Items filtered by date: Tuesday, 02 December 2014

Hong Kong-listed Tencent Mobility was granted Overseas Investment Office approval to buy up to 100 percent of video game developer Grinding Gear Games for more than $100 million

Te Uru Rākau and Ngāti Hine Forestry Trust have signed a joint venture to plant and manage about 3,600 hectares of pine trees in the far North, Forestry Minister Shane Jones has today announced.

A taskforce is being set up to deal with the impact of the Chinese Government’s ban on the import of many recycling materials, Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage announced today.

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters today announced the appointment of Tahamoana Macpherson as New Zealand’s new Ambassador to Thailand.

New Zealand's economic growth is set to continue to beat the average of the 35 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperative and Development, as activity shifts away from consumption and towards investment

First it was the fuel taxes, now the Government is hiking the tax on household waste as another example of breaking the ‘no new tax’ pledge, says the Taxpayers’ Union. This morning on Radio NZ’s Morning Report, Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage said that the Government will be increasing the New Zealand Waste Levy. “This is another broken promise that will fall on households paying for rubbish, ratepayers, and Kiwi businesses who have waste to landfill,” says Jordan Williams, spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union. “Those in construction will be particularly hard hit. Despite most construction waste being inert, they will pay a heavy price for a tax going from $10 a tonne to perhaps $200 a tonne. That’s a 1,900% increase.” “What’s worse, is that this tax isn’t even necessary. It is used by the Ministry for the Environment for a ‘waste minimisation’ slush fund, often going to corporate welfare projects of very questionable value.” “Does the Prime Minister mean what she says when she made the ‘no new taxes’ policy? If so, she needs to talk to her Green Party Minister and get this tax hike put in the dustbin.” RNZ interview transcript (full interview available here): Alex Perrottet: “Not too long to go but I want to ask you, there’s a proposal by Iona Pannett, Wellington City Council, saying that dumping could be a lot more costly. I think she is saying that it could go from $10 a tonne to $200 a tonne. What are you thinking in that regard?” Eugenie Sage: “Well the local authorities have recommended it going up to about $140, $150 a tonne. $10 a tonne has been in place since about 2008-2009. We will be increasing that levy.”

Auckland International Airport has set prices that are not in the long-term interest of consumers, and more must be done to protect airport users from the market power exerted by monopoly airports, according to a submission by Airlines for Australia & New Zealand (A4ANZ).

Workers at Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) will go into overdrive tonight as they replace signs and names for terminals, gates and baggage claim carousels with new ones, in a major change designed to make getting around the airport easier.

Robotic handling raises sawing productivity, Volker Bühler, group manager for robotics at German sawing machine and storage system manufacturer, Kasto, describes the widening choice of automation systems on offer to minimise labour costs and increase production output from the company's circular sawing and bandsawing machines. The production solutions are available in the UK and Ireland through the firm's subsidiary in Milton Keynes.

One of the first large-scale commercial avocado orchards to be planted in New Zealand - as part of a multi-national growing consortium - has been placed on the market for sale.