The SME Stream

KiwiSaver provider Milford Asset Management’s performance has been lagging compared to its competitors in recent times.

In the year to September, its active growth KiwiSaver fund returned 3.4% (after fees and before tax) – a result well below others in the market that delivered above 10%.

NZ Herald Wellington Business Editor Jenee Tibshraeny joins Heather du Plessis-Allan to break down why, and if investors can expect to see a turn around. 

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Inflation could fall in the latest figures, but rising fuel costs are already threatening another squeeze on household budgets. Could more interest rate hikes follow—and what would that mean for an economy still struggling to build momentum?

On The Economy of Everything, Liam Dann and Tamsyn Parker discuss the gap between economic recovery and how people actually feel, why that’s a difficult sell ahead of the election, and the prospect of another tough Christmas for retailers.

Plus, they unpack a report warning compulsory KiwiSaver could leave some low-income earners worse off, the arguments for compulsory saving, and the balancing act between retirement savings and mortgage debt.

Brought to you in partnership with CMC Markets.

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Today's the day New Zealand's landmark free trade agreement with India enters into force. 

The deal creates new opportunities for our exporters with one of world's fastest growing markets - by giving us preferential access. 

Almost 57% of our existing trade can now enter India duty-free and over time, tariffs will be reduced or removed for 95% of our exports. 

Tariffs are being eliminated right away on sheep meat, wool, coal and more than 95 percent of forestry and wood products. 

Today on The Front Page, Meat Industry Association (MIA) independent chair Nathan Guy is with us to go through what this means for New Zealand’s red meat sector.

Follow The Front Page on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can read more about this and other stories in the New Zealand Herald, online at nzherald.co.nz, or tune in to news bulletins across the NZME network.

Host: Chelsea Daniels
Editor/Producer: Richard Martin
Producer: Jane Yee

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Our Superannuation fund is seeing great returns, but growth is still needed for the long term. 

The 25-year-old fund is now worth $94.35 billion dollars, excluding tax, with it earning $9.3 billion in the past reporting year – a return of almost 14.2%. 

Infometrics' Brad Olsen told Andrew Dickens that it's useful money to have, but the expectation for the fund is to grow it to $200 billion by 2040. 

He says there's a lot of growth still to come, but it's at a time when the bill is still growing and we have to pay for it in the short term. 

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Retailers are celebrating the Police crackdown on retail crime.

Annual Ministry of Justice data to June, shows record-high finalised charges for theft from a retail premises, topping 21-thousand - more than tripling since 2022.

Retail NZ believes offending's down as much as 30 percent since last year.

Chief Executive Carolyn Young told Andrew Dickens Police's national retail crime unit has had success tracking repeat offenders.

She says they're able to pull together a file on someone connecting a wide range of offences from different stores and send officers to apprehend them.

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The Police Association is highlighting that retail crime is falling amidst rising related charges. 

Annual Ministry of Justice data to June shows record-high finalised charges for theft from a retail premises at over 21,000 – more than triple that of four years ago.  

Convictions also reached nearly 18,000, also more than tripling over the same period. 

Police Association President Steve Watt told Mike Hosking it goes to show the hard work Police are putting in. 

He says as convictions have risen, they're seeing decreases in the number of instances of retail crime. 

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How do you build People & Culture capability when you're supporting more than 150 organisations, all with different structures, resources, challenges, and communities?

In this episode of HR Unlocked, Lisa Oakley sits down with Claire George, Acting Business Capability Manager at Sport New Zealand, to explore what it takes to strengthen leadership and people capability across the sports sector.

Rather than supporting one internal workforce, Claire and her team work across Sport New Zealand's partner organisations, helping lift capability in areas including governance, technology, change management, commercial capability, and People & Culture.

For Claire, relationships are fundamental. Sport New Zealand is also a funder of many of the organisations it supports, which means creating enough trust for leaders to openly share when things aren't going well is critical. When those relationships exist, Claire says there is an opportunity to do some powerful work.

The conversation explores the realities facing sporting organisations that don't have dedicated HR teams. In many cases, people responsibilities sit with a CEO, finance professional, or another leader alongside their existing role. Claire shares why the answer isn't adding more complexity, but making good people practices simple, practical, and easier to apply.

Lisa and Claire also unpack the unusual dynamic created when people care deeply about the organisation they work for. In sport, work can be closely connected to someone's identity, community, recreation, and personal relationships. That passion can create extraordinary engagement and commitment, but it can also make change more emotionally charged and make it harder for people to switch off.

Wellbeing and burnout are therefore important parts of the conversation, alongside the responsibility organisations and individuals have to create sustainable ways of working.

Claire also shares lessons from Sport New Zealand's leadership development programmes, including the importance of embedding te ao Māori rather than treating it as an add-on, creating genuinely diverse cohorts, and giving leaders opportunities to learn from one another.

Ultimately, this episode is a practical conversation about keeping People & Culture grounded in what organisations and people actually need: trusted relationships, good conversations, strong leadership, simple processes, and capability that prepares the sector for what's next.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

• How Sport New Zealand supports People & Culture capability across more than 150 partner organisations

• Why trusted relationships are essential when influencing without direct authority

• How to decide when a sector-wide solution works and when an organisation needs tailored support

• Why People & Culture needs to connect with organisational strategy

• The realities of managing people without a dedicated HR function

• Why HR should make doing the right thing easier, not more complicated

• How good questions help diagnose the real people issue

• Why relationships can be considered a synonym for leadership

• Which fundamental HR processes smaller organisations need to get right

• Why performance conversations matter for both high and lower performers

• How People & Culture expertise can add value to senior leadership conversations

• Why passion can be both a strength and a challenge in sporting organisations

• How someone's work, identity, community, and personal life can become intertwined in sport

• Why organisational change can become particularly emotionally charged in purpose-led environments

• How boards can think more deliberately about CEO capability and recruitment

• Why organisations shouldn't expect to find a leadership "unicorn"

• How scaffolding capability around a leader can be more effective than expecting one person to do everything

• Why collaboration between sporting organisations is a strength of the sector

• How passion can contribute to burnout when people struggle to switch off

• Why recovery sometimes requires doing something completely different from your work

• How EAP and professional supervision can support people working in challenging roles

• What Sport New Zealand has learned from its leadership development programmes

• Why embedding te ao Māori strengthens leadership development

• How the Puna leadership framework supports leadership capability

• Why diversity within leadership cohorts creates richer learning

• How changing expectations around work, technology, and volunteering could reshape the sports workforce

• Why retaining capability within the sector can matter as much as retaining someone within one organisation

• How AI and technology could free people to focus on more valuable human work

• Why the future of People & Culture should involve greater simplicity, not greater complexity

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Relationships are fundamental to leadership. Being able to build trust, have real conversations, work through difficult issues, and understand what's happening for people is a genuine leadership capability.

People & Culture doesn't need to be complicated. Processes, policies, and systems should make it easier for people to do the right thing.

Context matters. The HR answer isn't automatically the right organisational answer.

Small organisations still need the fundamentals in place, particularly employment agreements and effective performance conversations.

Performance isn't only about addressing problems. Regular conversations help high performers stretch, develop, and avoid leaving capability untapped.

Passion is a major strength in sport, but it comes with leadership challenges. When someone's work is closely connected to their identity and community, change and conflict can become more personal.

Highly engaged people can still burn out. Leaders need to understand the difference between commitment and sustainable performance.

Organisations don't need leaders who can do everything. They need to understand what capability they need now, what can be developed, and what can be complemented by the wider leadership team or board.

Collaboration is a major strength of the sports sector. Organisations and leaders can build capability by sharing knowledge and learning from each other.

Te ao Māori can create a powerful foundation for leadership development when it is genuinely embedded rather than treated as an addition.

Technology should reduce the administrative burden and create more time for the human work that matters.

The more transactional work technology removes, the more valuable skills such as relationships, feedback, conflict management, curiosity, and good conversations become.

Future capability needs to be considered at a sector level. Someone moving from one sporting organisation to another doesn't necessarily mean capability has been lost.

People professionals need to understand the organisation before prescribing the solution. Bring your expertise, but be curious first.

ABOUT CLAIRE GEORGE

Claire George is Acting Business Capability Manager at Sport New Zealand, where her work focuses on strengthening organisational and people capability across the sports sector.

Working with more than 150 Sport New Zealand partner organisations, Claire supports capability development across People & Culture alongside a wider team working across areas including governance, technology, change management, and commercial capability.

Her work spans leadership development, organisational capability, wellbeing, performance, change, and helping organisations create practical people practices that work within the realities of their size and resources.

Claire is particularly passionate about relationships, building sustainable workplaces, developing strong leaders, and helping sporting organisations create environments where people feel connected, supported, and able to perform at their best.

WHY THIS EPISODE MATTERS

Sport presents a unique People & Culture challenge.

Many organisations operate with small teams, limited resources, passionate volunteers, and no dedicated HR function, while the people working within them can have an unusually deep personal connection to the organisation, sport, and community.

That creates enormous potential, but also real challenges around leadership, change, wellbeing, performance, and burnout.

Claire's experience offers lessons that extend well beyond sport.

For HR professionals, CEOs, boards, business owners, and people leaders, this episode is a reminder that good People & Culture isn't about building more processes. It's about understanding context, creating trusted relationships, simplifying the fundamentals, having conversations early, and building the capability people will need for the future.

RESOURCES & LINKS

Sport New Zealand: https://sportnz.org.nz/

Connect with Claire George on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-george-a90713110/

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ANZ Investments Head of Asset Allocation Christian Carrillo on market volatility, rising interest rates and AI risks and what it means for KiwiSaver.

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Forsyth Barr's Aaron Ibbotson says investor faith in AI is on shaky ground, and what to watch from the markets this week.

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Fran O’Sullivan, Herald Business commentator reveals what’s top of mind for business leaders in this year’s Mood of the Boardroom.

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