Case IH Unveils Next Generation Puma Series Tractors
Case IH has unveiled its redesigned next generation Puma Series tractors, said to offer improvements in connectivity, operator comfort, fuel efficiency and drivability.
OPINION: If you borrow money from the bank, it holds a grip (‘death pledge’) over you.
And the bank is not in it primarily for their fun or your enjoyment, despite what its advertising schmooze says.
The shareholders in the big-four Australian banks, ie the parents of their NZ subsidiaries, get a dividend yield averaging 6.10% (source Morningstar). And those parent banks make a return on equity (RoE) averaging 12.84%.
But wait! The Australians’ subsidiary banks in NZ -- ASB, Westpac, ANZ and BNZ -- are reckoned to average 14-15% RoE.
The Australian Royal Commission looked at banking scandals there and told the banks, ‘Clean up your act!’ So they’ll be wanting their NZ subsidiaries to continue strip-mining every available cent out of their Kiwi customers -- while they close the high street branches.
If the bank is ANZ it’ll be needing extra cash to cover its embarassing real estate dealing in Auckland, and to tidy up after the Ross Asset Management Ltd ponzi scheme, over which it now faces a class action lawsuit by Ross’s victims.
Do such banks have an enshrined right to 14-15% returns on equity -- out of New Zealand? Ponder the question at 4am in the dairy shed or the lambing paddock, or on hearing the bank has devalued your farm by 25%, or that your loan is called in and it’s all over.
Then listen to the governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ), Adrian Orr. Why, he asked, are Australian owned NZ banks are so profitable relative to their parent banks. He told newsroom.co.nz that these NZ banks are “among the world’s most profitable -- second highest in the world”. That’s pleasing, said Orr, “we want profitable banks... but why so profitable relative to others, in particular their parent banks?” he mused.
The obvious answer to Orr’s question is that, in a world of growing opportunism by the increasingly powerful, the banks behave this way simply because they may.
Governor Orr made this key point (the quotes are his):
NZ farms, “for 10 years the banks have been over-lending... and now they’re somehow wanting to withdraw,” Orr said. “But they need to be there in good times and bad... so they’re [now] learning how to be good citizens of New Zealand.”
Kiwis still believe a fair go is still a fair go, regardless of how that works in the Western Isles.
Bigger, bolder salads packed with colour, crunch and flavour are making headlines overseas — and the arrival of fresh spring vegetables means New Zealanders can now get chopping too, creating their own Great Kiwi Spring Salad.
Chinese beef trade quotas and a looming suspension of Brazilian beef imports into the European Union are expected to reshape global beef trade flows over the remainder of 2026, with implications for New Zealand exporters, according to Rabobank's Q3 Global Beef Quarterly report.
James Blair, an agronomist for AS Wilcox and the Pukekohe regional champion, has won the 2026 Young Grower national title.
An Auckland gelato shop and an established New Zealand ice cream maker have both been named Supreme Champions at the NZ Ice Cream & Gelato Awards 2026.
As the cost-of-living crisis continues to put pressure on household grocery budgets, new figures show pork remains one of the most affordable fresh meat options for New Zealand families.
OPINION: In politics, credibility is and should be big. It must surely rank higher than charisma, which is quite trite and superficial. Yet, voters nowadays are often wooed and influenced by how someone looks or talks at a superficial level. TV plays a huge role in this.