Auckland-based gaming developer Scarlet City Studios has been awarded a $US1.2 million contract to make its flagship game a digital guide for the Washington-based Museum of the Bible. The art, design and story of Scarlet City’s Bible-based role-playing adventure game Aetherlight will “gamify” the experience of the under-construction 40,000sq m museum, which aims to be the most technologically advanced museum in the world.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/nz-game-developer-signs-large-deal-us-museum-cg-p-202741

Business commentator Rod Oram has resigned from writing a weekly column for Fairfax-owned Sunday Star-Times after 16 years, following disagreement over a column in which he said Commerce Commission got it right in rejecting the proposed Fairfax/NZME merger. During hearings on the proposed merger last December, Fairfax executive editor Sinead Boucher used two previous merger-hostile columns Mr Oram had written as examples of how the combined companies would continue to have a plurality of voices once they joined together.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/oram-quits-fairfax-citing-editorial-differences-ck-p-202750

The Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA) was established in 2014 with a mandate that covered most Wellington’s economic power. Film, tourism, events, Creative HQ, and the technology industry were all given to WREDA to develop. The company is privately owned by the Greater Wellington Regional Council and Wellington City Council (which owns the majority) and funded to the tune of millions by local ratepayers. However, the agency has a chequered history and has come under criticism from local industry groups, the WCC itself, ratepayers, and the business community. Now, rumours abound that chief executive Chris Whelan is under fire, with local media reporting that he has been asked to step down.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/opinion-wreda-failed-experiment

Labour and National are both grappling with financial issues to ensure the country’s growth is matched by infrastructure development. To help them out, a former Australian prime minister, Paul Keating, has made suggestions that should be heeded on this side of the Tasman. The conundrum for any government is how to spend more on facilities such as schools, social housing and hospitals as well as roads, airports and the like, without increasing the deficit or level of borrowing.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/editors-insight-keating-urges-new-dance-steps-tomorrows-economic-reformers

Prime Minister Bill English says the government is under no cost constraints when dealing with the myrtle rust threat. In his post-cabinet press conference, Mr English said the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) will not be limiting its efforts because of any funding concerns. “This is an incursion – we need to contain the possibilities of it causing broader damage … if it spreads.”

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/government-under-no-cost-constraint-containing-myrtle-rust-pm-says-jw-202723

Westpac New Zealand says some of the intense competition for bank deposits is due to the Australian regulator’s order in late 2015 that the New Zealand arms repay some funding to their parents over a five-year period. Westpac, which had to repay about $500 million, says competition for deposits explains the squeeze on its net interest margin which is down 22 basis points compared with a year ago with 17 points of that fall coming in the six months ended March. That led to Westpac’s net interest income falling 1% while its expenses rose 2% but chief executive David McLean says the rise in expenses is temporary.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/westpac-says-aussie-rules-contribute-deposits-war-jr-p-202730

It’s a bit like speed dating except there are high-tech manufacturers and scientific boffins involved rather than swinging singles. Two Crown research institutes, the McDiarmid Institute and the Dodd-Walls Centre, wanted to connect their top scientists with some of New Zealand’s most innovative companies and showcase what they could do for them. So they launched an Interface Industry Challenge late last year asking companies to come up with commercial problems they couldn't solve within their own technological capability, which the CREs will help solve for free.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/seven-kiwi-companies-benefit-free-deep-science-challenge-fr-p-202724

The key businessman behind failed finance companies Viaduct Capital and Mutual Finance has failed to convince the judge presiding over a nine-month long trial of FMA charges related to the failures, to step down. Paul Bublitz’s lawyer – Rachael Reed – had concerns about Justice Mark Woolford’s “apparent bias” in the trial because of findings he made in sentencing another man tied to the companies, Peter Chevin, according to a recently released judgment.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/bublitz-fails-have-judge-unseated-long-trial-cg-p-202702

Here we go, yet again. The eighth triennial New Zealand championship round of What Does Winston Want? kicked off on the weekend, with the NZ First leader delivering an even more solid, harder bottom line on immigration and other matters than he has in the past. This being Mr Peters though, that bottom line became more of a frustratingly unclear and probably migraine-inducing squiggle, the more one stares at it.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/opinion/election-2017-winston-ups-ante

Economists are forecasting unemployment to continue falling over the next few quarters as wage inflation begins to pick up. Last week the unemployment rate fell to 4.9% – defying the expectations of many economists who were forecasting it to stay above 5%. In its quarterly economic forecast, ASB Bank expects the unemployment rate to drop to 4.6% by the end of the year, and then further to 4.3% in 2019.

Read more ($): https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/unemployment-rate-picked-continue-falling-jw-p-202705