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Auckland bakery pulls horse meat pies after council visit

Source: Radio New Zealand

Stock photo. An Auckland bakery has stopped selling a popular pie. 123rf

An Auckland bakery has stopped selling a popular pie after Auckland Council said the horse meat used wasn’t cleared for human consumption.

Before Christmas, Pakuranga Bakery started selling lo’i hoosi pies and promoting them on their Instagram page.

Lo’i hoosi is a traditional Tongan dish and has horse meat as the main ingredient.

The horse pie proved extremely popular, drawing rave reviews on social media.

When First Up initially contacted Pakuranga Bakery last week, they said they were no longer selling the pie.

Veronica Lee-Thompson, Auckland Council manager of specialist operations, licensing and environmental health, revealed why. She told First Up that Council had received a complaint and sent inspectors to investigate.

“There were horse meat pies that were being sold and the horse meat was not from a registered supplier,” she said.

“But the operator was very cooperative and agreed to dispose of all the horse meat on site and any pies that contained any horse meat.”

Pakuranga Bakery manager Pho Bok said the bakery was buying the lo’i hoosi already prepared.

“We just bought the filing, because I just saw everyone do it and all the customers have been asking for it. We don’t know how to make it. We just went to buy the filing from a Tongan guy. He just prepared it for us and we just chucked it in a pie”

It’s perfectly legal to eat horse in New Zealand, but to sell it it for people to consume it must be processed according to New Zealand food safety regulations.

According to the Ministry of Primary industries there is only one meat processor registered to slaughter and process horse meat for human consumption in New Zealand.

“Illegal meat could contain bacteria because the animals were sick or potentially diseased, risk of cross-contamination if there’s unhygienic conditions during the processing, they might not be handling things correctly, Lee-Thompson said.

“It could be contaminated by chemicals.

“We just want to make sure it’s approved meat that’s in our food chain.”

There had been no reports of sickness from Pakuranga Bakery’s pies, Auckland Council said.

Bok said he believed the horse meat he used was legitimately sourced.

“I did ask them are they a registered business – they said yes. Is the horse meat legal to eat, and they said yes.”

Pakuranga Bakery is not under investigation, but New Zealand Food Safety is investigating the source of the horse meat.

Anyone found to have knowingly prepared or sold meat unfit for human consumption can face a fine of up to $100,000 or up to a year in prison.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/01/26/auckland-bakery-pulls-horse-meat-pies-after-council-visit/

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What you need to know if you don’t want your KiwiSaver rate to increase

Source: Radio New Zealand

Unsplash/ Li Rezaei

KiwiSaver providers are expecting to see some members opt to keep their contribution level static, even as the default rate rises.

It was announced last year that the base contribution rate for KiwiSaver would lift from 3 percent to 4 percent by 2028.

The first stage of the increase, to 3.5 percent, takes effect from April 1.

But from 1 February, members can apply for a temporary rate reduction, which will keep their contributions at 3 percent this year.

Employers can then also match that reduced rate.

The temporary reduction can be stay in place for anywhere from three months to 12 months but people need to reapply to continue after that.

Dean Anderson, founder of Kernel, said he expected an increase in inquiries when the changes took effect in April.

“While the long-term benefits for retirement savings are clear – with analysis suggesting funds could last significantly longer in retirement – the immediate reality is a potential change in take-home pay for many.

“This is a particularly important concern for those on ‘total remuneration’ contracts, as they will see a double hit: their own contribution increasing and their employer’s increased contribution being deducted from their gross salary.

“I also strongly recommend that all employees, especially those working for smaller businesses that may not use automated payroll platforms, triple-check their payslips in April. Payroll adjustments for these new rates are mandatory, and manual errors are a real risk during this transition.”

A spokesperson for Generate said because people would ned to take action on the reduction through IRD, that might be where most of the impact was felt.

“We may get calls when people see their rate change and aren’t aware it was going to happen.”

Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub said when changes happened automatically, they would often stick. “That’s the thing with auto-enrolment, you have to take action to opt out.”

Government modelling suggested the increase in contribution rates could make a material difference to a person’s retirement outcomes.

It said someone who had an income of $60,000 at 25, had two children, a year of parental leave and withdrew money at 30 for a house would end up with 26 percent more at retirement with the higher rate.

A high-income earner could end up with 28 percent more and a low income or part-time worker could end up with an additional 21 percent.

Both National and NZ First have pledged to push contribution rates higher if they are in Government again.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/01/26/what-you-need-to-know-if-you-dont-want-your-kiwisaver-rate-to-increase/

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Wellington’s popular Chocolate Fish Café, forced to shut by filmmaker Sir Peter Jackson’s property company, opens for the last time

Source: Radio New Zealand

Popular Wellington café, Chocolate Fish, is set to close on Sunday.

Café owners John and Penny Pennington like to think of the Chocolate Fish Café, as somewhat of a Mirimar institution. Operating since 1997, it had been at its current site since 2009.

Located at Shelly Bay, John said part of the cafe’s attraction was that it had space for kids to run around, free parking and “pretty good” food.

Chocolate Fish Cafe owners John and Penny Pennington. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

This month the cafe looked a little different however, with price tags littering the room with everything from the chairs and tables to the cutlery on sale.

“Because we’ve been terminated and don’t have anything to sell, and of course we’ve got a bit of debt and that sort of thing, and nowhere to go, we decided, right, we’d turn January, our last month of trading, into a garage sale,” John said.

Penny said it was devastating to have to close.

John said the café had a big client-base that ranged from regular locals to tour groups and people who specifically come out to Shelly Bay to go to their cafe.

Penny said the café had been described as being a hub of the community.

“We love coming to work every day because it’s like coming and seeing your friends, your whanau, and it’s just wonderful.”

Why is the café closing?

The Chocolate Fish cafe. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

The cafe site was brought by Sir Peter Jackson and Dame Fran Walsh in 2023.

It had followed a rocky few years at Shelly Bay, with a planned controversial housing development spearheaded by the Wellington company which was later scrapped, and a fire which gutted the iconic Sawtooth building and forced the Chocolate Fish to relocate for months due to asbestos risk.

John said they thought they had won the Lotto when Sire Peter and Dame Fran purchased it.

“Everything was tracking so positively for us being able to continue on,” Penny said.

“To have that suddenly wiped out, that’s been a very bitter pill. We’re more than a café, we’re a bit of an institution,” John added.

The outside of the café. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone

WingNut PM, the property arm of Jackson and Walsh’s WingNut Group, told the Penningtons at the end of September it was terminating the lease. The pair initially publicly criticised the pair for the decision, but later walked the comments back.

At the time, WingNut PM told RNZ the owners had been aware the original Submarine Barracks required “substantial remedial work”, including replacing the roof, restoring its historic frontage, interior renovations, applying a new coat of paint to the exterior, and temporarily closing the parking area for tar-sealing.

The spokesperson said they had been in discussions with the Penningtons for the past year about its pending closure.

WingNut PM declined RNZ’s request for comment on this story.

Not likely to be another Chocolate Fish

The Penningtons explored other options, but a site as big as theirs was hard to come by. So far they had not found another space like it, although Penny said they would keep looking.

“I don’t see a Chocolate Fish to this degree ever happening again, sadly – it’s a huge space.”

Chocolate Fish Café closed its kitchen in late December, and John said it some ways it was now a relief to fully close.

“The menu has been quite small, and people trying to come out for that last fish sandwich have been disappointed.”

Coupled with poor summer weather, he said it had been “a little bit depressing”.

Their final message to their customers: “We’ve loved having you.”

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LiveNews: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/01/25/wellingtons-popular-chocolate-fish-cafe-forced-to-shut-by-filmmaker-sir-peter-jacksons-property-company-opens-for-the-last-time/

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Record-breaking year sets Sharesies investors up for 2026 investments

Source: Radio New Zealand

Sharesies logo. Supplied

Last year was a record-breaking year for the do-it-yourself (DIY) Sharesies investment platform, with investors well-positioned for further investments in 2026.

Investor confidence jumped to a three-year high in the last three months of 2025, with the index peaking at 62 in October, before market volatility dampened enthusiasm to end the quarter at 45.

The index ranked the confidence of more than 930,000 Sharesies customers in New Zealand and Australia from zero to 100.

“Record trading in October was followed by subdued sentiment in November and returning stability in December,” Sharesies head of data and analytics Jordan Cunningham said.

Sharesies savings accounts saw an uptick in deposits in November, compared with the buying of shares in October.

However, the share market picked up again following the Reserve Bank’s interest rate cut in late November.

Still, net deposits for 2025 hit a record $1.7 billion at the end of December, compared with $815 million the year before.

“There were several weeks in December where the total amount of deposits were double that of withdrawals,” Cunningham said.

“We’re still really seeing those positive indications of strong net buying over selling and that strong growth in the net deposits.

“This suggests investors were positioning themselves for the year ahead.”

She said an ongoing trend was a declining investor preference for NZX companies, with Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Meridian Energy and Infratil down in the ranking.

“That has been driven by the increasing focus on US.markets. We have still seen growth in investing in the NZX, but it really hasn’t kept pace with the growth we’ve seen in US markets.

“Almost 80 percent of our trading volumes now are on US [markets], compared with about 10-15 percent in NZX.

“It’s really hard for even those blue chip NZX companies to keep pace with the growth that we’re seeing [in the US], both in trading volumes and also a price.”

By contrast, she said gold-themed, exchange-traded funds saw strong net buying during the quarter.

“Tough to know what’s going to continue, given the global uncertainty that we face really.”

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LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/01/21/record-breaking-year-sets-sharesies-investors-up-for-2026-investments/

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Election date announcement due as MPs gather for caucus retreats

Source: Radio New Zealand

PM Christopher Luxon giving his State of the Nation speech on Monday. RNZ / Calvin Samuel

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will announce this year’s general election date, as National MPs gather for their first caucus meetings of the year away from Parliament.

National MPs will meet in Christchurch, while Labour MPs will also hold a caucus meeting in Auckland.

Luxon is expected to announce this year’s election date at about 12.30pm Wednesday.

On Monday, Auckland Business Chamber chief executive Simon Bridges pressed him on whether it would be held on 7 November.

“You’re going to find out very shortly, my friend, very shortly,” Luxon responded, before asking Bridges whether he would put money on that date.

He also indicated his ministers would not be reshuffled at the retreat, repeating his stance that he would only reshuffle when he needed to.

“I don’t feel a compunction to do this political thing every year where it’s done. I do it when I feel there’s a need to sharpen up or to change the profile of the individual leading the assignment, or there’s a different set of tasks that we need to be done by a certain personality.”

Luxon earlier told Newstalk ZB that National “may have some retirements”, which would necessitate a reshuffle.

So far, the only National MP to announce they will retire at the end of their term is New Lynn’s Paulo Garcia, who is not a minister.

The MPs have been in Christchurch since Tuesday afternoon, gathering privately for a dinner at their hotel.

Luxon gave his State of the Nation speech on Monday, when he indicated National would shy away from any “extravagant” election promises this year.

He did not announce any policies, other than to speak about National’s previously announced pledge to raise the default KiwiSaver contribution rate, if re-elected.

Luxon is also not expected to announce any policies at the retreat.

Meanwhile, Labour is gathering in West Auckland for its own caucus retreat.

Leader Chris Hipkins has attempted to rebuild relationships in Auckland, after Labour lost key seats in the Super City in 2023 and saw its party vote fall.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins would not reveal any more retirements from his party. RNZ / Mark Papalii

Hipkins would not reveal what would be discussed at the retreat, nor would he be drawn on any reshuffles or departures.

While figures like Grant Robertson, Kelvin Davis, Rino Tirikatene and David Parker have retired over the course of the term, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb is the only Labour MP to confirm they will stepping down at the election.

Hipkins would not say whether any more had told him over the summer they would be leaving, saying it was up to his MPs to announce their plans.

“I’ve always been very clear that, where any MP indicates that to me, it’s their business to announce that and I always leave them the space to do that. Simply speculating on whether there had been or there hadn’t been would be unfair on anybody, had there been that conversation.”

Later this week, parties (minus ACT) will visit Rātana Pā for the annual commemorations, before Parliament’s first sitting week of the year next week.

The sitting block will last only a week though, with Parliament then breaking for a week and politicians heading to Waitangi.

The Prime Minister has yet to confirm if he will attend Waitangi this year, after opting to spend the occasion last year with Ngāi Tahu in Akaroa instead.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/01/21/election-date-announcement-due-as-mps-gather-for-caucus-retreats-2/

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When should you fix your home loan?

Source: Radio New Zealand

Reserve Bank data shows the average two-year special rate has dropped from about 7 percent at the peak to just over 4.5 percent at the end of last year. RNZ

The big interest rate question this year will likely be when interest rates start to rise materially again – but borrowers might want to fix their home loans soon, forecasters warn.

Rates have generally been falling since 2024. Reserve Bank data shows the average two-year special rate has dropped from about 7 percent at the peak to just over 4.5 percent at the end of last year.

The main banks are now advertising two-year specials of 4.69 percent or 4.75 percent.

When the Reserve Bank indicated in its latest official cash rate update that it did not necessarily expect to cut rates further, it prompted wholesale markets to lift and some fixed rates to shift higher.

Reserve Bank governor Anna Breman indicated that the market may have moved too far.

BNZ chief economist Mike Jones said interest rates would likely be on hold for now.

“There seems to be a growing risk that interest-rate hikes, although they are a way off, might come a little bit earlier than our expectations,” he said.

“Formally, that’s still the first lift in the OCR coming in February of 2027, but from what we’ve seen from the data recently, there’s a risk it could be late 2026. That’s something the markets are now already pricing.”

He said wholesale markets had now priced in a full 25-basis-point hike by the end of the year, so retail rates may not move a lot, even if that proved true.

“I think we’re in a position we can probably draw a line under the downtrend in mortgage rates, but we can’t see mortgage rates jumping a whole lot any time soon either.

“It does seem to us like we’re in for a period of consolidation, I think, in mortgage rates… but it’s also watching and waiting nervously for what we see offshore in particular, because it is quite a heightened environment for geopolitical risk and risks generally.”

ASB economists said the OCR and mortgage rates were now lower than they had expected in forecasts made early last year. They expected short-term rates to stay at their current levels this year, before rising as the economy improved.

Longer-term fixed rates of more than two years could increase more over 2026.

“Major global central banks have also been cutting policy rates over 2025, at different paces,” they said. “That has impacted global interest rate markets, including markets where New Zealand banks compete for funding.

“Longer-term NZ mortgage rates eased over 2024 to reflect the combination of the global and local outlook. Our view now is that longer-term rates are under upward pressure, reflecting longer-term inflation expectations and global central bank actions.

“In addition, it is very significant that wholesale interest rates rose in immediate response to the RBNZ’s November OCR cut, after the RBNZ in effect downplayed the prospects of any further OCR cuts.

“In early 2026, the wholesale interest rates that influence term mortgage rates for one-year terms and onwards are past their lows for the easing cycle, and that’s put upward pressure on both longer-term mortgage rates and term deposit rates.”

Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan said he expected the OCR to stay at 2.25 percent until November, but inflation was still likely to come in higher than the bank anticipated this week.

“There are questions about how quickly that headline inflation rate might moderate and, if that’s the case, well, maybe the Reserve Bank does need to raise a little bit sooner rather than later, but at this stage, we’re still sticking to the end of the year.”

He said it would make sense for most people to think about fixing their home loan rates for longer.

“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of evidence that those retail rates will be coming down any further now. Previously, I think I talked about you’ve probably got until the middle of this year before you start to see upward pressure, but obviously, the market has turned a little bit quicker.

“It’s just a question now, for me, whether, if you’re going to go at three or four or five years, whether you’ve maybe missed the boat a little bit on some of those.”

Reserve Bank data shows three-year special rates hit a trough of about 4.8 percent in November, before increasing. The main banks are all now advertising rates more than 5 percent.

At Squirrel, David Cunningham expected little movement. He said banks were competing hard with things like cash back, rather than trying to tempt borrowers with new lower rates.

Jones said BNZ had also reduced its expectations for house-price rises this year.

“They were already pretty modest at 4 percent for the calendar year, but we’ve tapered them back a little to 2 percent. From what we’re seeing, particularly on the supply side, we think some of those risks we’ve been talking about for a while, about kind of sideways for longer, seem to be crystalising.

“It’s a market that looks pretty well balanced at the moment. It has been for most of the last 12 months, where you’ve got a bit of extra demand, you’ve got a faster pace of sales, but that’s been matched off pretty well by the supply side and new listings.

“We basically just think that market – all that sort of balanced type of conditions – will remain in play for longer.”

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LiveNews: https://livenews.co.nz/2026/01/21/when-should-you-fix-your-home-loan/

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Christopher Luxon throwing Chris Bishop under the bus on housing, says Chris Hipkins

Source: Radio New Zealand

Chris Hipkins (Labour) and Chris Bishop (National). RNZ / Marika Khabazi / Reece Baker

Chris Hipkins has accused the prime minister of starting this election year by “panicking” and throwing one of his senior ministers “under the bus”.

The Labour leader made the comments to Morning Report on Wednesday, ahead of the party’s post-break gathering in “wet and windy West Auckland”.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon last week confirmed the coalition was considering weakening housing intensification laws in Auckland. The subject did not come up during his ‘State of the Nation’ speech on Monday.

Housing and RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop last year directed Auckland Council to allow for greater housing and development intensification, particularly around rail stations, as the city prepared to open the long-awaited City Rail Link.

Auckland Council in September responded by approving plans that would allow up to 2 million homes in the city.

But Luxon’s apparent backtrack showed he was “running scared” and “willing to throw Chris Bishop under the bus”, Hipkins said.

“Chris Bishop has spent two years working on this plan, and he’s absolutely determined that it’s the right plan, and Christopher Luxon seems to be more interested in panicking rather than actually showing some loyalty to one of his most senior ministers.”

Luxon on Monday dismissed any talk of a clash with Bishop, saying they were in regular discussion.

“I don’t think there’s a problem when you actually say, ‘I’ve listened to feedback and I’m going to do something different about it on the basis of that.’”

David Seymour, deputy prime minister and leader of coalition partner ACT, expressed concern on Tuesday intensification would upset people in his electorate of Epsom, the country’s wealthiest, because high-rise buildings might end up “looking into everyone’s backyards and their swing sets and their pools”.

Hipkins said if Luxon and Bishop have changed the plan, they should “get on and tell New Zealanders what it is that they’ve been cooking up behind the scenes”.

“Because up until now, Chris Bishop is the person who’s been speaking for the government on the matter, and it seems that he’s now been sidelined.”

House prices have fallen since their peak in 2022, and rents have stabilised – and in some places, fallen – after years of almost unbroken above-inflation rises.

Asked if he would like house prices to fall, Hipkins said he wanted a “stabilisation in house prices… giving New Zealanders a chance for their incomes to catch up”.

“The current government aren’t focused on growing people’s incomes at all. They’re only focused on increasing the wealth of those at the top rather than the people who are working hard every day and aspiring to owning their own home.”

Asked if Bishop was “playing on your home ground” by overseeing improving housing affordability, Hipkins talked up his party’s capital gains and Future Fund policies to “ensure that people are investing in productive businesses rather than simply buying up all the available houses and forcing first-time buyers out of the market”.

Luxon said Bishop would “come forward with his views and explain that shortly”.

Paying for pay equity

One way the previous Labour-led government tried to boost incomes – particularly for historically underpaid sectors – was through 2020’s Equal Pay Amendment Act, which was gutted under urgency in early 2025, Luxon saying the changes would save the government “billions” of dollars.

Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis. RNZ / Calvin Samuel

Labour has promised to restore pay equity, but still would not say how it would be paid for – Treasury’s estimate was that it would cost close to $13 billion over four years.

“We’ll set out before the election a balanced fiscal plan that will show how we will get New Zealand’s books balanced, something [Finance Minister] Nicola Willis has spent two-and-a-half years failing to do and there is no balance in sight. She still hasn’t figured out how to balance the books after her unaffordable tax cuts.

“We’ve been working our way through the costs of all of the commitments that we are making. I am determined that we will make a sensible, responsible set of commitments to the electorate this year that will be different to the current government.

“It will show that our priority of working New Zealanders and making sure that they get their fair share of the economic pie and that the economic recovery that Christopher Luxon keeps touting actually does arrive and it benefits everybody, not just those at the top.”

A portfolio reshuffle was looming, Hipkins said, particularly with the departures of Duncan Webb and Adrian Rurawhe.

“We very much are in this to win it. We think that the election is up for grabs, and we’re quite determined to offer New Zealanders a really compelling alternative.”

National is meeting in Christchurch, where Luxon is to announce this year’s election date.

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