Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is defending the financial track record of his regional funds.

Around half of Crown Regional Holdings' loan book is considered at risk of default.

Most of the $433 million portfolio covers the Provincial Growth Fund and the current Regional Infrastructure Fund, were both looked over by Shane Jones.

Jones says his party supports investment in regions.

"Not too different from what the commercial banks are dealing with, as we speak at this moment."

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New Zealand’s love affair with property investing might be entering a new era. Economist Tony Alexander joined us to unpack what’s changed — from the end of decades-long falling interest rates, to shifting tax rules, tighter lending restrictions, and rising costs that are reshaping investor behaviour.

He explains why fewer everyday Kiwis may see property as the default path to wealth, and why first-home buyers are now driving a bigger share of the market.

This bite is a bonus from our episode ‘The end of the property era?’.

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More consistency across the Tasman in the standards for goods and services - could reduce administrative burdens and free up business capacity.

A new agreement aims to streamline operations, reduce costs, improve quality and meet regulatory requirements in New Zealand and Australia.

Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen told Ryan Bridge we were out of kilter with the Aussies on about 24 standards - so businesses effectively had to hire someone just to handle the paperwork.

He says it's a main below-the-surface issue and barrier for businesses - that can put them off doing the work.

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More companies are reporting their profits from the final portion of 2025, and it's sparking investigation into what investors need to pay attention to.

Harbour Asset Management expert Shane Solly explained further.

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Forsyth Barr's Zoe Wallis has all the investment tips for your Monday morning.

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I was having a good old debate with a mate at the weekend about interest rates.

We're of the age where, mortgages are a thing.

In Auckland, quote a bog and annoying thing.

Paying them down is the aim of the game.

Now this mate of mine knows a bit more about this stuff than I do and watches the markets closely. He's worried about the middle of the year - potentially this recovery if that's what we can official call it yet - coming to a bit a standstill/abrupt halt.

We've spoken before about elections putting the kaibosh on growth. We've spoken about Bill English's comments about our recovery, unlike across the ditch, coming isn't spite of a rebound in house prices.

In Australia, everything's how. The weather. House prices. Inflation. Growth. Employment.

It's like they're on a different hemisphere to us.

There was a good podcast talking about some of this, Of Interest, with a Westpac economist.

The RBA'S rate is now 3.85%. Ours is 2.25%. It's been about 15 years since there's been such a big gap between the two.

We usually cycle together most of the time but we have drifted apart to the point where one's so far over the hill, we can't see each other anymore.

This is all by design, of course. We were way more aggressive. We engineered a recession to crash inflation.

They went a loft softer to take into account employment.

They have a duel mandate. The coalition got rid of ours.

The Aussies are now upping rates again because their inflation is taking off again. Ours has a mild case of fever but nothing like there's at early 4%.

The question anyone thinking about this stuff, with a mortgage is asking themselves, is this.

Would you swallow a bit of inflation to have an economy that's actually firing?

In other words, in future, would you rather this was handled the Aussie way? Or the Kiwi way?

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In this episode, Iyia breaks down why staying focused as a business owner feels so hard when you’re juggling nonstop decisions, interruptions, and mental load, and why it’s not a discipline issue, it’s a system issue. She explains “attention residue” and how constant task-switching keeps you stuck in reaction mode, then shares practical strategies to regain control: start the day with a business brain dump, sort tasks honestly, and commit to just three priorities. She covers time blocking, reducing distractions, batching similar tasks, working with your natural energy highs, and letting go of perfectionism with a “done is better than perfect” mindset.

👉 www.makeithappen.org.nz
📲 Socials: @makeithappen

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