Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Posted on

EMA and Adeption launch new leadership programme to help leaders thrive in an era of constant change

Source: EMA
The EMA (Employers and Manufacturers Association) has launched a new Adaptive Leader Programme in partnership with New Zealand-founded leadership development company Adeption, as part of its broader Workforce 2030 initiative.
The new and flexible programme is designed to equip leaders with the skills, tools and mindsets needed to navigate growing complexity, lead through uncertainty, and help their organisations adapt in an increasingly AI-enabled world.
Unlike traditional leadership programmes that can take leaders away from their day-to-day responsibilities for extended periods, the Adaptive Leader Programme combines focused workshops with digital learning, peer collaboration, and practical workplace application.
Adeption’s approach is built around helping leaders deal with “adaptive challenges” – complex issues where there is no simple or pre-existing solution. These challenges require learning, growth, and experimentation because the path ahead is often unclear.
Nick Sheppard, the EMA’s Head of Professional Services, says: “Leaders need to be able to guide their teams through uncertainty, make sense of rapid change, and create environments where people can adapt and thrive. This programme helps build the leadership capability organisations will need to grow, adapt, and succeed.”
Carl Sanders-Edwards, Founder and CEO of Adeption, says: “Our goal is to equip leaders across all sectors to thrive in the future of work. The Adaptive Leader Programme will help leaders be more comfortable with complexity, see challenges as growth opportunities, and build the mindsets and practical skills to respond effectively. We’re thrilled to partner with EMA to make a real difference for New Zealand businesses.”
The Adaptive Leader Programme supports self-leadership while also helping leaders progress team and organisational goals. Designed to be highly practical and embedded in the leader’s day-to-day work, participants are asked to identify real challenges they are facing, experiment with new approaches, reflect on what is working, and continue applying their learning in the flow of work. This is a breakaway from the traditional, content-led approach to leadership development.
Key features include Adeption’s Leadership Mindset Indicator and Bright Teams’ Bright Core Drivers. These tools help leaders better understand the mindsets they tend to use and how they can broaden their range to better respond to different situations.
The programme also uses Adeption’s AI capability in a deliberate, human-centred way – not to replace human interaction, but to support leadership development by recommending relevant tools and peer insights based on the real challenges leaders are facing.
More information on the Adaptive Leader Programme can be found here: The Adaptive Leader Programme – EMA – Employers and Manufacturers Association
Posted on

New Zealand lending firefighting expertise to American wildfire response

Source: Fire and Emergency New Zealand

Five experienced incident management specialists leave for the United States of America tomorrow (Friday) as part of a joint Australasian contingent supporting America’s response to an intense wildfire season.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand is deploying the team to Idaho under longstanding agreements with the USA, Canada and Australia to provide mutual assistance with wildfire suppression.
Four members are Fire and Emergency personnel and the fifth is from the forestry industry. They will be embedded in local incident management teams to perform senior roles: two will be managing helicopter operations bases, one will be a heavy equipment boss and one an operations branch director. The fifth will be in a liaison role representing New Zealand.
Fire and Emergency Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler says New Zealand’s own fire management capability is enhanced by international deployments. They provided an opportunity to gain experience in complex, large-scale, long duration vegetation fires of the kind not seen in New Zealand.
“The team will bring back what they learn and share their knowledge with colleagues here, and our own response capability will benefit from it,” Megan Stiffler says.
“And in return, our team will be sharing their own extensive skills and experience – that cross-pollination of knowledge is priceless.”
New Zealand regularly deploys firefighters and incident management team members to Australia and North America, drawing on personnel from Fire and Emergency and partner agencies including the forestry industry, Department of Conservation and New Zealand Defence Force. This deployment will be the 71st supported by Fire and Emergency and its predecessor organisations. The first deployment to the USA was in 2000 under the auspices of the National Rural Fire Authority.
The five team members heading to Idaho come from Southland, Otago, Auckland and Northland. They will be in the USA for five weeks.
Posted on

Tech and Security – Why a Heartbreaking Post in Your Feed Deserves a Second Look Before You Share

Source: Botica Butler Raudon Partners

 

Every so often, a piece of sad or shocking news appears in your feed. A well-known figure, a politician, a local leader, a sport player, even a family member is said to have fallen seriously ill or died. When shock or grief takes hold, we share, follow, and click before we verify. Scammers have learned to make use of that reflex for financial gain, and it is exactly what they are counting on.

 

Mark Gorrie from Gen and its family of consumer brands including Norton shares his advice on how to recognise these tactics and what to do when one reaches your feed.

 

 

High profile names are the oblivious targets, and New Zealand has produced a recent example. A famous head coach learned that fake Facebook posts were claiming his wife had died when a reporter raised it with him in front of the cameras. His wife remained alive and well, but the posts had already spread widely before anyone close to him could set the record straight.

 

Over the past few months, a number of pages have appeared publishing the fake deaths of known personalities, and many quietly gained thousands of followers.

 

Why fake obituaries get made in the first place

Fake obituaries exist to build an audience quickly. Scammers reach for famous names because recognition travels fast, and a shocking claim about someone we follow spreads before anyone thinks to check it.  A scammer posts a death notice for a recognisable name who is very much alive, then collects the clicks, shares, and engagement that follow. The link leads to a page made to look like genuine reporting, through its real purpose is to collect personal data, deliver malware, or grow a following that can later be sold, monetised, or used for the next scam. 

 

When the news concerns someone we admire and follow, we tend to react before we reason, and that moment of feeling is enough to skip the habit of checking. By the time the post is exposed as false, the scammer already has what they came for.

 

Signs of a fake obituary

Most fake obituaries reveal themselves in the same few ways, and knowing the signs makes them much easier to catch:

  • The post comes from an unfamiliar page or account with little or no posting history.
  • It is designed to prompt an instant share through urgency, shock, or outrage.
  • The link asks you to log in, confirm your identity, or complete a survey.
  • The story appears nowhere among established, reputable outlets.
  • There is a clickable link that takes you to a new, and usually malicious, site

 

Any one of these is reason enough to slow down. Genuine news of this kind would be carried by several trustworthy outlets at once, not by a single page you have never heard of.

 

What actually protects you

Once you have spotted those signs, handling one of these posts well comes down to a few straightforward habits:

  • Don't share it.
  • Don't click any links in the post.
  • Verify the news by going directly to a source you already trust.
  • Report the post to the platform.
  • Run a scan on your device if you have already clicked through.

 

If you use a security product such as Norton 360 day to day, it can flag a dodgy website as suspicious even when your emotions have already led you there.

 

Fake obituaries work because they draw on a genuine human impulse, the wish to share sad news and mark a passing with respect, and scammers rely on us acting on it before we examine it. The more strongly a piece of news pulls at your emotions, the more it is worth a second look. Ten good seconds spent checking is usually all it takes to avoid passing the lie along. When something moves you, that is the moment to stop.

Posted on

Universities – Cancer leader’s vision to transform care in New Zealand – UoA

Source: University of Auckland (UoA)

New Zealand has worse cancer survival rates than Australia – and Associate Professor Ben Lawrence wants to turn that around.

The first Head of the University of Auckland’s new Department of Cancer Sciences, Lawrence has a strong sense of what New Zealand needs to do to up its cancer treatment game.

He stepped down as clinical lead of oncology at Auckland Hospital to take up his new leadership role at the University and will continue working two days a week at the hospital.

Lawrence’s vision is for the new department to launch the country’s first comprehensive cancer centre within the next decade.

“The quality of cancer researchers and clinicians in New Zealand is extraordinary, but we don't offer an environment that brings out the best in them.

“We want to remove the barriers and provide a space where their abilities can shine,” he says.

Lawrence aims to collaborate with cancer experts within the new department and across New Zealand to plan a new cancer care centre that brings together leading healthcare professionals, researchers and the community.

The aim is to offer the best care to patients with all types of cancer – and that starts with research to develop better care strategies, he says.

The new centre will include everything from research about prevention and screening, to developing new drugs in the lab and offering clinical trials for promising new treatments, he says.

“Research shows cancer care is better in places that do cutting-edge research, and research is better in places that do clinical care, because researchers can understand the problems and ask the right research questions.”

Lawrence says New Zealand spends less on cancer research and medicines than similar OECD countries. He expects significant philanthropic funding will be needed to turn the dream of a new cancer centre into a reality.

He has already made a big difference to the lives of many New Zealanders with cancer – and may be familiar through his role in the documentary, Live and Let Dai, with comedian Dai Henwood, who has stage-four bowel cancer.

With University of Auckland Professor Cris Print, Lawrence founded NETwork! in 2013, bringing together more than 100 cancer clinicians from around New Zealand.  About 20 specialists from the group attend weekly meetings to discuss the best care for patients with neuroendocrine cancers.

In 2021, NETwork! brought a new treatment for neuroendocrine cancer patients to Aotearoa, in collaboration with patient advocacy group Neuroendocrine Cancer New Zealand. Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) is now making a “massive difference” to these patients, controlling their cancer without the toxic side effects caused by older treatments, he says.

More recently, Lawrence founded the Molecular Tumour Board, which brings scientists and clinicians together to provide top-notch care for patients with all types of cancer in New Zealand.

Over the years, he has won numerous awards and has offered expertise on cancer to the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand.

He has been president of the New Zealand Society for Oncology, served on the boards of Cancer Society Auckland Northland and the Gut Cancer Foundation, and been medical adviser for Neuroendocrine Cancer New Zealand.

He’s not the only leader in the family – his sister, Anna Lawrence, was captain of the New Zealand hockey team from 1995 to 2000.

Growing up in Christchurch and Auckland with a father who was a wool-buyer and a mother who worked as a laboratory technologist before she had children, medicine wasn’t an obvious career choice for Lawrence.

But from the aged of 14, he began to discover the rewards of care work. During his high school years, he worked on Sunday nights in an aged care home, feeding those who couldn’t eat without help.

Initially drawn to study psychology, he gained a Master of Science at Otago University, supporting himself through his studies with a part-time job caring for children with disabilities.

One of Lawrence’s earliest memories is of visiting his grandfather shortly before his death from lung cancer, then his grandmother died of bowel cancer and his aunt died of breast cancer a few years later.

During his training at medical school at the University of Auckland in 2004, Lawrence’s father died of brain cancer. All these losses influenced his decision to specialise in oncology.

After winning a fellowship to Yale University in the United States in 2009, he launched his career specialising in gastrointestinal and neuroendocrine cancers.

Research to try to improve cancer treatment has always been a vital part of Lawrence’s work.

Much of his research has focused on identifying the genetic mutations driving neuroendocrine cancers, finding ways to target their weak spots, and offering the best treatments for individual patients.

He is concerned that Māori have higher cancer rates and worse outcomes than other New Zealanders.

“That’s a health system problem but it’s also a knowledge problem – so it’s a University of Auckland problem to solve.”

Lawrence relishes the challenge of helping people with particularly complex health problems.

“My job sounds tough – half my patients will die of cancer – but in terrible situations, people often discover resilience they didn’t know they had.

“I get to see the best of human nature – and it’s amazing,” he says.
Posted on

NZ housing market remains subdued as sales decline and buyers retain pricing power

Source: Cotality

New Zealand’s housing market remains firmly in buyers’ favour, with sales activity continuing to weaken and property values showing little sign of a broad-based recovery. Investor sentiment has also weakened, with purchasing by mortgaged multiple-property owners declining for a second consecutive quarter.
 
Cotality’s NZ Monthly Housing Chart Pack shows there were 6,829 residential property sales across New Zealand in June, down 4.0% compared to the same month last year, marking the sixth consecutive monthly decline in transaction volumes. Over the first six months of 2026, sales activity was 4.2% lower than the corresponding period in 2025.
 
Cotality NZ Chief Property Economist Kelvin Davidson said softer sales volumes are helping to keep listing stock elevated by historical standards, providing buyers with greater choice and strengthening their negotiating position.  
 
“The balance of power has shifted. Buyers have options, time on their side, and in many cases the ability to negotiate harder than we've seen for several years.”
 
“There's no obvious catalyst for a sharp turnaround at present. With listings still elevated and economic uncertainty lingering, we expect market conditions to remain relatively subdued through the second half of the year.”
  
First home buyers remain dominant
  
First home buyers remain one of the most active buyer groups in the market, continuing a trend that has been evident for some time.
 
In contrast, purchasing activity from mortgaged multiple property owners, including many smaller-scale or 'mum and dad' investors, has eased in recent months.
 
Investors continue to face several challenges, including subdued rental growth and higher ownership costs. Uncertainty surrounding the upcoming election is also influencing decision-making, with some investors concerned about the potential for changes to property tax settings under a future government.
 
“Investor sentiment has become more cautious,” said Mr Davidson.
 
“While housing remains an attractive long-term asset for many New Zealanders, some investors are closely monitoring the policy environment and considering how potential regulatory, or tax changes could affect returns and cash flow.”
 
“A potential capital gains tax is a concern for investors. But many are perhaps even more worried about the risk of interest deductibility being phased out again.”
 
Market outlook
 
Looking ahead, the outlook for the second half of 2026 remains relatively subdued.
 
While slightly stronger population growth on the back of net migration, broadly stable employment and lower mortgage rates than those seen at the peak of the recent cycle continue to provide support for housing demand, elevated listings and cautious buyer behaviour are expected to keep conditions balanced.
 
“The housing market is currently lacking a strong catalyst for a sustained upswing,” Mr Davidson concluded.
 
“As a result, the second half of 2026 is likely to look similar to the first, with modest sales activity and generally flat property values across much of the country.”
Posted on

Government Cuts – More than 200,000 people face a pay cut under the Government’s new leave law, bill to become defining election issue – PSA

Source: PSA

Progressing employment law will cut the annual pay of more than 200,000 people during a cost-of-living crisis, according to fresh analysis by the PSA.
The Employment Leave Bill, which passed its second reading in Parliament on Tuesday, will strip overtime pay and other allowances from payments to workers while they’re on leave. This adds up to hundreds of dollars a year for people who rely on these extra payments to survive. Based on figures from Stats NZ, the PSA estimates this will leave over 200,000 workers out of pocket, including people working in health, public services, retail, manufacturing and more.
“Supporting this law in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis is irresponsible,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi. “ACT, National, and NZ First are taking money away from hundreds of thousands of people who are already doing it tough.”
“The Government cannot claim to be ignorant of the harm it’s causing. We presented clear evidence to the select committeeshowing the effects of this bill. Affected workers have met National MPs directly to present their case. And we gave all MPs the opportunity to pledge to oppose any changes that will leave workers worse off – only Labour, Green, and Te Pāti Māori MPs signed.”
“It is particularly galling to see Winston Peters and New Zealand First support this attack on working people at the same time as claiming to be the Party of workers – this couldn’t be further from the truth.”
The PSA will continue to campaign against the bill every day between now and the election, and will inform the public of the scale and severity of its effects.
“Brooke Van Velden claims only ‘edge cases’ will be left worse off by her bill – two hundred thousand people are not edge cases,” said Fitzsimons. “If this doesn’t cut your pay, it will cut the pay of someone you love, or someone in your community who works tirelessly to keep New Zealand going.
“The best time to stop this bill is right now. But if the Government continues to ignore the evidence and passes the bill, we will make sure the devastating effects of this law are on every voter’s mind come November.”
Example of how the Employment Leave Bill will cut workers’ pay
An airport firefighter works 50 hours a week, including 10 hours a week of overtime, which is paid time and a half. Under the current law, their pay while on leave reflects how much they’re paid while working, including their overtime pay. So, if they go on leave for a week, they’d get their usual pay of $2,145, including $585 in overtime pay.
Under the Employment Leave Bill, they will be paid a 12.5% loading for their overtime hours, but those overtime hours no longer count towards their pay while on leave. So, their weekly pay will be $2,193.75, including $633.75 overtime pay, but their pay while on leave goes down to $1560. This adds up to them losing $1,267.50 a year.
Breakdown of workers who will have their pay cut by the Employment Leave Bill
Affected workers include anyone who receives: commissions, higher rates for overtime, variable allowances or shift rates. Figures are drawn from Stats NZ, rounded to the nearest 500.
  • Manufacturing: meat, seafood, dairy, fruit and vegetables, wood, chemicals and metals – estimated 24,000 affected workers
  • Electricity supply – estimated 1,500 affected workers
  • Heavy and Civil Engineering and road construction – estimated 1,500 affected workers
  • Retail: supermarkets, motor vehicles, electronic goods, and furniture – estimated 11,000 affected workers
  • Road, bus, rail, water, and air transport – estimated 13,500 affected workers
  • Newspaper publishing, broadcasting and telecommunication services – estimated 1,500 affected workers
  • Financial and insurance services – estimated 6,500 affected workers
  • Police, Corrections, Inland Revenue, Department of Internal Affairs, Department of Conservations, and local government – estimated 35,500 affected workers
  • Health: allied health, health administration, doctors, nurses, midwives, orderlies, care and support workers, ambulance officers, social workers – estimated 106,500 affected workers
  • Total – estimated 201,500 affected workers.
The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand's largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.
Posted on

Patients deserve better than a pen and paper health system – more outages will happen due to Government cuts – PSA

Source: PSA

The latest IT outage at hospitals across the Waikato district is yet more damning evidence that the Government’s reckless cuts to the Health NZ IT workforce have consequences for patient care.
The outage over many hours impacted Waikato Hospital and other hospitals at Thames, Te Kūiti, Tokoroa and Taumarunui.
“Patients deserve better than a pen and paper public health system. Clinicians need to rely on modern, 24/7 IT systems to do their job – this is 2026 not 1966,” said Fleur Fitzsimons National Secretary Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.
“We have warned all along that when you cut more than 1000 jobs in IT, there will be consequences and patient care will suffer. Make no mistake, without adequate funding, these outages will keep happening, impacting the ability of clinicians to provide the timely care patients need.”
The PSA is the union representing Health NZ’s Digital Services workforce.
“This is just more chickens coming home to roost – when you give away billions of dollars in tax cuts to landlords for no good reason and starve the health system of the funding it needs, the Government shouldn’t be surprised.
“Health NZ today again said the problems are a result of years of underfunding and a hot potch of legacy IT systems that need fixing and integrating into national systems.
“Why then did the Government show the door to more than 1000 skilled IT professionals over the last two years?
“Come the election in November, we will be reminding voters that they have a choice to change the Government for a new one that makes public health a priority, and not tax cuts for landlords.”
The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand's largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.
Posted on

Universities – What happens after a river becomes a legal person? – UoA

Source: University of Auckland (UoA)

A Yale PhD candidate moved to Whanganui to investigate what nearly a decade of legal personhood has meant for Te Awa o Whanganui and its people.
As it winds through bush-clad valleys and farmland towards the ocean, picking up kayakers, silt and stories along the way, Aotearoa’s longest navigable river, Te Awa o Whanganui, slows as it prepares to flow through the city of Whanganui before connecting with the sea.

On its northern bank, just off State Highway four near the eastern edge of the city, sits Te Ao Hou marae, a place of connection and learning. Its main hapū is Ngāti Tupoho of the iwi Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi.

It’s here on the banks of the river that Yale School of the Environment PhD candidate Raffaele Sindoni spent much of his time, learning from kaumātua, kaiārahi and rangatahi, playing guitar and absorbing stories and knowledge about the region, particularly Te Awa o Whanganui.

Raffaele, who is also a writer and folk musician, spent five months living in Whanganui, never far from the Whanganui River, the first in the world to be recognised as a legal person in 2017.

The groundbreaking legislation, honouring te ao Māori, inspired communities around the world to explore legal protections for rivers and mountains. It also drew Raffaele to Aotearoa.

His research, in collaboration with Native American tribes and prior scholarship in the United States, led him to investigate the impact of the Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River Claims Settlement) Act nearly a decade after the river was granted legal personhood.

“I’m most curious about where the Act generates promising advancements, where it meets resistance, what it’s used for, and where it reaches its limits as both an expression of Indigenous relational worldviews and as an Act of Parliament operating within the structures of the New Zealand state.”

On paper, says Raffaele, granting legal personhood to a river appears to profoundly challenge colonial-capitalist understandings of land as property, water as resource, and humans and nature as separate. But, he points out, there’s a caveat.

“Rights of nature frameworks still operate within and engage with the very Western legal systems they seek to challenge. This poses an important question: how are Indigenous worldviews being translated into forms that the state recognises, and how does such a translation affect centuries of embedded legal and political Western colonial power structures?

“My research sits at this fault line. The Te Awa Tupua Act is an important entry point into scholarly and political inquiries across the world concerned with the expropriation of land, the objectification of water, climate change, and, of course, decolonisation and Indigenous sovereignty.

“These debates about legal personhood are essential for the next generation of students, activists, and lawyers as we grapple with changing relationships between people and nature. More importantly, though, they matter for all communities working to challenge the ways Western law has long shaped land, belonging, and political power.”
 
Over five months of fieldwork in Whanganui, he interviewed around 40 people with unique perspectives on the Act, including leaders of Whanganui hapū, farmers, members of entities that speak with or for the awa, heads of iwi settlement entities, Members of Parliament, district and regional councillors, environmental lawyers, and foresters.

Such a breadth of voices proved invaluable, says Raffaele, who’s now back in the US transcribing interviews and preparing a book based on his findings. Read more.
Posted on

Global Finance Founder Calls for Targeted Skilled Migration to Strengthen New Zealand’s Economic Future

Source: Global Financial Services

Global Finance Founder and Managing Director Ajay Kumar has called for a more targeted approach to skilled migration, saying New Zealand has a significant opportunity to strengthen economic growth by attracting professionals whose expertise matches the country's long-term workforce needs.
Speaking on the importance of the recently signed New Zealand-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the growing economic relationship between the two countries, Ajay Kumar from Global Finance said skilled migration should focus on addressing critical shortages across sectors including healthcare, engineering, technology, construction, education and advanced manufacturing.
“New Zealand has always benefited from people who bring skills, innovation and an entrepreneurial mindset. When migration is aligned with genuine workforce needs, it creates opportunities not only for migrants but also for businesses, communities and the wider economy,” said Ajay Kumar.
Ajay Kumar believes New Zealand's future prosperity depends on combining carefully planned immigration with investment in local talent, education and productivity.
“Migration should complement New Zealand's workforce, helping businesses grow while supporting long-term economic development,” he said.
Having worked with thousands of individuals, families and business owners over more than 25 years through Global Finance, Ajay Kumar has witnessed the contribution migrants make to business creation, home ownership and investment throughout New Zealand.He said many skilled migrants establish businesses, create employment opportunities and contribute significantly to regional economic development.
“The New Zealand-India relationship continues to evolve beyond trade. It is increasingly built on investment, innovation, education, entrepreneurship and people-to-people connections. This creates enormous opportunities for both countries.”
Kumar also emphasised that attracting internationally qualified, experienced and competent professionals those who can mitigate NZ skill shortage must be supported by efficient qualification recognition and practical pathways that enable skilled workers to contribute quickly to New Zealand's economy.He believes targeted migration policies can help address workforce shortages while supporting sustainable economic growth and improving productivity.
“Businesses need certainty and access to the right skills. A balanced approach to skilled migration can help New Zealand remain competitive while creating long-term value for future generations.”
Global Finance has supported New Zealand families and businesses since 1999, providing mortgage, business, commercial, Construction lending and personal risk insurance such as life and Health advice across the country.Ajay Kumar said helping people achieve financial security is closely linked to building stronger communities and supporting New Zealand's broader economic success.
“As New Zealand looks toward the future, collaboration between government, business and communities will be essential. With thoughtful policy settings and strong international partnerships, New Zealand is well positioned to continue attracting talent that supports sustainable growth.” 
Ajay kumar also feels when big countries impose many restrictions including tariff etc, these bilateral agreements play a vital role in promoting fair trade and people to people connections which are essential for overall growth of the country.
About Global Finance
Established in 1999, licenced by FMA, Global Finance is one of New Zealand's leading mortgage and insurance advisory firms, helping thousands of families and businesses with home loans, commercial finance and personal risk insurance. Arranged over $19Bn in loans and personal risk insurance covers. With the ability to provide financial advice across New Zealand, Global Finance remains committed to delivering professional advice and helping clients achieve their financial goals in an area of their expertise.
Posted on

Banking and Finance – Kiwi are finding ways to save – the banking system needs to keep up

Source: Kiwibank

New findings from Kiwibank's 2026 State of Savings Index, now in its third year, show saving remains challenging and budgeting and saving habits are holding steady.  

Kiwibank Chief Executive Steve Jurkovich says: “Three years of research shows that despite ongoing financial pressures, Kiwi continue to budget, save and find ways to make progress, from cutting spending to trying new tools.

“One of the interesting insights this year is around the usage of AI and open banking, particularly for younger Kiwi. As awareness of open banking increases, more Kiwi will unlock new ways to track spending, build savings and improve their financial wellbeing.”  

Kiwi are saying that the cost of living, particularly the monthly grocery bill, is the biggest barrier to savings, with some taking on debt such as Buy Now Pay Later or loans from family and friends to help.  

The research also shows some groups face greater pressure than others, and Māori, Pacific Peoples, renters and women are more likely to say they struggle to save.  

The findings highlight the importance of the systems and products that help Kiwi to save. For example, only half of respondents said they were aware that savings accounts often require specific conditions to be met so they can earn the headline interest rate.  

“When Kiwi are working hard to budget and save, they shouldn't have to jump through hoops and hurdles to get the best value. Savings products should be simple, transparent and designed around how Kiwi actually manage their money.  

“Banking should not feel like something you have to work around. It should be something that helps you move forward.”

The research found:  

  • Of those experiencing saving challenges (61%), 74% cited cost of living as their biggest saving barrier. 
  • Of the 59% of Kiwi that have a budget, 85% of them broadly stick to it (1 point up on last year), and those regularly saving now (44%). 
  • 39% made deliberate changes to improve savings, such as reducing discretionary spending (28%), changing grocery shopping habits (14%) and cancelling subscriptions (10%). 
  • 40% have taken on debt to cover increased living costs with Buy Now Pay Later (19%) and loans from friends or family (12%) being the most common. 
  • Kiwi say the best savings accounts offer competitive interest rates (52%), no fees or conditions (37%), and flexible access to their money (33%). 
  • 52% have some understanding of open banking with 42% seeing it as relevant to them. 
  • 12% have used AI for budgeting and savings advice, with 64% of those finding it helpful.

Table 1. Over three years, budgeting and regular saving are consistent  

 

Measure 

2024 

2025 

2026 

Monthly budget 

59% 

60% 

59% 

Regularly save 

41% 

43% 

44% 

Save from time to time 

38% 

37% 

37% 

Have a specific savings goal 

35% 

51% 

43% 

Cost of living biggest barrier* 

73% 

69% 

74% 

Can cover an unexpected $500 expense 

67% 

68% 

68% 

 

* For those who say it’s challenging to put money aside (63% in 2024, 63% in 2025 and 61% in 2026)