Best of Business

University of California professor and political analyst Dan Schnur talks to Heather du Plessis-Allan on the realities of doing international trade with the US in Trump's America. He explained that leaders must remember that Trump is first-and-foremost a businessman. "The city of San Francisco ... when they were worried that the Trump administration was going to send the Department of Homeland Security into their streets, they didn't deploy their congressional delegation. They sent business leaders." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It probably came out on the wrong day to get the coverage it deserved, but one of the last pieces in the economic turnaround told us we are basically there. Consumer confidence is back, up six points to 98. It needs to be 100 or more for expansion, but it's the highest figure since June and backs the business confidence, which last week was up a lot. Business comes first because they see the turnaround on sales. The spending numbers back that up because they are pretty real time and then you get confidence as a follow up, given although we are spending, some may not want to admit it may still feel like they are in a bit of a funk. But add it all together and the conclusion is inescapable. You can also add the ASB housing numbers if you want. Confidence in the housing market is at a 15-year high. Why? Because it's almost perfect – good supply, cheap money, but most importantly we seemed to have crossed the psychological barrier and given ourselves permission to start to feel good again. The irony is the growth that drives all this might just have been there all along. We get the Q3 GDP number later this month with Infometrics suggesting it is 0.9%. Add that to the rest of the year and we are well above the growth line. Not that a lot of the commentary has backed that up. Which is not to say some still do it tough. It's not to say it's the boom times. It's just to say there comes a point where the facts, figures and evidence can no longer be denied. Here is my next prediction: as a result of all this, 2026 might well be a very good year indeed. That's based on the idea that economies are about psychologies. Yes, they are about fundamentals but if the fundamentals are in place, then the next thing you look for is mood. And given the mood has been so repressed, when we decide to take the handbrake off there might just be no stopping us. As I said last week don't underestimate the Reserve Bank and the finality of their cut. They said this was it, they they've done their job, we are free to go and enjoy our lives. For those waiting and dilly-dallying, that was what they were waiting for. The next confidence survey will be over 100 and that will be the start of a trend for the year ahead. Remember where you heard it first. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Auckland oyster farmers are facing another blow just weeks after a major wastewater spill into the Mahurangi River. Watercare says heavy rain on 19 November caused 86 cubic metres of wastewater and stormwater to overflow into the river from a Warkworth pipeline. The Ministry for Primary Industries has suspended harvesting while tests are carried out, but growers say the spill has already wrecked their busiest season. Matakana Oysters owner Tom Walters told Kerre Woodham that, 'it's been a gutting year, and it seems to be the gutting cherry on top of it at the moment.' LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chris Luxon says banks need to be passing on their OCR cuts to customers - and customers should be switching banks if they don't. Mortgage rates have been falling significantly, following recent OCR cuts. But the Reserve Bank says the banks still have room to move, to be cutting the rates further. The Prime Minister says [told Mike Hosking] banks should be competing for customers, and customers should be trying to get the best deal they can. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Audio file FR EDITORIAL 301125.mp3 Transcript So, did you get yourself a bargain on Black Friday or some kind of good deal in the last 10 days that may also be associated with a Black Friday? I've done quite a bit of Christmas shopping this weekend, most of it online through Kiwi retailers, and have saved at least the shipping costs or up to maybe 25% savings, which, you know, it all adds up. There have been warnings this week about being sucked into Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. Consumer New Zealand, they did a three-month investigation. They tracked 10 products at four major retailers, and they found that half of the items could have been bought at the same or lower prices at some point in the last three months. But I think we all know this. Black Friday is a brilliantly executed marketing campaign. The reality is a lot of discounts are a token gesture, but if you do your homework and you have a bit of luck, you can find something you wanted for a good price. And I think that we approach shopping differently these days, driven by the fact a lot of the big retailers have sales all the time. If we look at the main sales at this time of the year, people go shopping at Labour Weekend, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and hey, look, if you've missed out, Boxing Day is only about four weeks away. So you'd be an idiot to buy something when it wasn't on sale. But hopefully all the spending will still be giving retailers the lift they need. This week there was a little bit of good news from Stats New Zealand with data showing that the total volume of sales increased 1.9% in the September quarter compared to the June 2025 quarter. And this is the largest quarterly increase in activity since December 2021. Last year, payment provider data showed that more than $175 million was spent at core retail merchants during Black Friday weekend. And it's going to be really interesting to see what the figure is this year. And retail, there sort of seems to be a little bit of a frenzy around retail at the moment. Look at the anticipation around IKEA opening in Auckland's Mount Wellington this week on December 4th. Good on AT for warning shoppers there could potentially be 40-minute delays to get off the motorway. And then it may take an hour to find a car park. You were warned. You may think it's unnecessary, but we all know what it's like when we hit that traffic on the motorway and we stop. Look, I know. It's exciting. I care opening. I have a kid going flatting next year and I wouldn't be surprised if we end up buying a flat pack of some sort. But IKEA's not going anywhere. Do yourself a favour and give it some time before you descend on the Swedish giant. Or better still, shop at some of our very own Kiwi excellent flat pack furniture stores. But look, if you're less patient than me and you're prepared to deal with the traffic, best of luck out there. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week Kevin Milne wants to give a boutique business their flowers. All Better is a toy repair business run by Janice in Te Awamutu. She specialises in fixing wooden puzzles for kids – a service Kevin was in dire need of after their dog caused a bit of damage to their vintage family puzzle. If you're in need of her services, you can contact her via email: jgdownhome@yahoo.co.nz LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The UK's embattled Labour Government has unveiled a tax-raising budget - after its full contents were leaked half an hour early. The plan's designed to lift economic growth and ease cost-of-living pressures. UK correspondent Enda Brady says Chancellor Rachel Reeves acknowledged ordinary people would have to pay more, and it's prompted backlash. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

There's growing concerns from experts about the risks surrounding AI investments. Investors believe AI is at risk of forming a stock market bubble, and some analysts are worried about the risks coming home to roost. Fisher Funds expert Sam Dickie explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can I give you a positive spin on the recession that we're just coming out of? I mean, maybe it's not so much a positive spin, but maybe it's an explanation for why this recession was harder than it needed to be - but why it actually did need to be this hard. If you've been following the commentary around the Reserve Bank's last two OCR decisions, you'll know there's been a fair bit of chat about the wealth effect and how that has made the recession worse. Now, the wealth effect is the thing that happens when your house goes up in value. You feel rich - you're not rich, you just feel rich - so you go out and spend more money. And then, of course, when it does the opposite and goes down in value, you feel poor. You're not poor, you just feel it, so you shut your wallet. And that is part of the reason why this recession has dragged - because our house prices are not going up. They have gone backwards, and so we're not spending, which means that we're not spending our way out of the recession. Now, the thing about this is that the Reserve Bank has actually done things to deliberately keep our house prices suppressed, right? Things like debt-to-income ratios. Some of the stuff is not their fault, like people leaving the country and therefore not wanting to buy a house - supply and demand, blah blah blah - but some of it is the fault of the Reserve Bank, who've done this deliberately. And I warned you about this on the show before. I said this to you in August, I said I was worried that the Reserve Bank was keeping house prices depressed and that it would drag out this recession longer, which it has. And I've been talking privately to Brad Olsen about it as well, who's been keeping an eye on it too, and we've been debating the merits of it. But here's the silver lining - we actually needed to let go of this property obsession. It's been hard, but we needed to do it because we have got to stop putting our money into property and we've got to start putting our money into businesses and other productive assets. And this is the breakup that we needed to have. No breakup is nice, and this one isn't either. So I text Brad Olsen this morning, yet again. He goes, “Oh, here we go. Here's a text from Heather.” I said, “Brad, are you still sure that it was worth it to break up with our property obsession given how hard it has made this recession?” And he just replied with, “Yes, I do.” So what I would say is, if you're doing the glass-half-full thing, at least we will come out of this recession less in love with houses and more likely to put our dollars into stuff that will actually make New Zealand richer - and that's got to be a good thing. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank has blamed the ongoing recession on an uncertain property market, prompting experts to weigh in. New Zealand has traditionally relied on housing as an engine of growth, but years of flat property prices have reportedly contributed to the ongoing economic downturn. Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Inland Revenue Department has launched some new steps in bringing down tax debt - with one scheme linked to a key credit agency. Following a successful pilot, the IRD will report more recalcitrant tax debtors to credit reporting agency Centrix. Centrix Group Managing Director Keith McLaughlin says this scheme is designed to bring down company debt at this stage, not personal debt. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Business as usual for Jetstar, despite Air New Zealand taking a swipe at its airport discounts. Air New Zealand head Nikhil Ravishankar claimed airports are unfairly subsidising the Qantas-owned airline - on our most profitable air routes. BusinessDesk reports Ravishankar says that includes open-ended discounted landing rights and cost cutting deals. Jetstar CEO Stephanie Tully says they're just focused on running their own race. "The reality is, we've been trying really hard to make sure that we've got a great value proposition in the New Zealand market - and it's great that more Kiwis are giving us a go." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank is addressing concerns cash is becoming inaccessible by bringing money to rural communities. It has opened a 12-month trial of a cash depot in Hawke's Bays' Waipukurau - offering a closer site to make withdrawals. Local banks have recently closed, meaning the nearest ATM for locals is 50 kilometres away. Reserve Bank Money and Cash Director, Ian Woolford, says, currently, only businesses can use the depot for cash. "It's quite surprising, about a third of where people get their money from is actually from a retailer...but people might be noticing retailers are increasingly saying - well, we don't really want to accept cash." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Businesses are taking class-action over a power outage to of all Northland last year - although the exact loss is still unknown. In June, an inexperienced worker removed nuts from three legs of a pylon, which toppled, cutting electricity to almost the entire region. An opt-out class action against Transpower and its lines maintenance contractor is progressing through the courts. Stout Street Chambers partner, Mike Colson, says losses will be calculated in due course. "It's giving Northland businesses an opportunity to be compensated - and second, an opportunity to incentivise those working on critical infrastructure to do a good job out of it." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Pohutukawa are out and flowering and abundant. The days are longer, the sun is shining, the Reserve Bank has cut the OCR, Christmas is coming, summer holidays are on the horizon, Chris Hipkins was talking tough around any kind of coalition with the Greens. We're in charge, we're not going to have this rabidly socialist nonsense, was the clear implication. Commentators are saying that this point now, here, is rock bottom. I know we've been told things are nearing the bottom, nearing the nadir, but this is it. And now things are on the up. So how confident are you feeling? I know when we've talked about this in the past, you've been bruised by past events, and that's informed the way you're thinking and who could blame you. The world has been a very uncertain place over the past five years, and nobody could blame you for hunkering down and keeping your nuts hoarded away. Nobody. Some of you have said, those of you that have got the readies to invest, you've said, "I'm not willing to. I'm just not willing to. I'm not willing to grow my business. I'm not willing to take risk in case Labour gets back in." Well, where are you at right now? The Reserve Bank lowered the OCR to 2.25%, the ninth reduction since August 2024. The bank said economic activity is picking up, inflation is forecast to fall to 2% by mid 2026, and that will help households. And listen to Roger Gray from the Ports of Auckland, who was on with Heather Du Plessis-Allan last night. “Nine months ago, I was in Miami talking to the cruise lines to try and understand why they were dropping off their bookings and the feedback across the whole lot of the four cruise lines I went to was they felt that New Zealand was just simply too hard to deal with because people were so negative about things. What I think is interesting is that's where we were and that was their perception, but the cool thing is now, I think there's a real change going on amongst people. There's a real starting to be a positivity amongst a lot of people and you know, I think the Bledisloe Wharf is a great example. If you can just get on and do stuff, we've created 250 new jobs for Aucklanders and that wharf will be finished by the end of next year.” He was saying, "Yeah, we used to be known as “No Zealand” and it was all like, 'Oh no, no. No, don't bother investing here. It's all too hard. No, you'll lose your money.'" He says it's quite different now. Quite different. He's picking up the positivity, he's seeing more of it. Where are you at right now? You know, as we go into Christmas, there's a month of business for many companies and many businesses and many workers. It's a busy time of year up until a couple of weeks before Christmas, then as we go into Christmas and the Christmas holidays, how are you feeling about going into 2026? Are you feeling optimistic? Can you feel the tide is turning? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Leaky-home experts fear a proposed overhaul of the Building Act could leave unlucky home owners - apartment owners in particular - in financial ruin. Under the new regime, liabilities are only assigned to the party responsible, and for many new buildings, a warranty will be required. NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny unpacks the concerns further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank ended the year on a hopeful note and brought down the OCR for the end of 2025. The central bank cut the Official Cash Rate another 25 basis points today - bringing it to 2.25 percent. Milford Asset Management's Sam Trethewey explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Port of Auckland's CEO says a 'no' culture has permeated New Zealand. Roger Gray says a cruise ship representative he spoke to in the US labelled our country 'No Zealand'. Gray says they claimed excessive regulation made things too difficult for them. He says he doesn't think it's the case in Australia. "I think Australians are a bit more optimistic and go - yeah, let's have a crack. We're a bit more sit back and a bit more conservative." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank's outgoing Governor says New Zealand's economy may be doing better than we realise. The central bank has cut the OCR 25 basis points today - to 2.25 percent. Christian Hawkesby says the economy already appears to be recovering from this year's downturn. He says what's unclear - is its pace. "The recovery could be faster and stronger than we expect, because we have cut interest rates a long way and it could really start coming through quite quickly." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank is set to deliver their final Monetary Policy Statement for 2025 tomorrow, and reports indicate the OCR will be cut further. Economists are widely expecting the OCR to drop 25 basis points to 2.25 percent - with room for further cuts down the line. HSBC chief economist Paul Bloxham speculated further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fonterra's forewarning farmers falling global dairy prices could hit their bottom lines. The dairy co-op recently cut its seasonal farmgate milk payout midpoint forecast - from $10 to $9.50. It paid out $10.16 last season. The Country's Jamie Mackay explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank is set to make an announcement this week, and experts are expecting at least one more cut to the OCR. Markets are projecting the OCR will be cut down to 2.25, and they've priced it in accordingly. Harbour Asset Management's Shane Solly explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New surveys show Auckland business confidence is on the up, with reports indicating businesses are feeling less pessimistic ahead of the new year. Auckland Business Chamber CEO Simon Bridges says the latest November survey shows the city isn't 'out of the woods' but it's no longer 'stuck in the darkest part of the forest'. Bridges says there's room for the economy to improve, but the OCR's coming down and farmers are making more money - and things are feeling more hopeful. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Let's talk about Air New Zealand. Look, if I was Air New Zealand, I would feel pretty beaten up after the weekend's opinion pieces. Bruce Cotterill wrote a piece in one newspaper complaining that if Air New Zealand want to charge as much as they do, then they have to do the job better and be on time more often. And then, Sam Stubbs wrote a piece in another newspaper telling them to stop overcharging domestic travellers. Now, I cannot explain the timing. I can't explain why both those guys wrote harsh pieces about the same airline on the same weekend. But what's weirder about it is that I almost did exactly the same thing. I almost had a bit of a rant about Air New Zealand myself this weekend, because I had to pull out of an event on account of their ticket prices. What it was is the husband and I were planning to go to a thing in Wellington. We started doing all the organizing, had the babysitter covered, organized to work out of Wellington for the day - and we went to book the flights and saw the flight prices. It was pretty close to $1000 return per person, and I could not justify that. That is ridiculous. Now, I don't have a problem, as I've said 1000 times to you, with Air New Zealand making as much money as it wants to. I wanted to make money, I'm a shareholder - and we all are shareholders through the Government. It does have to balance that with customer loyalty though, because Air New Zealand is now so overpriced that I cannot justify using it. For the first time in my working life, I don't have Koru anymore, I cannot justify the expense. And while I have the same problem as Bruce Cotterill, I don't want to fly Jetstar out of loyalty to Air New Zealand. But I reckon, give it a year. Because I reckon this time next year, I'm going to be flying Jetstar. The flight from Auckland to Wellington on Air New Zealand for the event was $500 per person, just one way, right?Auckland to Wellington, $500. The same flight on Jetstar at a better time was about $150. That's Air New Zealand's problem right there, they're chasing their customers away. One day, they're gonna wake up - and they don't realize it now - but they're gonna be surprised at how popular Jetstar is and they're gonna regret the fact that heaps of us tried out the orange bird and found it's not that bad. And Air New Zealand will want us back and struggle to get us back. And maybe the reason that Bruce and Sam - and maybe even me - criticized Air New Zealand on the same weekend is that we're only saying what everybody's already thinking. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand farms and food producers appear to be outpacing other countries when it comes to reducing food waste. A report commissioned by the Ministry of Environment reveals more than 1.2 million tonnes of food is wasted or thrown away here every year. The total proportion of food wasted is between 5 and 10 percent - considerably lower than the global estimate of 30 to 40 percent. University of Otago nutrition professor and report author Sheila Skeaff says household food waste is still as high as most other countries, but producers are ahead. "We produce a lot of food and we're pretty good at making sure that we make the best use of that, particularly on farms and in processing." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Up to 15,000 passengers could be disrupted if Air New Zealand cabin crew go ahead with strike action next month. The airline's largely unionised crew plan to strike on December 8th demanding greater salaries and allowances. The flagship carrier's assessing the potential effect on operations. Expert and advisor to business leaders, Bruce Cotterill, says people have high expectations when it comes to Air New Zealand and CEO Nikhil Ravishankar's response has left some disappointed. "You do expect a level of performance and that level of performance isn't there at the moment. So it's frustrating - it's frustrating for travellers, I'm sure it's frustrating for Air New Zealand as well." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's hard enough to chase a scientific breakthrough. But as New Zealand company Ārepa found out it's even harder and more expenisve to defend your breakthroughs time and time again. Ārepa was founded in 2017 and the so called “brain drink” company was growing at a rapid pace when at the end of 2023, they hit a massive speed bump. That's when the Ministry for Primary Industries and an Auckland University scientist came out and said the company hadn'tactually proven better brain function at all. Ārepa found itself in the headlines, but for all the wrong reasons. The company's co-founder and co-chief executive Angus Brown told their story with Kerre Woodham on the latest episode of Bosses Unfiltered. LISTEN ABOVE NOTE: This interview was recorded on June 4th 2025. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Despite growing concerns about the AI bubble, Nvidia's shown it won't be popping any time soon. The company's quarterly results have smashed expectations and it recorded a 22 percent jump in profit from the previous quarter. Fisher Funds expert Sam Dickie explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zespri has issued its November forecast for the 2025/26 kiwifruit season, and it's predicting some solid results. At a per-hectare level, record returns are currently projected across all categories. The Country's Jamie Mackay explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Australian teenagers have been warned their accounts of Facebook, Instagram and Threads will be shut down ahead of the country's incoming social media ban. Meta has confirmed it has started notifying users between 13 and 15 years old by text, email and in-app messages that their accounts would be deactivated come December. Australian correspondent Murray Olds says Meta has encouraged young users to download their content now, before the data gets removed. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government is delaying hiking the levy most home owners pay via their private insurers to fund the Natural Hazards Commission until 2027. The $552 levy was supposed to go up by between $207 and $311, but reports claim ministers are still considering their options, with Finance Minister Nicola Willis saying she didn't want to make a 'hurried decision'. NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Reserve Bank is set to reveal their latest OCR update next week, but experts aren't feeling too hopeful about the economy. GDP is down and the labour market remains weak, and many are feeling less optimistic. Milford Asset Management's Brendan Larsen explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A warning our major political parties need to display more bipartisan planning so we don't buckle to a dwindling population and economic growth. Business NZ's report warns a labour shortage of at least a quarter of a million is expected before 2050, and there's also a one in four chance the population doesn't grow. Business Canterbury Chief Executive Leeann Watson told Andrew Dickens says major parties need to reach a certain level of bipartisan agreement on the country's big decisions She says businesses want to see steady incremental progress not a pendulum shift which potentially puts us backwards. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A big turnaround for fisheries company Sanford with the reveal of their latest profits. They've reported an after-tax profit of $63.7 million – a 224% increase for the year to September. Cash flow was also up 85%, helping cut debt by nearly half to $93.4 million. Sanford Managing Director David Mair told Mike Hosking that by focusing on customers, they're turning the business around. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bold, bipartisan centred planning is key to ensuring New Zealand doesn't succumb to the effects of a dwindling population and economic growth. A new BusinessNZ report's calling for a cross-party vision and long-term goals to strengthen the country by 2050. It notes a labour shortage of at least a quarter of a million is expected before then, and there's also a one in four chance the population doesn't grow. Advocacy Director Catherine Beard says businesses are sick of political u-turns and flip-flops. She told Mike Hosking we're currently stumbling towards the future in a blindfolded fashion, and the report is designed to get everyone to think outside of the box. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand's largest mānuka honey producer's voted down a richlister takeover bid, leaving its fate in limbo. Comvita received an offer of 80-cents-per-share in August from Florenz - a subsidiary of Christchurch billionaire Mark Stewart's Masthead Limited. Comvita CEO Karl Gradon explained how the company could bounce back. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prices are soaring for food staples, with prices up 4.7 percent on a year ago. Stats NZ data for October shows cheese, instant coffee, eggs and milk had some of the largest surges. Gas rose 14.4 percent and electricity almost 12 percent Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen says fruit and vegetables are cheaper - but not meat. "A couple of months ago, right, we were talking a lot about butter. Mince is now the new butter in a sense, given that that's increased, I think, $23 a kilo." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government is planning to increase fines for breaching the Fair Trading Act - from 600-thousand dollars to five-million. It is announcing a swathe of changes to crack down on businesses and individuals breaking consumer laws. The cases could also be moved from the criminal court to the Civil Court to make prosecution easier. Consumer NZ Chief Executive Jon Duffy told Mike Hosking that it is one of the most consequential changes to the act in a generation. He says it will be a deterrent for many companies - but $5million is a drop-in-the-bucket for large multi-nationals. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New Zealand produces enough food to feed 40 million people. Some of it we consume and some some we export. But a staggering 30% of the food we make or grow goes to waste. Fruit and vegetables need to look a certain way to make it onto supermarket shelves – or they get tossed. Angus Simms and his partner Katie Jackson wanted to tackle that problem - so they started Wonky Box three years ago. This is the subscription food box full of wonky fruit and veg that's delivered to your door. Their business has grown way bigger and faster than they ever thought, but it hasn't been smooth sailing along the way. Angus joined Kerre Woodham in the latest episode of Bosses Unfiltered to share his story. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A shareholder vote to approve a takeover bid for Comvita has not gathered enough votes to proceed. The bid from Florence to buy Comvita at 80 cents a share required 75% support from shareholders to go through. Although the official vote count has not been released, we know that the numbers fall short of the margin. Octagon Chief Investment Officer Paul Robertshawe told Heather duPlessis-Allan that anything is possible going forward, however it's unlikely that Florence will raise their offer. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The price of gold continues to hit new highs, and speculators are wondering whether they should invest. Gold has seen the strongest year since the 1970s, largely thanks to volatile markets and economic uncertainty. Fisher Funds expert Sam Dickie explained further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Government says it will act on all 19 recommendations from Parliament's banking inquiry - and it's committed to increasing scrutiny around the banking sector. This comes as Westpac and ANZ report significant increases in profit, prompting concern from experts. Kent Duston from the Banking Reform Coalition says the proposed changes make good steps forward, but it's unclear how much of a difference they will make. "I think the big issue here is that the banks simply don't care. Whatever Parliament says - we're on the back of an inquiry from the Commerce Commission, another inquiry from Parliament from the select committee...whatever it is Parliament's saying, clearly the banks aren't listening." LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.