Feb 07, 2018  - Callaghan Innovation spent taxpayer money on suit hire and pedometers as part of their $304,000 entertainment expense blowout in 2015/16.  New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams says, “Among their laundry list of ‘entertainment’ expenses, Callaghan spent $185 on suit hire at Munns in Auckland for a staff member to attend an awards ceremony.”

Feb 07, 2018  -  A businessman who gave up in the face of ''too much bureaucracy'' while seeking funding from government agency Callaghan Innovation has been left outraged at news of its multimillion-dollar entertainment bill.

Feb 05, 2018 - The Labour Inspectorate and Immigration New Zealand (INZ) found increased employment and immigration compliance in the West Coast following visits to businesses in the region last week.  The visits form part of the Inspectorate’s and INZ’s proactive work to ensure businesses are following the law when it comes to employees’ minimum workplace standards and visa conditions.

Feb 05, 2018  -  The Taxpayers’ Union has referred Callaghan Innovation to the Ombudsman over their abuse of the Annual Report process to avoid responsibilities under the Official Information Act. 

A new food research facility supporting the future of New Zealand’s exports has reached an important milestone, with a contractor appointed and the construction process to start next week at Massey University’s Manawatū campus.  The $45 million AgResearch and Massey University Food Science Facility will accommodate about 140 staff and students from the two organisations as well as from the Government-funded centre of research excellence, the Massey-hosted Riddet Institute.

Feb 05, 2018  -  West Coast start up Reefton Distilling Co. is gearing up to produce premium quality spirits from the middle of the year after a successful capital raise through their crowdfunding equity offer.  Co-founders and Directors Patsy Bass and Sean Whitaker said that they were "absolutely thrilled", by the optimism and support from their investors, many of whom are a part of the local West Coast Community. They went on to announce that as at 10pm (NZST) on Sunday 4th February, the Equity Offer had raised over $1,125,000.

Feb 04, 2018  _  The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union has today released the full breakdown (available here) of Callaghan Innovation’s entertainment expenses for 2015/16.Earlier this month, we revealed Callaghan spent $304,000 on ‘entertainment’ in 2015/16. We can now confirm this was mostly purchases at cafes, bars and restaurants, and we have obtained receipts and explanations for the biggest purchases, showing booze forms up to 40% of a typical Callaghan dinner bill.

Feb 2, 2018  - Building consents for all non-residential buildings including offices, education buildings, storage, and cultural buildings were worth $6.5 billion in 2017, up 8 percent from the December 2016 year, Stats NZ said today.

Feb 2, 2018  -  For the December 2017 year, both overseas visitors and New Zealand residents had record numbers of arrivals and departures, Stats NZ said today.

In the last calendar year 3.73 million overseas visitors came to New Zealand, 6.7 percent more than in 2016. Just over half of these overseas visitors were holidaymakers, and 30 percent travelled to New Zealand to visit friends and family.

“The record number of overseas visitors in 2017 is about the same as the number of residents living in the North Island as at 30 June 2017,” population statistics senior manager Peter Dolan said. “Annual overseas visitor numbers have been generally rising since mid-2013.”

New Zealand residents took a record 2.9 million trips overseas in 2017, 9.3 percent more than in 2016. New Zealanders holidaying overseas accounted for 44 percent of all resident departures.

Australia was the top source of visitors and the top destination for New Zealand-resident travellers in 2017. Over the year, 40 percent of overseas visitors were from Australia and 45 percent of all trips by New Zealand residents were to Australia. The second-highest source of visitors was China (11 percent).

Continue here to read the full article on the STATSNZ website   ||  February 2, 2018   |||

Feb 2, 2018  - The BusinessNZ Energy Council (BEC) is delighted with the appointment of Bennet Tucker from Transpower, a member of the New Zealand Young Energy Professionals Network, to the WEC board for global future energy leaders, the FEL-100.BEC Chair Hon David Caygill says the appointment to this exclusive group of 100 future global energy leaders is in recognition of Bennet’s outstanding contribution since his appointment to the FEL-100 last year and the value of New Zealand’s contribution to the WEC and its work programme.