Passengers travelling out of   major Australian airports should plan their airport arrival to be earlier than usual from today, to allow for increased security screening after police and counter-terrorism agencies foiled a plot at the weekend to “bring down” a plane, reportedly an Australian domestic flight.

Qantas now advises arriving at airports two hours before domestic flights and three hours before international flights.

Counter-terrorism squads, which launched armed raids on four Sydney properties on Saturday evening over an alleged “Islamic-inspired” plot to blow up an aircraft, arrested four men. Authorities first learned of the alleged plot on Wednesday and stepped up security at Sydney Airport on Thursday.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull told reporters yesterday (Sunday) that security-screening measures had been beefed up at all Australian airports – and passengers should arrive early.

“Travellers should arrive at terminals at least two hours before flights to allow ample time for screening.

“They should limit the amount of carry-on and checked baggage, as this will help to ensure that security screening is efficient.”

That’s from the Prime Minister.

Passengers faced significant delays at major airports yesterday and used social media (as above, on Twitter) to let people know that queues were building up at airports around the country.

Qantas placed the following notice on its website yesterday:

Additional security screening at Australian Domestic and International Airports

The Australian Government has introduced additional aviation security measures at international and domestic terminals at Australia’s major airports.

Customers can expect to experience an increased level of security scrutiny at the airport so it may take a little longer than usual to get through the process:

• Passengers should arrive at the airport two hours before domestic flights and three hours before international flights to allow ample time for screening.
• Passengers should limit the amount of carry-on and checked baggage they travel with as this will help to ensure security screening is efficient.

There are no changes to what can and cannot be carried on-board the aircraft.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Virgin Australia and its budget subsidiary Tigerair Australia advised passengers similarly, adding that customers “should not be concerned about these precautionary measures”.

“As the measures place an additional burden on the screening system, it may take a little longer than usual to get through the process,” Virgin Australia said.

At Adelaide and Sydney airports, some passengers reported delays yesterday of up to 90 minutes before passing through security, with a major police presence at and around the airports.

Turnbull said the plot appeared to have been carefully planned and was probably not the work of a lone wolf but in the category of “quite elaborate conspiracies”.

He said none of the men arrested worked in the airport industry but police believed the plot aimed at the Australian aviation industry at a major airport.

Five properties in Surry Hills, Punchbowl, Wiley Park and Lakemba were raided on Saturday evening. Surry Hills, a diverse and – in parts – very fashionable inner-city suburb, was a surprise. The other suburbs, in south-western Sydney, have significant Muslim populations, giving rise to early suspicions that Saturday’s simultaneous raids were linked to Islamist extremism. This seems to have been confirmed.

“We believe it’s Islamic-inspired terrorism,” Australian federal police commissioner, Andrew Colvin, said. “Exactly what is behind this is something we need to investigate fully.”

ABC News said it had learned that police found materials and items “that could be used to make a homemade bomb” when they raided the house at Surry Hills.

| AneGlobal Media release written by Peter Needham  ||  July 31,  2017   |||

The broadcaster said it understood that authorities believed the group planned to smuggle the device onto a plane and blow it up.

Australia’s national terrorism threat level remains at “probable’, unchanged since 2014.

Written by Peter Needham

 Taranaki DailyNews reports  that Taranaki's Amtec Engineering at Bell Block closed and made all of its staff redundant last week.

The downturn in the oil and gas industry has forced a Taranaki engineering company to shut up shop and lay off all of its staff.

On Friday employees at Amtec Engineering, Connett Rd East Bell Block, were called into a meeting and told they were all being made redundant.

The company's 44 staff were given a letter stating while the business' directors had hoped things would improve, it was closing the doors on the basis it was insolvent and was unable to continue trading.

Continue to read the full article here  

|  A Taranaki Daily News release  ||  July 30,  2017   |||

An external central banking expert has commended the Reserve Bank’s forecasting and monetary policy decision-making processes.

As part of good practice peer review, the Bank regularly commissions reviews by external experts of its forecasting and monetary policy decision-making processes. It has modified its processes over the years in light of their findings.

Dr Philip Turner, former Deputy Head of the Monetary and Economic Department and a member of Senior Management of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), was requested to attend the February 2017 forecasting round, report on his assessment of the process, and make recommendations where relevant.

This issue of the Bulletin presents Dr Turner’s report back to the Bank.

Dr Turner comments that, in seeking to “avoid unnecessary instability in output, interest rates and the exchange rate”, the Bank’s mandate is realistic about what monetary policy can achieve.

“This mandate would not have been fulfilled in recent years, given the large shocks to international prices, by trying to keep the year-on-year inflation rate in New Zealand at close to 2 percent. To have achieved this, interest rates would have had to move by more than they have in recent years, and this would have created the unnecessary instability in output and the exchange rate that the RBNZ is enjoined to avoid.”

Dr Turner says it was clear that the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee, which advises the Governing Committee on the monetary policy decision, has in its sights key questions about what might be called the ‘new normal’ for monetary policy.

These include the lower natural or neutral rate of interest; the increased responsiveness of aggregate demand to any change in interest rates; and how macro-prudential policies will affect monetary policy.

He says that the Bank’s open working-level culture of challenging views or arguments in a constructive and professional way enables the Bank to avoid ‘policy blind spots’.

“The whole forecast round has been engineered to bring to bear a full range of economic analyses and to ensure an open and comprehensive debate.”

Dr Turner recommended further work on two topics.

“Both are on the radar screens of RBNZ economists. The first is what the changing labour market under heavy immigration means for non-tradable inflation. The second is what the ‘new normal’ for monetary policy after years of very low interest rates means for future monetary policy. The impact of interest rate increases on the financial industry and on the real economy may be quite different than in the past.”

Dr Turner concludes: “Results over the past few years speak for themselves. The RBNZ has helped steer its economy through several large external shocks. Because it has done so without becoming trapped at a zero policy rate and without multiplying the size of its balance sheet by buying domestic assets, it has retained more room to pursue, if needed, a more expansionary monetary policy than is available at present to many central banks of other advanced economies.” More informationBulletin: Reflections on the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s Monetary Policy Round

|  A RBNZ release  ||  July 28,  2017   |||

Azelis has acquired Chemcolour, a leading supplier of specialty chemicals and food ingredients in Australia and New Zealand, for an undisclosed sum.

The acquisition strengthens Azelis’ presence in the region and positions it among the top distributors in the two countries. Australia and New Zealand are wealthy countries, rich in natural resources with growing populations, said Azelis’ CEO, Hans Joachim Müller, adding that Chemcolour is a great platform to extend agreements with its existing, global principal suppliers.

Chemcolour Australia has a manufacturing plant in Sydney and application and development laboratories in both Sydney and Melbourne. The New Zealand business has its primary manufacturing facility in Auckland with secondary blending facilities in Christchurch. The distributor also performs contract manufacture for several well known companies.

The transaction is expected to complete over the next months. All 90 of Chemcolour’s employees will transfer to Azelis.

|  An Azaris release  ||  July 28,  2017   |||

Understanding key trends in the economy is crucial for the Reserve Bank, even though the trends can only be estimated and never directly observed and measured.

Assistant Governor and Head of Economics Dr John McDermott said today that three trends were particularly important: the neutral interest rate; potential output growth; and the equilibrium real exchange rate.

“These trends are the anchors around which we aim to stabilise the economy, and thereby inflation over the medium term,” Dr McDermott said in a speech. “While these trends are unobservable and the Reserve Bank has no control over them, they’re important to pin down so that monetary policy can be set appropriately.”

These unobservable factors are often denoted in economic models with a star (or asterisk). So, metaphorically, one might say it is necessary to estimate the position of the economy’s stars in order to navigate monetary policy appropriately.

“Core inflation is another important unobservable concept, because by filtering out temporary factors it provides a better guide to future medium-term inflation,” he said.

Dr McDermott’s speech provided an update on how the Reserve Bank thinks about the trends in the New Zealand economy and the changes in the trends over time. Currently, the neutral interest rate is estimated to be around 3½ percent; potential output growth is 2.9 percent; and core inflation is 1.4 percent.

The neutral interest rate has been slowly falling for some time. In part, this reflects developments in potential output growth – the sustainable growth rate of the economy. Despite a boost from strong net immigration in recent years, growth in potential output has remained much lower than in the past two expansions due to nearly no contribution from productivity growth.

More information:Looking at the Stars speech

 The Commerce Commission has published a statement of preliminary issues relating to Trade Me Limited’s (Trade Me) proposed acquisition of up to 100% of the shares in Limelight Software Limited, trading as Motorcentral.

The statement outlines the main issues that the Commission considers important in deciding whether or not to grant clearance to the proposed merger. A copy can be found on the Commission’s Clearances Register.

The Commission invites interested parties to provide comments on the likely competitive effects of Trade Me’s proposed acquisition of Motorcentral. Submissions can be sent by email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the reference “Trade Me/Motorcentral” in the subject line. Any submissions should be received by close of business on 7 August 2017.

The Commission has also updated its Clearances Register to reflect the indicative time frame for its decision on the proposed merger. We have agreed with Trade Me that we will make a decision by 5 September 2017.

However, this date may change as our investigation progresses. In particular, if we need to test and consider the issues identified further, the decision date is likely to extend.

Background

Trade Me is an online marketplace and classified advertising platform, based in New Zealand. Trade Me operates the "Trade Me Motors" business division, which has services including the provision of online vehicle classified advertising and applications that dealers use to manage and sell their stock. Trade Me is seeking clearance to acquire Motorcentral, whose primary business is the provision of dealer management system software to motor vehicle dealers.

When considering a proposed merger, the Commission must determine whether the competition that would be lost with the merger would be substantial.

We will give clearance to a proposed merger only if we are satisfied that the merger is unlikely to have the effect of substantially lessening competition in a market.

A fact sheet explaining how the Commission assesses a merger application is available on the clearances page

The Reserve Bank has released a Bulletin article reviewing the outcomes of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) latest Financial Sector Assessment Programme (FSAP) for New Zealand. An FSAP is a comprehensive review of a country’s financial system against international standards, with a particular focus on the quality of financial sector regulation. The Bulletin article explains the considerable amount of preparatory work that the Reserve Bank and other New Zealand agencies undertook to support the IMF’s two missions to New Zealand in 2016. The results of the IMF’s assessment were released in early May 2017. They included more than 100 recommendations, many of them directed at the Reserve Bank given its broad range of financial system responsibilities. The Reserve Bank is actively considering the recommendations in its areas of responsibility and the extent to which these would support the Reserve Bank's statutory purpose of promoting and maintaining a sound and efficient financial system. Many of the specific FSAP recommendations dovetail with on-going policy and supervisory initiatives. Examples include the bank director attestation review, the review of registered bank capital requirements, legislative reform for the financial markets infrastructure regime, the review of the Insurance (Prudential Supervision) Act, and the five-year anniversary review of the macro-prudential policy framework in 2018. More information· Bulletin - Outcomes of the 2016 New Zealand Financial Sector Assessment Programme· Financial Sector Assessment Programme· IMF Financial System Stability Assessment (PDF 1.6MB)

| ARBNZ release  ||  July 20,  2017   |||

Firms in the finance sector, regulators, and other authorities all have a part to play in managing cyber security risks while still benefiting from the opportunities of new financial technology. “The dynamic cyber environment means organisations have to be nimble in their approach to cyber security - focused on outcomes, rather than prescriptive compliance exercises,” Reserve Bank Head of Prudential Supervision, Toby Fiennes, said in a speech delivered today to the Future of Financial Services conference, in Auckland. He said that cyber-attack poses a significant threat to the global financial system, as shown by the ‘WannaCry’ ransom-ware attack that affected more than 200,000 systems around the world and the more recent ‘Notpetya’ attack. “The nature and incidence of cyber risk is unique, meaning that typical approaches to risk management and disaster recovery planning may not be appropriate. While cyber vulnerabilities can be mitigated, the potential sources of cyber threats and the attack footprint are just too broad, so they can never be eliminated,” Mr Fiennes said. The Reserve Bank had thought about whether to introduce more prescriptive requirements but decided not to at this stage. “We doubt that prescriptive regulations would appreciably improve the outcome, when the technology and threat landscape are both changing so rapidly. We will, however, review this policy stance from time-to-time to ensure that it remains appropriate,” Mr Fiennes said. “The Reserve Bank is closely watching the emerging wave of ‘digital disruption’ affecting the financial sector as firms react to customer demand for a more online experience. In the short term, digital disruption may result in new risks and increased instability in the financial system but in the long term, digital disruption of the banking sector may improve the efficiency of the financial system. The long-term impact on financial system soundness is less clear. “We’re working with other agencies, such as the FMA and Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, to ensure that New Zealand presents an environment where digital financial innovation can flourish, provided it is done safely. In our view, New Zealand’s financial market regulatory settings support innovation and industry-based solutions and we see no need to actively steer potential solutions from industry by providing a concessionary environment for new entrants. “As the prudential regulator, we’re looking at whether financial institutions appear to be taking cyber risks sufficiently seriously. We look to self-discipline and market discipline to provide the defences, agility and crisis preparedness that are required,” Mr Fiennes said. More information· Speech: The Reserve Bank, cyber security and the regulatory framework· Audio: listen to excerpts of the speech on Soundcloud

|  A RBNZ release  ||  July 19,  2017   |||

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Murphy Development Company (MDC) has signed a lease with Mainfreight to occupy 24,050 square feet in its recently completed 121,970-square-foot speculative Building 18 at the 2.1 million-square-foot Siempre Viva Business Park (SVBP) in Otay Mesa. Lusardi Construction Company completed the building in late 2016. It was the first speculative building completed in Otay Mesa since 2006.

Mainfreight signs lease for 24,050 sq. ft. at Siempre Viva Business Park on Otay Mesa from Murphy Development.

The concrete tilt-up Building 18 is located at 2600 Melksee Street. The building features a 32-foot minimum clear height, 8,000 amps of 277/480 volt power, manufacturing sewer and water capacity, concrete truck courts, wide column spacing and high dock door ratios. Lusardi Construction Company will also be handling the tenant improvements for Mainfreight’s space, including a new office area, warehouse lights, and dock equipment.

Mainfreight is a logistics company based in New Zealand with over 240 locations globally. The company was represented by Garrett Fena with Voit Real Estate Services. Murphy represented itself in the lease transaction.

MDC will start construction on the final Class A industrial Building 17 at SVBP, a 79,050-square-foot spec building at 8500 Kerns Street this summer. Building 17 will also include state-of-the-art industrial features, making it ideal for manufacturing and distribution companies. Construction on the building will take approximately six months with completion of the building anticipated by the end of this year. Both buildings are divisible, offering suites as small as 24,000 square feet.

ABOUT MURPHY DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

San Diego-based Murphy Development Company (MDC) has master planned and developed more than 10 million square feet of multi-phase corporate industrial and technology parks in San Diego. MDC acquires land and develops best-in-class corporate parks with the goal of leasing buildings or completing build-to-suits for sale or lease to Fortune 500 companies. Murphy Development is currently marketing 31 acres at the Scripps Ranch Technology Park and 60 acres of land in Otay Mesa within its Brown Field Technology Park, Siempre Viva Business Park, and The Campus at San Diego Business Park. Plans for these projects include more than 2 million square feet of corporate headquarters, office and industrial facilities. www.MurphyDev.com

| Businesswre release  ||  July 19,  2017   |||

From Azure stack and Microsoft 365 to renewed vertical focus and the ways technology is helping do real good in our world, Microsoft Inspire 2017, held in Washington DC last week, offered up an action packed week for Kiwi channel partners.

The release of the Microsoft Azure stack was a key announcement at Inspire – and it caught the eyes of many Kiwi partners.

Keith Archibald, Revera head of innovation, dubbed it ‘the most exciting development’ at the event.

“We’re really looking forward to strapping on this more powerful booster rocket to our already in-market Apollo programme,” Archibald says.

Revera has been involved in the Azure Stack early adopter programme from day one, and Archibald says the company sees Azure Stack as a key platform for its customers.

“Normally you can’t have your cake and eat it too, but with what we’re building with Apollo powered by Azure Stack our customers will get the best of both worlds: all the leading technology from the Azure Cloud, but the option to choose to have some or all of the features deployed in-country for compliance reasons, or simply because they want to bolt them on to existing applications with low latency,” he says.

“The opportunity to provide further Azure consistent goodness in-country and help boost the launch of our customers NZ inc. digital journey is really exciting.”

Mark Atherton, DXC Technology account general manager for NZ Cloud, also highlighted the Azure stack announcement as ‘hugely exciting’.

“We always need to remember that the client is why we are here, and the Azure stack opportunity in New Zealand is to bring another piece of the hybrid puzzle to help us solution the best outcomes for our clients,” Atherton says.

“Combined with the Sydney instance of Azure public, extending this into New Zealand through the stack and being able to then help clients execute a transformation strategy to the best fitting solution is really exciting.

“IT has moved on from a commodity shootout, and embracing clients journeys and ensuring you are best placed to help is key.”

Datacom too, is excited about the Azure stack announcement, with chief executive Greg Davidson, noting “It enables customers to immediately take advantage of public cloud functionality without the real barriers of complex migration, concern about compliance and latency.”

He says the Azure stack forms an ‘important addition’ to Datacom’s hybrid cloud ecosystem.

“We are thrilled to be well down track of planning deployment for early adopters.”

The new go-to-market combination for Office 365, Skype for Business and other workplace and collaboration tools into what will be labelled Microsoft 365, is also a winner for Datacom.

“We have a separately branded digitally marketed software-as-a-service offering for small business launching very soon across the geographies in which we operate, including New Zealand,” Davidson says.

“For larger organisations, we think the Microsoft 365 offering should enable easier implementations and integration of these core services in multi-location multi-country situations.”

Going vertical, going real world

A renewed focus on verticals also won the thumbs up from Kiwi partners.

Ratnakar Garikipati, LeapThought Group chief executive, says while the renewed focus was ‘formalised’ at Inspire ‘we have been witnessing this change first hand form Microsoft’s leadership for the past year – the co-sell initiatives that have been set in motion in South East Asia and other markets specifically over the past year are an example of this.

“We walk away from this conference with new revenue lines that we’ve identified, more streamlined GTM plans for different markets, and greater understanding of areas where our products and offerings can be more tightly integrated to unlock greater potential that is in store,” Garikipati says.

Brady Cox, Provoke Solutions country manager, says the vertical focus was one of two significant organisational changes made by Microsoft demonstrate their commitment to further align both customer and the partner community.

“Their new focus on six key industry verticals reflects the demand we see to truly understand our customers and build tailored, outcome based solutions,” Cox says.

“Aligning both the account and technical teams to then specialise against these verticals means that there will be even more useful presales resources to support the partner community.

“Further to this, they have created a channel manager role, which is the walk of the "partner first" talk we continue to hear.

Grant Houseman, Sable37 New Zealand general manager, says the recent industry alignment of the Microsoft partner organisation is a ‘massive’ driver for Sable37’s growth.

“Sable37 have built leading industry teams for several years. Microsoft's focus on Retail , Public Sector and Manufacturing align perfectly with our go to market models,” Houseman says.

He dubbed the way Microsoft solutions are being built by partners globally to solve important global problems as ‘inspiring’ saying he was ‘blown away’ by the stories at some of the Inspire keynotes – ‘particularly how tens of thousands of HIV deaths in Africa are prevented through solutions that have been imagined on the Microsoft platform’.

“Sable37 New Zealand is very excited about our future , our close partnership with Microsoft New Zealand and most important of all - the significant problems we can solve together,” Houseman says.

Real-world uses were a feature of this year’s conference, notes Kristy Brown, Fusion5 CRX New Zealand general manager.

Brown says not only could attendees see real world uses , but the real differences being made thorugh technology.

“From 3D printed prosthetics at an affordable price to specialist eye surgery being performed by non-specialist surgeons guided through the process by experts, in countries where these procedures simply wouldn't have been possible - it's an incredible time to be involved in the technology sector,” she says.

Tom Fuyala, 11Ants chief executive, says the bulk of the changes signalled by Microsoft were looked on very positively by 11Ants, with Fuyala noting that the continued alignment around industry verticals as well as continued efforts to further align sellers around ISVs should be helpful in further putting the full weight of the Microsoft machine behind companies like 11Ants.

“If properly executed, this will prove net positive for specialist ISVs in New Zealand and indeed around the globe,” Fuyala says.

Microsoft - reimagined

Says John Harrop, Softsource sales director: “Washington DC Inspire is Microsoft reimagined, to me this week has been more about Microsoft's renewed focus and drive then product or technical.

“Sure the products are developing but the story is really that Microsoft are changing the way they go to market, four motions for delivery and six market segments for focus, a 4.5T opportunity and a new Microsoft open for business attitude.”

Anne Hall, ITagree chief executive, says “One Commercial Partner and ‘Build with, Go to Market with, and Sell with’ is exciting for us. It gives a clear focus on the commercial growth aspects and on customer and customer outcomes.

“For a New Zealand based company and ecosystem enabler like ITagree, this focus supports our worldwide delivery,” she says.

Meanwhile, Simon Scott, Acquire director summed the event – or at least day two – more poetically: “I'm high in the stratosphere floating on clouds of overlay apps and services built to support Azure and the collective thunder storm that is Microsoft.

“There are brainiacs flapping their wings, confusing my eyes and dazzling my ear drums. This place is exciting with opportunity and collaborative spin.

“I get the urgent feeling that we need to be better and just go faster to keep up with the tide. I've got new ideas and concepts to rationalise and explore. It's great.”

|  A ChannelLifeNZ release  ||  July 18,  2017   |||