The Commerce Commission’s move on commercial credit-card fees sounds technical. But for small businesses, surcharges and margins, it goes straight to the question of who absorbs the cost of modern payments.
Tag: New Zealand
I muri i te ua: he kōrero mō te tiaki i te taiao me te ngākau
He tuhinga reo Māori mō te wā i muri i te ua nui: kia āta haere, kia manaaki i te whānau, kia whakarongo ki te whenua, kia whakatika i ngā mea iti o te kāinga me te hinengaro.
After seven deaths, New Zealand needs to stop treating holiday road trauma as a seasonal surprise
The King’s Birthday weekend road toll is not just a tragic statistic. It is a recurring warning that New Zealand’s road safety conversation still swings between grief and forgetfulness.
New Zealand wants strategic science without much new money. That is the tension
Budget 2026 has sharpened a familiar problem: New Zealand wants science to deliver resilience, productivity and innovation, but the funding signals suggest researchers will be asked to do more with less room to breathe.
Heartland’s TSB bid is about more than another bank logo
Heartland Bank’s plan to buy TSB for $620 million is not just a corporate deal. It is a test of how much room remains in New Zealand banking for regional identity, digital scale and real competition.
Queenstown’s housing crisis shows tourism cannot thrive by hollowing out its workers
Opinion: Queenstown’s warning about becoming a ‘zombie town’ should be treated as a national tourism-policy failure, not a local inconvenience.
Youth unemployment is not just a labour-market statistic. It is a warning about social mobility
Rising concern about youth unemployment in poorer communities points to a deeper New Zealand problem: weak entry-level pathways can harden inequality for years.
Gloriavale is again testing how New Zealand protects children inside closed communities
A new report on Gloriavale raises a wider question for New Zealand: how should the state protect children when education, housing, work and faith sit inside one closed system?
Podcast Pick: Dr Lucy Hone on the Gap Between the Life You Expected and the One You Have
A thoughtful Imperfects Podcast conversation with New Zealand resilience researcher Dr Lucy Hone offers practical language for disappointment, grief and the quiet work of rebuilding.
Fast-track donations show New Zealand needs rules for perceived conflicts, not just real ones
The fast-track approvals debate shows why New Zealand’s conflict rules need to protect trust before proof of wrongdoing is required.