Kate Acland: Beef and Lamb Chair comments on red meat driving increase in exports

Shane Solly: Harbour Asset Management expert on the market reactions to the latest events in the Middle East

It was another big weekend for the conflict between Iran and the US, but the lack of new escalation could be good news for the markets. Reports that the US and Iran had agreed to pause further military action and resume negotiations over the Strait of Hormuz eased concerns of additional disruptions. Harbour Asset Management's Shane Solly explained further. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Bill Bennett: tech commentator on the growing popularity of Starlink

Starlink’s number of New Zealand customers jumped 46 percent last year as it passed Spark to become the country’s largest rural internet provider. The satellite broadband provider - owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX - increased its Kiwi subscribers from 58,000 to 85,000 in the year to June 30, 2025, according to new reports. Tech commentator Bill Bennett says Starlink's been gathering momentum over the years, and he saw this growth coming.  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Nick Tuffley: ASB chief economist on the increase in public sector jobs amid proposed Government cuts

Public sector jobs keep on rising, even as the Government promises to slash numbers. Seasonally-adjusted Stats NZ data shows filled jobs rose 0.3 percent across the country last month - 0.7 in the past year. More than 6,000 public service roles were created in the year to May. ASB chief economist Nick Tuffley says lifts in Government spending on health and education have translated into jobs. "When you do look at where the Government has been prioritising its spending, it is those two sectors - when you look at that sort of public service beyond those sectors, you have had a slight decline."  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Terry Collins: AA Principal Policy Advisor on the price of 91 petrol dropping below $3 a litre

The average price for 91 petrol has quietly sunk below $3 per litre, and there's hope it could go lower still. The Middle East conflict has seen prices reach historic highs, but the newly-announced agreement between the US and Iran has seen fuel costs fall. AA expert Terry Collins says fuel prices are likely to sink lower over the coming days, but they won't go as low as they were last year. "I see it getting a lot better, I don't see it getting as good as it was at the end of the year. So not so bad."  LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.

Francesca Rudkin: Why is the Government dragging its feet on regulating big tech?

Yesterday, an article with Stuff owner and CEO Sinead Boucher was released on their website.   It was a wide ranging interview that included discussion about the significant impact big tech companies such as Google, Meta, and TikTok are having on traditional, New Zealand owned media companies. These platforms attract the vast majority of New Zealand’s digital advertising spend, but due to a lack of regulation they avoid paying a meaningful tax bill in New Zealand. This is galling for local media companies who invest in journalism and content, only to watch big tech scrape, crawl and extract this content for their own gain.   We’ve all seen the result of this disruption. Local newspapers, television broadcasters and online news outlets have experienced declining revenues, leading to newsroom closures and job losses. We can’t blame big tech entirely for the challenges facing traditional media. Consumer habits have shifted towards digital platforms and local media companies have struggled to adapt to audience expectations and preferences.  The Government should have a legitimate and important role to play in all of this, but are nowhere to be seen. They could be regulating big tech to create a fair and competitive digital marketplace and to protect the public interest by maintaining a strong, independent media sector which supports democracy and informed public debate.  So why is the Government continuing to drag its feet when to comes to anything to do with big tech? Be it social media bans, criminalising deep fakes, requiring digital platforms to negotiate payments for news content, or making them pay an appropriate amount of tax? Is it too hard or too complex? Is there a lack of interest? Or is it self-serving?  Boucher shared some concerning feedback she’s had from politicians: “There’s some actual things that senior politicians have said to me in the last year: One said ‘If you were nicer to us, maybe we would care if you lived or died’. Another said ‘We effectively weighed up the interests of you and big tech and decided they were more important to the country than journalistic organisations’.”   Boucher also claimed politicians today are thinner-skinned than they used to be, which they quite possibly are. If you can’t handle scrutiny, I’m not sure you’re in the right job. But after watching Scrutiny Week in Parliament I would suggest politicians are as brutal to their colleagues as the media can be to them. I’ve had politicians complain to me about a media organisation or individual journalist before, but there has always been an understanding that democracy requires the fourth estate and that where there are politicians there will be media, and vice versa.   I’m giving politicians the benefit of the doubt that they’re not so petty as to allow the demise of democracy because of their own fears, self-interest and inadequacies.   But it still begs the question, with all its social harm, misinformation, disinformation, scams, deep fakes, AI slop and disregard for suppression, why is the NZ Government so scared of making a move against big tech?   Unfortunately, I suspect it’s a clear sign of who wears the pants in the relationship. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener [https://omnystudio.com/listener] for privacy information.