Officials urged exclusion of school lunch supplier over billing breaches and safety failings The Ministry of Education has released a damning internal memo outlining serious concerns about school lunch suppliers Libelle and Compass, after the Ombudsman...

In one incident 41 students and 8 staff got sick, then there were the billing irregularities…

An Ombudsman decision means a memo about school lunch procurement concerns has now been released.

businessdesk.co.nz/article/inve...

It’s not the debt that’ll sink us Something rather unexpected happened at one point during Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s pre-budget speech in Auckland last week: silence.The BusinessN...

businessdesk.co.nz/article/opin...

Trump’s tariff war sparks regional security concerns Donald Trump’s tariff blitz will impoverish developing regional nations and drive them towards China’s bosom, the government fears.

“Everything the Chinese have been whispering into the ears of Cambodia, Vietnam & Malaysia, that the US doesn’t care about them & won’t take their interests into account, has been confirmed with a single bad decision.” -Richard McGregor, Lowy Institute www.afr.com/politics/fed...

‘We need a plan B’: Admiral’s call for AUKUS rethink over unreliable Trump Former Defence Force chief Chris Barrie says he has watched with alarm as the US president upends traditional alliances.

Former head of the Australian Defence Force says Australia needs a plan B in case AUKUS falls apart… “The first six weeks of this administration has shown that no agreement is secure” www.smh.com.au/politics/fed...

Apple’s quiet pivot to India The iPhone maker wants to diversify its supply chain beyond China. Can the world’s largest democracy deliver?

Mobile phones have surpassed diamonds as India’s biggest export as Apple quietly shifts its supply chain, via AFR www.afr.com/world/asia/a...

Deep and meaningful or not, NZ is aiming for one, and India has signed 10 bilateral FTAs, three in the last five years, none of them with a country that opposed its NSG membership. Oz seemed to think a deeper relationship couldn’t evolve without a change in position, John Key too softened NZ’s

Indeed. No one will ever directly link the two, but I suppose one way of looking at it is would India ever sign a deep and meaningful FTA with a country that believed it was rogue nuclear state?

'A long time for a Sri Lankan to starve' Child malnutrition is skyrocketing in Sri Lanka as the country encounters its worst economic crisis since independence, how did things get so bad?

A reminder that nationalism has ruined nations: “It's ideology: we can do it ourselves, we will put big tariff walls around the country, we will not enter into Free Trade Agreements…we have some 2500-year history [as] a bunch of bad-ass pig-headed Sinhala Buddhists” www.stuff.co.nz/business/131...

The major nuclear 'irritant' to closer NZ-India relations New Zealand is edging closer to a deeper diplomatic and trade relationship with India, but an old nuclear obstacle still looms.A former assistant secretary-gene...

It’s nuclear, it’s political, and it might be difficult to progress the NZ-India relationship without resolving it. My article for BusinessDesk looks at a big nuclear issue India might find hard to look past: businessdesk.co.nz/article/poli...

UK experience shows New Zealand Infrastructure Investment Summit needs more strategy and less secrecy Like an episode of Coronation Street, the Investment Summit craze from Britain has arrived, but it’s a bit later for us. Britain has held three such...

Britain’s Investments summits didn’t rescue Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, or Keir Starmer in the polls. Will NZ’s version fare any better? More importantly, what do we want from the summit? businessdesk.co.nz/article/opin...

The council, the law and the never-ending coastal hazards saga OPINION: Council politicians and staff live in a purgatory between central government’s legislative factory and grumpy ratepayers who hold “the bloody council” responsible for all their woes.

When property value fears derail hazard assessments www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/3605...

The unilateralist • Hamish McDonald Just a month into the Trump presidency, America’s allies are being forced to think the once-unthinkable

“Singapore’s defence minister Ng Eng Hen said after hearing Vance’s speech at Munich …that America’s image in Asia ‘has changed from liberator to great disruptor to a landlord seeking rent’.” insidestory.org.au/the-unilater...

Advanced data shows the US goods trade deficit spiked to record highs in January, with imports jumping by $34B as businesses and consumers rushed to buy foreign goods ahead of Trump's tariff hikes

On the Money: Tall Blacks, Neal Barclay, cockroaches, Andrew Reding, Wayne Brown and more...

📢 On the Money is our weekly newsletter of general frippery from the worlds of business and government.OTM is not quite sure why the Tall Blacks couldn’t ha...

Trump’s Gaza grab shows America is no better than China Australia’s former top diplomat says Donald Trump may achieve what 75 years of post-war anti-Americanism could not: concede the case for moral equivalence.

Relevant to today’s events:
“If the US position is now to identify what you can do for the US and then use all its considerable leverage to ensure it is done, where does it leave our historical dependence on the US as the last resort defender of Australia?”

www.afr.com/policy/forei...

Fletcher Building says no change to NZICC date as SkyCity blames contractor delays for 2026 opening

📢 Fletcher Building and SkyCity both say they are not responsible for the delay in opening the New Zealand International Convention Centre.In a statement to the N...

👉 Latest news bot: Palmy School News

NZ Defence Force artillery stocks were allegedly run down to 50 rounds of ammo The New Zealand Defence Force refuses to say whether artillery ammunition stocks were ever allowed to run so low that the whole country was left with 50 rounds...

At one point, NZ allegedly had just 50 artillery rounds. Not per gun. Total. businessdesk.co.nz/article/poli...

India tests waters on free trade with NZ

📢 The head of the India New Zealand Business Council says the Indian Government has started sounding out some of India's largest businesses on their feelings...

Best of BusinessDesk: Dileepa Fonseka's top columns from 2024

📢 Running NZ to failure (First published July 29)As hospitals in the United Kingdom reverted to pen and paper for part of last week, the New Zealand way of runnin...
👉 More news/weather bots

Star casino on a losing streak, but SkyCity is in a better place, analysts say

📢 Australasian casinos appear to be doing their best to disprove the old gambling adage that the house always wins. One major Australian casino chain, Star,...
👉 Bot to check Bluesky account creation dates

One of the most enjoyable jobs i have is writing #failfile for @businessdesk.nzcow.com
You can read the best of 2025 in this link. Warning! early ones were free, there is a paywall now.
#learning
#sharing

businessdesk.co.nz/article/fail...

Laura Fergusson Trust Inc CC29785 Laura Fergusson, transitional home, rehabilitation for physically disabled community

So as some of you know, I sued the board of Laura Fergusson and then ended up being Chair! It's been a busy year, we brought a house in Mt Albert for transitional accommodation for people leaving the Spinal Unit and began some gym programmes (🧵 1)

www.laurafergusson.co.nz

The Donroe Doctrine In a G-Zero world, where no one country or group of countries is willing and able to provide global leadership, the law of the jungle prevails.

“The apex predator may rack up some impressive kills, but the jungle will grow deadlier and more savage for everyone – including, eventually, for the United States, too.” -Ian Bremmer open.substack.com/pub/gzeromed...

NZ exodus making it difficult for Australia to contain migration numbers. Permanent residency rule change for NZers described as an “own goal” in the AFR. Might not be long before Australia changes the rules again.. www.afr.com/politics/fed...

Always great to ring in the New Year watching the fireworks over the Skytower.

Best wishes for a fantastic 2025 Aotearoa! Happy New Year!

New Zealand’s real Eiffel Tower 😉

The five main reasons Victoria is in this financial mess Victoria has been the lowest-taxing, lowest-spending mainland state over the past 25 years, a new analysis shows. Its bottom line is still a disaster, but it’s not all self-inflicted.

Victoria has been the lowest-spending lowest-taxing Mainland state of Australia for the past 25 years according to AFR analysis. Also received very low share of central govt funds, & didn’t get access to its mining royalties. www.afr.com/politics/the...

Incredible that Christchurch cathedral restoration costs would have been 20% of Notre Dame’s for a city with only 1/30th of the population of Paris metro area.

Lol Notre dame cathedral had a devastating fire and is mostly restored, reopening about 5 years later today. Christchurch cathedral. still a pile of ruble.