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Federated Farmers – Government clears runway for agricultural drones

Source: Federated Farmers of New Zealand

Federated Farmers says the Government’s decision to cut red tape around agricultural drone use will unlock a technology with huge potential on Kiwi farms.

“Farmers have been telling us for some time that the rules around agricultural drone use were getting in the way of innovation,” Federated Farmers transport spokesperson Chris Dillon says.

“Under the current system, farmers wanting to use drones for applications such as spraying fertiliser or agrichemicals have faced the prospect of applying for a Part 102 certificate and potentially waiting years to find out whether they could get one.

“For many farmers, that simply wasn’t worth the hassle – so they haven’t even bothered.

“We’re really pleased the Government is now stepping in to make sensible changes that will make agricultural drone use much more accessible.”

Dillon says drones have huge potential to improve the precision of agricultural applications, while reducing the amount of product farmers need to use.

“Drones can apply fertiliser and agrichemicals with incredible precision, targeting exactly where they’re needed rather than treating areas unnecessarily.

“That means less product being used, which is good for farmers’ bottom lines and good for the environment.”

He says use of drones for routine farm tasks like mustering, checking crops and doing flood assessments is already high.

“That’s largely because operating small drones on farms hasn’t required the hassle of a Part 102 certificate.

“More and more farmers have started using drones after seeing them showcased at a farm discussion group, and they don’t cost a lot to buy.

“It makes sense to remove unnecessary barriers stopping farmers from using them for spraying as well.”

Dillon says Federated Farmers will now work with Government and officials to ensure the new rules are practical for farmers operating in real-world agricultural environments.

“We want to make sure the final rules deliver the flexibility farmers need while maintaining appropriate safety protections.”

The changes are due to come into effect in mid-2027.

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Health – GenPro, General Practitioners Aotearoa extend valued commitment to collaborate

Source: GenPro and General Practitioners Aotearoa

20 August 2026

GenPro and General Practitioners Aotearoa (GPA) have renewed their commitment to work together, signing a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that builds on their successful two-year partnership.

GenPro Chair Dr Angus Chambers said the two membership associations had a mutual aim of improving general practice.

“GenPro and General Practitioners Aotearoa have different roles, but we share a common goal: a strong, sustainable general practice sector that delivers the best possible care for patients,” Dr Chambers said.

“Where we have shared interests, it makes sense for us to work together. Renewing the MoU provides a clear framework for that collaboration while allowing each organisation to maintain its distinct role and voice.”

GPA Chair Dr Buzz Burrell said the renewed agreement reflected the constructive relationship that had developed between the organisations.

“We get on great with the folks at GenPro and there’s a lot of common ground when it comes to improving things for GPs,” Dr Burrell said.

“We are united in wanting a stronger and more sustainable future for general practice.”
GenPro members are GP practice owners. GPA members are GPs, whether they are owners or not.

The two organisations emphasised that all GPs who are also owners or part-owners can, and should, join both organisations.

Dr Chambers said the organisations' complementary roles meant dual membership could provide additional value for GP owners.

“GenPro and GPA provide different perspectives and services, and there is value in eligible GP owners being part of both organisations,” he said.

Dr Burrell said the sector was stronger when organisations worked constructively together.
“Our focus is on what we can achieve for general practice and their patients. We look forward to continuing a positive and collaborative relationship with GenPro.

“A strong general practice sector is essential to ensuring New Zealanders can access high-quality care close to home and to reducing pressure on the wider health system,” he said.

An original MoU signed in 2024 provided a two-year framework for collaboration. With that agreement expiring in June this year, the organisations have agreed to continue collaborating where appropriate on issues of shared interest and importance to general practice.

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Legislation – Government takes scalpel to red tape for farmers – Federated Farmers

Source: Federated Farmers

Proposed changes to resource management reform bills will cut much of the excessive, expensive and totally unnecessary red tape involved in farming, Federated Farmers says.
“The Government has clearly listened to farmers concerns with the initial drafting of the legislation,” Federated Farmers RMA reform spokesperson Mark Hooper says.
“Federated Farmers raised some serious concerns about the workability of the new planning system, but today’s announcements appear to address many of those issues.
“We’re welcoming this afternoon’s announcement as a positive step forward that will cut red tape, unlock investment, and help grow our export-led economy.”
Hooper says the Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill represent a fundamental shift in the way New Zealand manages natural resources.
Agriculture is the major driver of the national economy so unnecessary red tape puts a drag on productivity, economic growth, and the income of every New Zealander.
“The Government’s changes will address some of the real world, on the ground challenges farmers have been grappling with under the badly broken RMA system.
“Having a resource management system that’s practical and easy to implement will help cut costs, improve productivity and grow the economy.
“It will also support the great environmental work farmers already doing, while removing the unnecessary cost, complexity and uncertainty of consenting processes.
“There’s plenty of good work going on out there, but unfortunately the system pulls the handbrake more often than it presses the accelerator.”
Federated Farmers are particularly pleased to see confusingly drafted resource cap provisions dropped from the proposed legislation.
“The resource caps aimed to describe the maximum amount of a resource that could be used before an environmental limit was breached,” Hooper says.
“This implied councils would set out caps on things like fertiliser, stock numbers or even the amount of land in pastoral production.
“Those are incredibly restrictive controls that would have been an absolute nightmare for farmers and rural communities to grapple with.”
Federated Farmers are welcoming a clarification that action plans are the primary mechanism for managing resource use when a limit is at risk of being breached.
“This is great news. Action plans allow the complexity of individual catchments to be addressed rather than just applying blanket regulations and hoping for the best.
“We’re also pleased to see our calls for unworkable ‘existing use’ provisions to be extended from six months to a much more practical 12-month period.
“In reality, farmers operate on a cyclical agricultural season, so an ‘existing activity’ often means something you did 12 months ago.”
Significant changes have also been made to the proposed goal of ensuring ‘no net-loss’ of biodiversity.
“That goal was unclear and risked land use targets put on farmers. Focusing on protecting significant biodiversity is much more pragmatic approach to take.”
Hooper says today’s announcement marks an important milestone in New Zealand’s resource management reform, but it’s only the halfway point in the process.
“The bills set out the framework, but we still need to work through the national direction and national standards,” he says.
“Newly established councils will then need to develop new policy and plans, which could take years to put in place.
“There’s a long road ahead before the system is up and running, but there are things the Government could do to speed up the benefits of these reforms.
“For example, they could pick up Federated Farmers’ policy of introducing 10 new national standards to make basic farming activities a permitted activity.”
The Government is due to release Amendment Papers for these proposed changes tomorrow, Thursday 20 August.
“Federated Farmers will be watching closely to make sure the reality of the changes lines up with the rhetoric – and holding them accountable if they don’t.”
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Heritage – Raising the roof – the reshingling of Kemp House has begun

Source: Heritage New Zealand

The project to replace thousands of shingles on New Zealand’s oldest building is underway.
Workers have carefully removed the weathered wooden roof tiles from 204-year-old Kemp House in Kerikeri – and are finding out what lurks beneath.
And the news is basically good.
“The shingles might be on their last legs, but the wooden structure underneath – including the original kauri beams that were shaped by carpenters over two centuries ago – are in incredibly good condition for their age,” says Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga Northern Assets Manager, Boris Bogdanovich who is overseeing the project.
“There is a bit of old borer damage, but that will be fixed in a way that respects the heritage fabric of the original timbers.”
Henwood Construction Ltd of Kerikeri is leading the re-roofing project, which began with the covering of Kemp House with a white waterproof membrane to protect the building while the new roof is being installed. The company has had extensive experience working on historic buildings and has worked with Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga in the past.
“We’ve had a fairly dry winter so far which has been really good. It would be great if that weather were to continue, but if not, our waterproof covering will protect the house from any rain damage,” says Boris.
Built in 1821-22 by missionary carpenters and Māori sawyers, Kemp House is an important remnant of early contact between Māori and Pakeha. The mission was established by the Church Missionary Society in 1819 under the protection of influential rangatira Hongi Hika. Two centuries later, the house still embodies this early shared history.
Kemp House and its gardens were passed down through the Kemp family – descendants of missionaries James and Charlotte Kemp – until Ernest Kemp generously gifted them to the nation through the then New Zealand Historic Places Trust/Pouhere Taonga in 1974.
Today it is a Tohu Whenua and one of a number of significant historic places cared for by Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga around the country.
“As the earliest surviving building in New Zealand, Kemp House has national and international significance, as a built marker of the foundational relationships developed between local Māori and the British in the 20 years prior to the signing of the Treaty at Waitangi,” says Boris.
“Kemp House has high public esteem as a cradle of nationhood, and attracts large numbers of local and international visitors every year. It’s great to see the project underway, and we hope to reveal Kemp House’s new roof in time for summer.”
An appeal to raise funds for the roof restoration project was launched earlier this year among Heritage New Zealand supporters, and now the organisation is looking to widen its approach to the general public for support.
“Unanticipated price hikes in the cost of materials caused by rising fuel prices have stretched the budget for this project to the limit,” says Boris.
The nature of this kind of work also throws up surprises which he says are impossible to anticipate and budget for.
“For example, where there’s deterioration, we’re using traditional and 21st century techniques and materials to sensitively re-introduce lost strength where its needed. We’re also wanting to stabilise and repair fabric with the least loss, greatest respect for its context and best durability. And that’s where the original budget gets stretched. Every little bit of support from Kiwis really helps, and we’re so grateful to all those people who have already donated.”
People wanting to support the project can follow the link: www.heritage.org.nz/donate
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Health – Endometriosis guideline a welcome step, but GPs need funded pathways to deliver better care for their patients

Source: The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners

The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (the College) welcomes the Government's announcement that Health New Zealand will adapt the RANZCOG Australian Living Evidence Guideline: Endometriosis for use in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The College says the guideline is a positive step for women's health but warns that it will only improve outcomes if it is backed by funding, equitable access to services and education across the whole health workforce.

College Medical Director Dr Prabani Wood says the College supports any change in women's health practice that leads to better outcomes for patients. However, she says the way the change has been described risks giving the public the impression that general practice has not been part of endometriosis care until now.

“GPs are already diagnosing and treating endometriosis every day, and have been for years,” says Dr Wood. “What we do not have is easy, funded access to the wider services these women need. Pelvic physiotherapy and other allied health support are essential for the many women who need more than medication to manage their symptoms.”

The College's greater concern is the gap between the guideline and the system that has to deliver it. Access to diagnostic imaging, gynaecology services and allied health support varies sharply across the country, and in many places those services are only available if the patient pays for them privately. That means a woman's ability to get timely care still depends on her postcode and her income.

“We cannot ask general practice to shorten diagnosis times and improve management without also fixing what sits behind the diagnosis,” says Dr Wood. “A clinical diagnosis is only useful if the woman can then access the imaging, the treatment and the support services she needs. At the moment that depends far too much on where she lives and what she can afford. That is an equity issue, and a guideline on its own does not resolve it.”

The College also notes that surgery is not always the best option for women with endometriosis, and that understanding of contemporary diagnosis and management needs to improve across the entire medical profession, not only in general practice.

Health New Zealand's commitment to training is welcome, and the College is willing to work on that education. It needs to be properly funded, developed for the New Zealand context, and extended across primary, secondary and allied health care.

“We want to see a guideline that works in a New Zealand context for New Zealand women in New Zealand practices,” says Dr Wood. “Equity of access and cost should be a large consideration of that work, given the health care inequities we face as a country.”

The College has recently supported the work of the Ministry for Women and Health New Zealand through their women's health resources campaign and says that momentum should now be matched with investment in the services that sit behind it. Better outcomes for women require a whole-of-system approach, from the first appointment in general practice through to imaging, specialist care, allied health and long-term support.

“General practice is ready to play its part, as it always has,” says Dr Wood. “But a guideline is a document. What changes women's lives is a funded, connected system that lets us act on it.”

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Tech – SAP Concur sets new standard for what AI can do for travel and finance teams

Source: SAP Concur

August 2026

At the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Convention 2026, SAP Concur launched its latest expansion of AI-powered capabilities across the travel and expense (T&E) ecosystem, designed to help travel managers, finance teams, delegates, and travellers achieve more with less effort. These new capabilities combine intelligent automation, policy-aware decision support, connected workflows, and insights from T&E data. As a result, organisations can reduce manual work, improve visibility, strengthen compliance, and make faster, more informed decisions across every leg of the travel journey.

Expanding AI with data and workflow context across T&E

Managing travel for others often means juggling multiple travellers, competing priorities, and a constant stream of requests, approvals, and expense tasks across multiple systems.

The new AI-assisted delegates dashboard brings approval requests, travel bookings, and expense reports into a single, intelligent workspace. Instead of switching between tools, emails, and profiles, delegates can manage multiple travellers from one place while AI surfaces priorities, recommends next steps, and helps keep workflows moving. The result is less time spent coordinating administrative tasks and more time proactively supporting travellers and executives. Using this dashboard means delegates can expect up to a 25 per cent reduction in hours spent resolving issues. The AI-assisted delegates dashboard is available today for early adopter customers, with general availability planned for Q3 2026.

SAP Concur is also introducing several new AI-powered capabilities that combine intelligent automation and policy-driven controls designed to help approvers, administrators, and finance teams work more efficiently while supporting compliance and focusing on higher-value work.

  • AI-assisted approval manager transforms the task of reviewing expense reports by highlighting high-risk submissions with clear AI reasoning and surfacing AI-generated risk insights, spending trends, and approval history all in one place. Approvers can make faster, more informed decisions while improving compliance, reducing manual review time, and strengthening financial oversight. AI-assisted approval manager is available now for early adopter customers, with general availability planned for Q4 2026.
  • Enhanced admin control helps travel managers improve compliance with new AI-powered benchmarking and policy configuration capabilities. Administrators can compare program performance against similar organisations, identify improvement opportunities, and receive recommended actions. They can also upload policy documents, and AI will identify gaps between documented policies and system configurations, helping them keep programs optimised and compliant. Enhanced admin control is available now for early adopter customers, with general availability planned for Q1 2027.
  • AI-assisted corporate card management simplifies how virtual payment card programs are created and managed. Administrators can generate virtual card programs directly from policy documents, use natural language prompts to create approval rules, and align virtual cards to spending limits and merchant category controls from the start. Employees can request and update virtual cards via text message, improving convenience and helping organisations reduce administrative effort while strengthening spend controls and compliance. AI-assisted corporate card management will soon be available for early adopter customers and is planned to become generally available in Q4 2026 to Concur Expense customers using virtual cards with participating issuers on the Mastercard network.

Together, these innovations reflect the SAP Concur vision for a more intelligent, connected T&E experience that brings planning, spending, approvals, compliance, and traveller support into one unified workflow.

Planning and managing meetings with AI

Planning a corporate meeting has traditionally meant juggling multiple systems and disconnected processes to coordinate attendees, compare destinations, and manage hotel room blocks across separate tools.

The newly enhanced Meeting Planning Agent streamlines that process. Through a simple conversation with SAP’s AI solution Joule, the agent provides recommendations for meetings of any size based on an organisation’s needs. It also helps organisers avoid price spikes and availability issues before they become a problem by flagging major events in the selected location on the selected dates before organisers finalise a destination. Additionally, the agent can now bring Groupize hotel room block proposals directly into SAP Concur solutions, eliminating the need to track group accommodations in a separate system. As a result, organisers can move from idea to execution faster while improving visibility into meeting-related travel spend.

Meeting Planning Agent will be available for early adopter customers in September, with general availability planned for Q4 2026.

New innovations from SAP Concur and Amex GBT strategic alliance

When SAP Concur and American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) announced their strategic alliance in 2025, the vision was to create a more connected travel experience by bringing together travel, expense, servicing, and marketplace capabilities.

At GBTA Convention 2026, the two companies introduced a new set of innovations for Complete by SAP Concur and Amex GBT that builds on that vision, helping travellers navigate disruptions more easily, giving travel managers greater visibility into program performance, and making it easier for organisations to capture more value from their travel investments.

  • Leakage reporting gives travel managers a more comprehensive view of bookings and spend by combining data from Concur Travel and Amex GBT, including offline bookings. The solution provides visibility into total travel spend, including bookings made outside the managed travel program, with breakdowns by line of business, travel category, vendor, and traveller. Because off-channel bookings can reduce visibility into traveller safety, compliance, and supplier management, these insights help organisations strengthen duty of care, improve policy compliance and cost control, gain a clearer view of travel volumes to support supplier negotiations, and make more informed decisions about their travel programs.
  • Perks, which includes supplier offers and loyalty benefits displayed at point of sale, helps organisations increase the value of their travel programs and the benefits delivered to travellers. Special TMC content, extras, corporate contract benefits, and traveller loyalty status entitlements will be directly visible to travellers in the booking experience, removing manual effort and the burden of comparing sites. These enhancements will improve the traveller experience and provide access to special rewards and amenities while increasing in-channel adoption and reducing out-of-program spend.
  • Travel disruption management is brought into a single in-app experience, with notifications, guidance, support, and self-service trip changes accessible in one place. Travellers can quickly understand what’s happening, adjust plans, and access live chat when they need it. By centralising disruption management within Complete, organisations can help travellers stay informed, productive, and focused when plans change.

Leakage reporting on the travel manager homepage and travel disruption management are available now for early adopter customers, with general availability planned by Q1 2027. This month, supplier offers in Perks are generally available, as are benefits in Perks for early adopters. General availability planned for Q4 2026.

Looking ahead

As AI reshapes business travel and expense management, SAP Concur continues to build on three decades of AI innovation, trusted T&E data, an understanding of complex workflow context, and its ecosystem of partners to deliver the next generation of T&E management. SAP ranked #1 for Worldwide Travel and Expense Management Software, with 48.1 per cent market share in 2025.¹

These announcements represent an important milestone in the SAP Concur vision for autonomous, intelligent travel and expense management, where routine work is automated, decisions are supported by data-driven insights, and organisations gain greater visibility and control over every dollar spent and every trip taken.

Explore the latest T&E innovations at concur.com.

¹ IDC, Market Share: Worldwide Travel and Expense Management Software Shares, 2025: Cloud Migration and Policy Automation Reshape T&E Vendor Positioning, doc #US53451526, July 2026.

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Smart Brands Prepare for Black Friday in August Before Ad Costs Climb 18% and Competition Jumps 40%

Source: Billo

Data from marketing platform Billo dated June to December 2025 shows Meta ad competition rose 40% between August and the November peak. Billo, which connects brands with creators to produce social video ads, says the brands that win Black Friday test their creative already in August

August 19, 2026. New Billo data shows Meta ad competition rising about 40% and the cost to reach 1,000 impressions climbing roughly 18% between August and the November Black Friday peak. Brands that wait until fall to plan their campaigns enter an auction that is already crowded and expensive, with the outcome largely shaped by creative built weeks earlier. Black Friday and Cyber Monday together make up the single largest ecommerce advertising event of the year, and the brands that prepare earliest tend to capture a disproportionate share of that spending.

Billo, which connects brands with creators to produce social video ads for platforms including TikTok, Meta and YouTube, has tracked the same pattern in its own client data. Donatas Smailys, co-founder and CEO of Billo, said brands that enter Black Friday without tested creative end up paying more for weaker results, regardless of how much they spend.

“Everyone treats Black Friday as a fourth-quarter problem, so everyone ends up competing for the same ad space at the same time,” Smailys said. “Brands that create their ads early and test them in August get better results than brands that wait until October or November. By the time November comes, the brands that tested early already know what works, while the brands that waited are launching untested ads during the most expensive weeks of the year.”

Why August Is the Right Time to Start

September and October are when brands learn which ads actually convert, and that testing takes weeks. August gives brands exactly enough time to brief creators, film several options, and get results back before Black Friday begins.

“You don't need a media budget to find out if an ad works,” Smailys said. “In August, we tell our clients to post a few short variants organically, each with a different hook and a different creator. A small, specific audience responds within days, and that tells you which version actually lands. The trick is picking the right audience for that test: people who already care about the product. Once you know what they respond to, you know exactly what to put the budget behind in November.”

Brands that follow this approach typically produce three to five short variants per product, each testing a different angle: a different opening line, a different creator, or a different pain point. The variants that perform best organically become the ads brands scale with paid budget once Q4 begins.

Methodology

Figures are based on Billo client Meta ad data, tracked monthly from June through December 2025. Comparisons reflect August 2025 against the November 2025 peak, and where noted, December. Cost per 1,000 impressions reached is a derived figure, calculated as total spend divided by total impressions, multiplied by 1,000; it is not a reported column in the underlying data.

About Billo

Billo is the leading UGC marketplace founded in 2019 that connects brands with creators to produce high-performing social video ads. It is based in Lithuania, built for US needs, and led by co-founder and CEO Donatas Smailys. The platform combines the power of UGC content with a streamlined production process, helping brands increase brand awareness, drive traffic, and boost conversions with authentic creator videos on TikTok, Meta, YouTube, and other platforms.

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Greenpeace – Interference in Smith v Fonterra shows sinister side of polluters’ influence on politics

Source: Greenpeace

Greenpeace says that a retrospective law change, which makes it illegal to sue climate polluters over the damages caused by climate change, is yet more evidence of corporate capture within the Coalition Government.

The Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill, which passed its third reading in Parliament yesterday, prohibits New Zealanders from suing businesses over the impacts of their climate pollution. The law was primarily designed to prevent the Smith v Fonterra case spearheaded by Māori activist Mike Smith.

Greenpeace Programme Director Niamh O’Flynn says, “The Coalition Government passing this Bill at the bidding of corporations shows the sinister side of the influence of polluters on politics. Instead of standing for the interests of New Zealanders, this Government has stepped in to prevent some of New Zealand’s worst polluters from being held accountable for their climate destruction.”

“This abuse of power – a law change made at the request of Fonterra and Z Energy – is yet more evidence that this Government is little more than a puppet for polluting corporations and industries.

“Big polluters – like Fonterra and the oil and gas industry – are profiting from the climate crisis, but the rest of us are paying the price, from skyrocketing insurance premiums to the enormous cost of rebuilding roads, bridges and other infrastructure after climate disasters.”

In May, it was revealed that secret lobbying by Fonterra and Z Energy – including a briefing sent to the personal email of the Prime Minister’s Chief Policy Advisor – had led to the creation of the Bill. O’Flynn says this is just one example in a broader pattern.

“This Government has allowed corporate polluters to write the policy on everything from fresh water to climate change. Now, they’re attempting to take away our avenues to challenge those polluters. But we will continue to resist.

“In 2013, the National Government passed the Anadarko Amendment at the bidding of international oil giants, to prevent New Zealanders from confronting climate villains. Despite this, our movement (with Mike at the forefront) continued to kick them out one-by-one. Mike’s case may be on ice, but he and the thousands of New Zealanders taking action for climate change will keep fighting this war on nature.

“If this Government thinks that by preventing civil lawsuits against polluters, they’re stopping us from taking action, then they’ve got another thing coming. We will continue to fight for our kids’ and grandkids’ future.”