Christopher Luxon, New Zealand Prime Minister 2023

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Forums › Politics › Christopher Luxon, New Zealand Prime Minister 2023

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#3500171 4-Jun-2026 11:15

gzt: NZ in the gun for additional USA tariff - on slave labour:
It's a amazing how all kinds of great characters suddenly discover the importance of labour rights and supply chain reporting. NZ does have some legislation in progress already. It may or may not do what Trump wants.

Trump doesn't "want" anything other than to find another legal fig leaf to put back the big tariffs he was told he couldn't have by the Supreme Court a month or two ago. I don't imagine NZ - or any of those other investigation targets - are worse than the US on labour rights. Indeed ... I would never want to be employed under US law.

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ezbee

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#3500183 4-Jun-2026 11:29

Just buy as little from USA as we can, and disengage, promote trade with 'Free World'.

The right seems to be strongly triggered by anti-slavery rules and laws.

To see the same group using ours falling short to levy tariffs.

Then as we tighten our laws.
Same MAGA adjacent group in NZ will protest these 'woke laws' as sign society is collapsing.

Anyways with cost cutting public service, legal services, non-frontline policing, cases don't get built and pursued. So maybe nothing much effectively happens.

Tariff income as a win for MAGA American right.

MAGA NZ right get a chance for some outrage about woke slavery laws to boost their cause.

We get sone stronger legislation we need eventually.
Probably help us with building EU trade.

So a win, win, minor win, I guess.

MikeAqua

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#3500212 4-Jun-2026 13:12

freitasm:

Guess who is causing this?

Hospitality is one of the sectors I'd be least directly concerned about closures in. It's a non-essential service, operating mostly in leased premises, with a high proportion of transient labour (working-holiday visas) with low operator capital invested. Mostly selling unhealthy food and alcohol which is a poison (yes, I drink😁). According to one of my former-business-banker mates, it's one of the easiest businesses to get into.

Obviously, hospitality expenditure is a bit of a barometer for general economic conditions. I also suspect people are making less use of hospitality, partly because price/portion has jumped the shark and partly because home delivery is so popular.

I suspect there is also probably excess capacity in many places. I have a weakness for Indian food. In Blenheim I have half a dozen choices. That's great for me. It's one for every 5,000 residents. It must be brutally competitive for those businesses. Not that you see the effect of competition in menu prices ...

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#3500241 4-Jun-2026 14:14

Given that 15-25% of hospitality businesses fail in the first year and only 35-45% remain after 5 years, its difficult to point fingers too much at any Govt in power for failures in hospitality (Stats NZ Business Demography Statistics ) they are volatile at best.

Retail in general has taken an absolute hammering in the last few years, between pandemics, cost of living pressures limiting discretionary spending, rising business costs including a 20% increase in minimum wage over 5 years as well as increases in costs of raw materials / cost of sales and an increase in competition from overseas with cheaper imported goods, there are headwinds from all directions.

i don't envy anyone who gives small business a crack, have been on both sides of the employer / employee table and life is much less complicated as an employee.

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#3500258 4-Jun-2026 15:33

sen8or:

Retail in general has taken an absolute hammering in the last few years, between pandemics, cost of living pressures limiting discretionary spending, rising business costs including a 20% increase in minimum wage over 5 years as well as increases in costs of raw materials / cost of sales and an increase in competition from overseas with cheaper imported goods, there are headwinds from all directions.

i don't envy anyone who gives small business a crack, have been on both sides of the employer / employee table and life is much less complicated as an employee.

I suspect internet shopping has hammered small independent retail businesses too. Few of them can compete with the big businesses online.

Mike

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#3500264 4-Jun-2026 16:00

ANZ hikes all mortgage rates above competitors, but leaves most savings rates as they are - NZ Herald

Good luck, National, winning a 2026 election after screwing with the country.

ANZ has lifted its mortgage rates to levels above its competitors.

The country’s largest bank today hiked all its rates by 20 basis points (bps), except for its one-year rate, which it lifted by 10bps.

ANZ’s rates now start at 4.69% for its six-month “special” and go up to 6.49% for mortgages on five-year terms.

Its popular “special” two-year rate is now at 5.49%.

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wellygary

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#3500272 4-Jun-2026 16:38

sen8or:

Retail in general has taken an absolute hammering in the last few years, between pandemics, cost of living pressures limiting discretionary spending, rising business costs including a 20% increase in minimum wage over 5 years as well as increases in costs of raw materials / cost of sales and an increase in competition from overseas with cheaper imported goods, there are headwinds from all directions.

Add in WFH too..

Small retail (and Hospo) really lives or dies on footfall and passing customers... Its pretty much the entire CBD retail business model... if you only have 50% 70% of your regular customers walking past on Mondays and Fridays you're pretty much underwater before you start...

Big box will be a bit more resilient as they tend to be busiest on Weekends and you have to make a trip to get there (but again fuel prices will be screwing this)

quickymart

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#3500339 4-Jun-2026 19:25

I think pre-coronavirus before we all had to go to the office, CBD shops and restaurants were much busier.

Then the pandemic came along and we learned that a lot of jobs could actually be done from home.

Nowadays I find going to the office - for the most part - to be annoying (I only do it because I have to) but when I'm there I do my best to support the nearby shops.

I understand that at the height of the pandemic, local dairies, takeaway places, bakeries etc did quite well as most people were home for the whole day. Now it's kind of second nature to do WFH.

This guy thinks he might have some ideas to fix the sector though: https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360987900/old-bottle-broken-what-hospo-business-veteran-says-can-save-struggling-sector

Luke Dallow, co-owner of the former Ponsonby Rd restaurant Gigi, told Stuff two key reasons why the sector was struggling were the rising costs of running a business, and broadly, the lack of heart and community.

GV27

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#3500353 4-Jun-2026 20:56

Hospo is discretionary spend for many of us and the first thing to go when we feel we need to shore up cash reserves. A meal when I was a kid at the local takeaways for a family of four was $25 which gave you leftovers the next day and now we'll spend near $100 to feed four adults (and a couple of toddlers who refuse to eat anything we put in front of them so they don't count).

This is the bit no one wants to admit when water or council rates go up 7% year-on-year; everything else you buy is too. The fact I'm not buying a flatscreen TV or computer equipment every week or other categories where my purchasing power has increased makes the official inflation stats a little hard to live with. A lot of the car parks around my offices are now paid and my staff don't have an extra $8 a week to pay, it ends up being $55, but that's up from zero because the parking was free before.

Central city roles are hard to recruit for if you have roles that need to be performed on-site and people actively avoid or drop out of recruitment processes where car parking and commuting is becoming too hard. You can't blame them. Everything else is hard enough already.

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#3500639 5-Jun-2026 17:54

GV27:

Hospo is discretionary spend for many of us and the first thing to go when we feel we need to shore up cash reserves. A meal when I was a kid at the local takeaways for a family of four was $25 which gave you leftovers the next day and now we'll spend near $100 to feed four adults (and a couple of toddlers who refuse to eat anything we put in front of them so they don't count).

This is the bit no one wants to admit when water or council rates go up 7% year-on-year; everything else you buy is too. The fact I'm not buying a flatscreen TV or computer equipment every week or other categories where my purchasing power has increased makes the official inflation stats a little hard to live with. A lot of the car parks around my offices are now paid and my staff don't have an extra $8 a week to pay, it ends up being $55, but that's up from zero because the parking was free before.

Central city roles are hard to recruit for if you have roles that need to be performed on-site and people actively avoid or drop out of recruitment processes where car parking and commuting is becoming too hard. You can't blame them. Everything else is hard enough already.

Yup and this is the recession part of the economic cycle. A lot of hospitality businesses aren’t really viable. They don’t really make a profit, they just pay a salary to the owner/operator. As soon as times get tougher they disappear.

It’s painful for all involved but it’s a necessary part of an economy that bad businesses disappear.

freitasm

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#3500754 6-Jun-2026 13:27

Not related to the comments by the US Secretary of Defense at all. No, sir.

New Zealand to buy MH-60R helicopters, MK 54 torpedoes in $2.7b US deal

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#3500802 6-Jun-2026 17:28

freitasm:

Not related to the comments by the US Secretary of Defense at all. No, sir.

New Zealand to buy MH-60R helicopters, MK 54 torpedoes in $2.7b US deal

In this case, no - I remember them announcing that last year.

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#3500810 6-Jun-2026 18:29

SaltyNZ:

freitasm:

Not related to the comments by the US Secretary of Defense at all. No, sir.

New Zealand to buy MH-60R helicopters, MK 54 torpedoes in $2.7b US deal

In this case, no - I remember them announcing that last year.

Which was an outcome of the 2025 Defence Capability review. It was a major piece of policy work which took months.

The idea that this was a result of a throwaway comment at a press conference is incredibly strange.

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#3500825 6-Jun-2026 21:30

Not the decision but the time of the announcement of the process result.

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#3500829 6-Jun-2026 21:46

gzt: The idea that Luxon and Bishop are opposed or somehow represent 'boomers/landlords' and 'young people' respectively seems to have come from an interview with an economist combined with statements by Bishop and Luxon separated by several weeks. Personally I think it's almost total nonsense. Easily seen with a statement from Luxon on Friday praising people achieving rent reductions:

TVNZ: Luxon also reiterated Housing Minister Chris Bishop's call-out to renters, urging tenants to negotiate with landlords after hearing stories of people taking "$50 to $100 off a week". "If you're someone out there in the world today who's renting a house, I'd just say to you, go back to your landlord, renegotiate your rates," the PM said. "I've heard a lot of stories of New Zealanders who've done exactly that and taken $50 to $100 off a week off their rents, which is fantastic."

Luxon born 1970 and Bishop 1983. That is not even a generation of difference.

...and my rent is set to go up $50 a week next month. Maybe I should refer my landlord to the PM and his fanciful (made-up?) stories of people getting their "rent reduced by $50 to $100 a week".

Seriously, this guy is completely out-of-touch with what the population are experiencing.

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