. HeartSpan.ai’s regional expansion demonstrates how Singapore-based healthcare companies can contribute to that position by taking locally led innovation and new healthcare business models into international markets.

“What we are building is not a traditional medical services model. We are creating an IP-led healthcare model that brings together medical technology, clinical protocols and procedures, specialist know-how, training, agentic AI and a medical knowledge-sharing cloud into one scalable platform. By converging the online and offline elements of healthcare delivery, that intellectual property and capability can be deployed into different markets rather than remaining tied to one hospital or geography. Indonesia is the first demonstration of how this model can work in practice, and our ambition is to scale it across the region,” said Dr Wei Siang Yu, Founder and Chairman of BHG and Founder of HeartSpan.ai.

“The successful implantation of the LVAD is a significant achievement, not only for RSCM but also for the advancement of healthcare services regionally. This accomplishment demonstrates that Indonesia is capable of providing advanced cardiovascular therapies that meet international standards through collaboration with global partners, strengthening the competencies of healthcare professionals, and leveraging the latest healthcare technologies. Most importantly, this milestone brings new hope to patients with advanced heart failure, who previously had very limited treatment options,” said Dr. Supriyanto Dharmoredjo, President Director of RSCM.

The introduction of LVAD implantation expands access to highly specialized cardiovascular care, reduces the need for eligible patients to seek complex treatment overseas, and strengthens Indonesia’s national capabilities in advanced heart failure management.

“Successful LVAD therapy extends far beyond the operating theatre. It requires rigorous patient selection, seamless coordination between cardiologists, surgeons, intensivists, nurses and LVAD coordinators, as well as structured long-term follow-up. Through our collaboration with HeartSpan.ai and Fuwai Hospital, RSCM has established the multidisciplinary care model, clinical protocols and specialist capabilities needed to build a sustainable advanced heart failure program for Indonesia,” said Dr. Birry Karim, Head of the Cardiovascular Department at RSCM.

“Our patient’s recovery has been encouraging. She has successfully weaned from mechanical ventilation and extubated at post-op day 1. Her condition has stabilized, and rehabilitation has already begun. While the post-operative period remains critical and requires close monitoring, these early clinical outcomes are very encouraging. This successful implantation demonstrates what can be achieved through meticulous surgical planning and multidisciplinary teamwork. We look forward to offering this life-saving therapy to more eligible patients in Indonesia,” said Dr. M. Arza Putra, Lead Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeon at RSCM.

Building on this milestone, HeartSpan.ai envisions a future where artificial intelligence, regenerative medicine and advanced mechanical circulatory support converge within an integrated ecosystem to extend life, optimise healthspan and transform the management of advanced heart failure. Beyond advancing patient care, this initiative led by HeartSpan.ai and implemented locally through Indonesia.md, BHG’s Indonesia-focused subsidiary and the exclusive distributor of the LVAD in Indonesia, aims to accelerate the transfer of advanced medical technologies from China and other countries to Indonesia, strengthening local capabilities through specialist education, knowledge transfer, research collaboration and, ultimately, an introduction of advanced medical device manufacturing in Indonesia.
https://www.heartspan.ai/

Hashtag: #medtech #medicaltechnology #cardiovascular #surgery

About HeartSpan.ai

Source: Employers and Manufacturers Association

The EMA (Employers and Manufacturers Association) has welcomed the government’s announcement of nine new industry-led secondary school subjects, saying the move will help better connect classroom learning with the skills, careers and workforce needs of the future.

From 2029, Year 12 and 13 students will be able to study subjects including Next-Gen Manufacturing, Applied Intelligent Systems, Construction and Built Environment, Engineering Technology, Food and Fibre Systems and Tourism, with programmes developed in partnership with industry.

EMA Head of Professional Services Nick Sheppard said the announcement represented a significant shift in how New Zealand prepares young people for employment, training and further study.

“For many years, employers, schools, tertiary providers and communities have been calling for stronger connections between education and the world of work. This announcement is a major step in the right direction.”

“These new learning pathways will help young people better understand the exciting career opportunities available to them while gaining skills that are relevant to employers and the future workforce.”

Sheppard, who serves on the Industry Advisory Group for the Engineering and Manufacturing Industry Skills Board, said the reforms recognise that industry must play a central role in preparing the next generation of workers.

“One of the most encouraging aspects of this initiative is that industry is being invited to help shape what students learn. Businesses understand the skills, technologies and capabilities that will be needed in the years ahead, and their input will help ensure these subjects remain innovative, engaging and future-focused.”

The EMA believes the new subjects will help expose more young people to career pathways they may never previously have considered, while giving employers an opportunity to strengthen connections with local schools and future talent.

“This creates a real opportunity for employers to become involved in developing New Zealand’s future workforce. The door has been opened and now it is important that industry steps through it.”

Sheppard said the EMA would encourage its members to engage with the development of the new subjects and support ongoing collaboration between business, schools, tertiary providers and Industry Skills Boards.

“Success will depend on genuine partnership. Curriculum design is only the beginning. As technologies evolve and industries change, business will need to remain actively involved to help ensure these pathways continue to prepare young people for the jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past.”

Sheppard said the reforms had the potential to elevate industry-connected learning to a new level within the secondary school system.

“New Zealand has seen many successful vocational and career-focused initiatives over the years, but these new subjects have the potential to embed industry-connected learning more deeply within mainstream secondary education and give it the same status as traditional academic pathways.”

He added that businesses were seeking a stable, long-term approach to skills development that would give schools, learners and employers the confidence to invest in future workforce capability.

“After a period of significant change across the skills and vocational education system, businesses are looking for consistency and long-term commitment. If we get that, these new subjects can play an important role in building the skilled workforce New Zealand needs to grow and prosper.”

Source: Cotality NZ

Thursday 6 August 2026

Interest rates, credit rules, and shifting buyer behaviour are inextricably entwined with the health of the housing market. In line with the recent slowdown in property sales activity, mortgage lending has lost significant momentum – with growth dipping near zero in May and June marking a nearly three-year low. Below, we break down 10 key trends currently shaping the market.

Interest-only (I-O) lending remains ‘under control’. At around 14% of new loans to owner-occupiers in June and 28% to investors (by value), I-O activity is running at its lowest levels for more than a decade. This could signal reduced willingness by banks to lend on this basis and/or reduced demand for it, but it also shows that people aren’t generally needing to look at I-O finance to assist with cashflow pressures.

Repayment problems are low. Another indicator showing that households are generally managing to keep up with their debt commitments is that only 0.6% of the value of outstanding loans is ‘non-performing’ (either 90+ days overdue or considered impaired by the bank, i.e. that they won’t recover at least some of the interest or principal). This is around half the level seen after the GFC.

Banks’ allowances for bad debts have eased downwards. As a proportion of all outstanding loans, RBNZ figures suggest an industry-wide bad debt provision worth about 0.21%, back down to late 2022 levels.

The loan to value ratio rules are not a major restraint right now. In June around 16% of lending to owner-occupiers was done at less than 20% deposit, well below the cap of 25% and even the banks’ potentially self-enforced threshold of 20%.

First home buyers continue to take full advantage of conditions. Even though we’re operating below the overall LVR caps, FHBs are still ploughing in, accounting for around 70% of all low-deposit/high LVR lending in June – or put another way 55% of all FHB loans are being done at less than 20% deposit (or greater than 80% LVR).

Investors may be nearing the limit for low-deposit finance. Nearly 5% of lending to investors in June was done below 30% deposit (>70% LVR), which is a lot less than owner-occupiers/FHBs, but still testing the speed limit for investors of 10% officially or, of more relevance, the banks’ own self-enforced limit of perhaps 5%.

Serviceability testing is a bigger factor than debt to income limits. Recently only around 10% of lending has been done at high DTIs (after exemptions, such as new-builds), well below the speed limit of 20%. In other words, anyone finding they can’t get a loan is probably being turned down because of banks’ own internal affordability assessments (e.g. could the borrower afford the loan at a theoretical rate of perhaps 7%) rather than the official credit rules themselves.

Loan choices are getting longer. In late 2024, less than 10% of new loans were being fixed beyond 12 months and that number was still less than 20% as recently as November 2025. But it’s jumped up to the mid-50%’s for the past five months (with the two-year rate very popular), as borrowers look to protect against any further interest rate increases in a world of higher inflation and heightened uncertainty. The shift longer will generally be applying to people re-fixing existing mortgages as they roll over too.

Existing borrowers are still shopping around. Meanwhile, given that 10% of current loans are floating and 30% are fixed but due to reprice within the next six months, there’s still quite a bit of flexibility to switch lenders – and often take an attractive cashback incentive. Aside from the switching/refi bonanza in December 2025 when all the banks offered 1.5% cash, June’s figure of $2.3bn remained the highest since July last year (and the fourth highest on record back to 2017).

NZ’s LVR is low but it’s concentrated. Recently the stock of outstanding mortgages went above $400bn for the first time, having only gone above $300bn as recently as December 2020. Compared with our estimate of the value of NZ’s housing stock (almost $1.7trn), mortgage debt is low – or ‘paper equity’ is high. But for the estimated one-third of households that carry all of that debt, the swings and roundabouts of mortgage rates and credit policy are more acute.

Looking ahead, with interest rates potentially coming under renewed upwards pressure in the next few months, overall new lending activity may remain in a slowdown. But at least repayment stresses are at a low base, and first home buyers look likely to remain a fruitful group for lenders. The constant need to retain existing borrowers as their fixed rates expire will be a focus, while simultaneously competing to win market share from rival banks.

Source: deVere Group

AI investors should follow three priorities for the rest of 2026, warns the CEO of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations, as sharp swings are exposing which parts of the AI trade are built on real demand and which are not.

Nigel Green of deVere Group’s comments come as this year’s AI rally is splintering sharply, and this week is making the reason for urgency unmistakable.

Global AI investment is projected to exceed $2.5 trillion in 2026, yet the disconnect between roughly $400 billion in infrastructure spending and only around $100 billion in enterprise AI revenue has become impossible to ignore.

A recent Bank of America fund manager survey found 45% of respondents now flag an AI bubble as the market’s greatest tail risk, up from just 11% a few months earlier, with more than half saying they believe AI stocks are already trading in bubble territory.

“The pattern is on full display this week, and it is exactly why investors cannot afford to wait for clarity before adjusting their approach,” says the deVere CEO.

“Asian stocks slipped on Thursday as a recent tech-led rally on Wall Street paused, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index down 0.2% and South Korea’s Kospi falling 1%.

“The S&P 500 pulled back from a record high, and an index of semiconductor stocks lost more than 1%, even as Nvidia itself advanced.

SpaceX tumbled 14% despite posting strong earnings, ahead of the release of roughly $101 billion of shares becoming available for trading Thursday.

One session captured the whole story: strong results still triggering a sharp share-price fall, and a broadly steady chip sector still unable to prevent a sector-wide pullback.

The same split has shown up repeatedly in recent weeks.

Nvidia shares fell 5% in a single session after reports it was pursuing a payment guarantee of up to $250 billion for OpenAI’s data centre lease, alongside discussions for up to $350 billion in additional financing, pushing the company’s market cap below Apple’s for the first time in over a year. Its five-year credit default swap premium surged by the largest single-day amount on record on the news.

SK Hynix posted record quarterly revenue, up 257% year-over-year with a 76% operating margin, and still fell 9% on the earnings call, underscoring how quickly sentiment has turned even for companies delivering strong results.

Nigel Green says this is the moment investors need to stop treating the AI trade as settled and start applying real scrutiny.

“Markets are no longer giving AI companies the benefit of the doubt just because they are spending heavily,” he says. “What happened this week, and in the previous weeks, should be a wake-up call. Strong earnings did nothing to stop a 14% single-day fall. This only happens when investors have already decided that headline growth is not enough on its own anymore.

“Waiting for more certainty before adjusting positioning is itself a risk now.”

He sets out three priorities investors should apply to the AI trade through year-end.

1. Differentiate within the sector rather than treating it as one bet.

Micron, Applied Materials, and Cisco have each posted genuine earnings strength this year on the back of real component shortages and cloud-provider demand, with Cisco raising its 2026 revenue guidance to $62.8 to $63.0 billion on solid AI data-center orders. This stands in sharp contrast to companies whose growth increasingly depends on vendor financing arrangements between suppliers and their own customers.

“The AI trade stopped being a single story months ago, and treating it as one is the fastest way to get this wrong,” Nigel Green explains.

“Some companies are seeing real, measurable demand for the physical components that power this build-out. Others are increasingly reliant on complex financing arrangements to sustain their growth narrative.

“Lumping them together in one portfolio decision is no longer defensible.”

2. Watch balance sheets, not just growth stories.

SpaceX has erased roughly $1.2 trillion in market value since its record-setting June IPO, sitting 47% below its June 16 closing high, pressured by lock-up expirations, Starship test setbacks, and now a fresh $101 billion share unlock landing squarely on an already battered stock.

Meanwhile, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft’s collective 2026 capital expenditure is set to jump 77% to a record $725 billion, well above the $500 billion analysts originally expected, against a combined contractual backlog across the group of roughly $2.1 trillion.

“The stocks under the most pressure this year aren’t simply the ones spending the most on AI infrastructure,” notes Nigel Green.

“They’re the ones carrying the largest financing entanglements and debt-guarantee exposure. Investors screening for growth alone, without looking at what sits underneath it, are missing the signal that actually matters right now.”

3. Expect volatility around each earnings date rather than a steady trend.

The price-to-earnings ratio has climbed above 40, a level last seen before the dot-com crash, and this week’s 14% swing in SpaceX shares on strong earnings, not weak ones, shows exactly how easily financing can unlock events and overwhelm fundamentals in the short term.

“This year has taught investors that AI-adjacent stocks can move 5% to 10%, and sometimes considerably more, in a single session on financing news alone, in either direction,” Nigel Green says.

“Investors need to size positions accordingly, because waiting for a calmer market before adjusting exposure is not a realistic strategy right now.

“Sharp single-day moves around individual earnings dates are very different from a gradual repricing of the sector, and the two need to be told apart urgently.”

Nigel Green concludes that the investors who move decisively now, rather than waiting for the picture to become fully clear, will be the ones best positioned through year-end.

“The investors who do well for the rest of 2026 are likely to be the ones who stopped asking whether AI as a sector is a good bet months ago.

“The more useful question is which parts of the AI trade are built on real demand and which are built on financing structures that still need to prove themselves.

“Getting that distinction right, and acting on it sooner rather than later, is the work in front of every investor holding AI exposure today.”

deVere Group is one of the world’s largest independent advisors of specialist global financial solutions to international, local mass affluent, and high-net-worth clients. It has a network of offices around the world, more than 80,000 clients, and $14bn under advisement.