The SME Stream

This week on The Panel, Tim Beveridge is joined by Newstalk ZB's Resident Builder Pete Wolfkamp and NZ Gardener editor Jo McCarroll to discuss the biggest stories from this week.

Do Harbour Bridge protests do more harm than good for your cause? Did Anna Breman make the right decision for the OCR? Should we be mad that AI will be making welfare decisions? And, is there anything to be excited about in Budget 2026?

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The IRD is ramping up crypto enforcement and some investors are discovering they owe tax on gains that have long since disappeared. Crypto tax specialist Tim Doyle joins Nadine Higgins to explain why even small investors are now in the IRD's sights, the mistakes that create nightmare tax bills and what to do if you've fallen behind.

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Infrastructure and health are the big priorities in this year's Budget, as banks face a new levy, and cuts take shape. 

There are no specific cost-of-living payments or Budget sugar hits - but Finance Minister Nicola Willis promises spending initiatives will create thousands of jobs. 

And our books are set to return to surplus earlier than expected. 

But, Opposition parties are saying the Government doesn’t live in the same reality as struggling Kiwis. 

So, what does it actually mean for households, for the economy, and for the political landscape? 

Today on The Front Page, NZ Herald chief political reporter, Jamie Ensor, is with us to break down the numbers, the politics, and what it all means for you. 

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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The Government says this year's budget especially strengthens Auckland's role as New Zealand's economic engine room.

They point out that they're investing in health, including funding to purchase land for a future South Auckland Hospital, and a share of the Government's $5.5-billion health package.

Additionally, they highlight plans for housing growth with a new $400-million fund for councils to enable more homes.

Lastly, they're putting aside a billion for rail improvements, and another billion for school upgrades. 

But Mayor Wayne Brown says the devil is in the detail - and we'll need more clarity into a timeline of these initiatives, along with an explanation of how the Government's funding their share of the CRL.

So what do these investments actually mean for Aucklanders - and how confident can we be in keeping a globally competitive city? 

Minister for Auckland Simon Watts talks to Tim Beveridge to discuss...

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Not knowing what to sell is one of the biggest reasons people never start. In this episode I share the exact five methods I have used to identify every product that has made me millions, including the strategy behind my shapewear business that did $3.5 million in its first year and my supplement brand that hit $2.6 million.

From finding what frustrates people to validating your idea before spending a single dollar, this is the system I wish I had when I started. Your million dollar product idea is already out there. You just need the right system to find it.

Ready to start building? Join my Business Masterclass today ⬇️

👉🏼 https://www.makeithappen.org.nz/
📲 Socials: https://www.instagram.com/makeithappen

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“We choose our defence spending and no one else,” the Prime Minister says as the United States continues to pressure other nations, including New Zealand, to increase military spending.

Speaking with Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking Breakfast, Christoper Luxon has backed New Zealand’s defence spending.

Luxon denied New Zealand is “freeloading” off America after US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth fired comments at New Zealand over the weekend.

“We choose our defence spending and no one else,” Luxon said.

“I’m damn proud we’re doubling [the budget] it’s been run down over 30 years and it’s a big job building it back.”

He said spending 2.5% of the country’s GDP on defence was “a start and a good place for us to get to” in wake of recent conflict.

Luxon confirmed New Zealand is going to maintain its nuclear-free position.

“It’s [nuclear-free] one of the best things we’ve done.

“I’m very proud and it isn’t changing while I’m prime minister. Period.”

Over the long weekend, US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told the Shangri-La Dialogue defence and security conference that New Zealand was “freeloading” off the US military.

The claim came in response to a question from Kiwi journalist Anna Fifield, after Hegseth said allies that “refuse to stand up and carry their weight for our collective defence will face a clear shift in how we do business”.

At the Singapore conference, Hegseth said he expected allied governments to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence. Last week’s Budget outlined how New Zealand will boost defence spending to just over 2% of GDP over eight years.

Fifield asked Hegseth if that meant New Zealand was considered a “free rider”.

Hegseth said 2% of GDP was not enough, so “2% is freeloading” – though he also said New Zealand and the US’ relationship had been “a very fruitful one for a very long time”.

Allies couldn’t just say: “‘Oh, we’ve been friends for a long time, so let’s work together’,” Hegseth said.

“It’s: ‘We’ve been friends for a long time so you better have the same visibility as we do, because if we don’t, our alliance is meaningless’.”

Hegseth also said he didn’t have anything against New Zealand and was looking forward to working with New Zealand’s Defence Minister and ”enhancing capabilities". Defence Minister Chris Penk was in the audience.

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Move over ChatGPT, Claude is now the #1  

Anthropic announced a new $65 billion funding round, bringing their valuation to $965 billion and making their company more valuable than OpenAI (valued at $852 billion in March). Now the race is on for the first AI company to grow to be worth $1 trillion.  

I just can't stop thinking about the incredible wealth growth of their employees. We thought social media fuelled a new class of wealth, but this is next level.  

It came the same day they launched Opus 4.8, which they say has better capabilities in agentic tasks, advanced coding, and comes with more of a focus on honesty and self-correction.  

Search engine DuckDuckGo is embracing the AI backlash  

Google announced it was going all in on AI for search. They're planning to retire the ten blue links and search will be "reimagined". In the promo video they show you being able to get alerts when your favourite bands are going on tour, or when an item you have your eye on drops in price. You can search multi-modal more easily – so using photos and text together to help explain your query.   

But not everyone is onboard, with concerns that if everything happens inside Google, the open web and the websites will die.  

DuckDuckGo —the privacy focused search engine— is offering a "No AI" search experience. Since Google's announcement they're seeing a 30% jump in users, but it’s worth remembering they have just a 2% market share. 

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As far as Budgets in economically precarious times go, I thought it was a pretty good one. 

And save yourself the 20 cents, anonymous texter. I can see you typing from here. "Well, you would say that, Tokyo Rose, wouldn't you?"  Well yes, come on, be fair though – what on Earth were they supposed to do? We were warned that there would be very little money to spend. The Government resisted throwing lollies, instant sugar hits to voters and did concentrate on spending what money there is where it will get the most returns. Not on policies like Fees Free third year of education for tertiary students, which was not delivering on the metrics, but on things like capital works that have been sorely, sorely needed for so many years and will provide pipelines of work for years to come. 

So there'll be jobs, there'll be increased spending and there'll be necessary upgrades that so many communities have been waiting for, like the new 158 bed tower block at Whangārei Hospital, plans for a new hospital in Drury for the South Auckland population, the Cambridge to Piarere expressway, redevelopment programs for Tauranga, Palmerston North and Hawke's Bay hospitals, the rail network investment program, building 232 new classrooms across the country, new police stations in Greymouth and Whanganui, 2,250 additional social houses, new courthouses in Rotorua. You cannot argue that this is a poor use of what money there is.  

It feeds into the Keynesian school of economic thought, which I've always thought was really sensible and I don't think any other better alternatives exist, that during tough economic times, consumers and businesses will typically hoard cash and spend less. So, the theory argues, Governments should then step in and break that cycle because once you close everything down, it just gets worse. You can't make consumers and businesses spend money, but governments can. So they fund public works and infrastructure, the sort of sensible kind of spending, the long-term spending, spending with a long-term outcome. It will create jobs by doing that, inject money directly into the economy and provide the sort of capital infrastructure that the country so desperately needs. And the workers who work on these projects spend their money on goods and services and that creates jobs and income for others. It’s called the multiplier effect – it brings an economy out of a slump. And I think that's what we've been asking for and arguing for a while, isn't it? The tax cuts, not so much, but that's okay, that was back then. So, you know, we'll draw a veil over that. But this kind of spending where you're spending on works that have to be done. There are no ifs or maybe one days or these are not nice to haves, these are essential works that need to be done. 

I thought it was, as far as Budgets in tough times go, I thought it was a pretty good Budget. I'd very much like to get your feedback on this. I thought the that old school style of reporting of “there was nothing in it for you, was there?”, to the beneficiaries and to the state housing tenants and the “what about me's”, is lazy. I think that's really lazy reporting. You have to look at the bigger picture and you have to have an expectation that when people are on benefits, it doesn't mean they might have lost their job or they might have lost their ability to work for a time, doesn't mean they've lost their minds or their brains. They can understand too that you've got to fix the economy, it's got to improve, it's got to get better before their chances of finding work improve. And if they're unable to work, you know, they're going to get improved services and improved benefits if we are financially prosperous, if we're in a position to spend extra money. We're not in that position right now and it's going to take a few more years yet.  

For the first time, I felt a little bit of hope. A little bit of hope that you could actually see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's not the train bearing down upon you. There is a way out. It was sensible spending for the most part. I'd give it an eight out of ten, but I'd love to hear from you. 

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While presenting Budget 2026, Finance Minister Nicola Willis shared a prediction that New Zealand will reach a $2.6 billion surplus by 2028-29.

ANZ Chief Economist Sharon Zollner told Heather du Plessis-Allan the prediction was 'a little bit rosy'. 

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As business owners, you know how hard it is keeping up with your business, let alone the news. Join Wilhelmina O'Keeffe each week as she gives you a rundown of the biggest stories that could impact your business, so you can make informed decisions with expert advice. 
This week, It's no lolly scramble, but what has Budget Day delivered for business? The OCR holds steady, but for how much longer? … Plus there’s a push for more AI in business so why are Kiwis still sceptical?

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