Alongside the use of materials made from rice husks in panelling and other construction materials, research suggests rice husk ash could provide an alternative to cement, which is responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions.

Around the world, other companies including Resysta in Germany and design firm Ricehouse in Italy are producing or using all kinds of construction materials, from decking to paint, made from rice husks. Modern Mill is even using it to make playgrounds.

Rice husks protect the precious grains from wind and rain, and their high silica content allows them to resist moisture and decay, meaning they naturally boast the same properties as many traditional construction materials. "The whole point of the rice husk is to protect the rice while it grows," Guimond says. "What is it protecting it from? Moisture, pests, rot, those types of things."

In addition to protecting against moisture, the high silica content means rice husks are surprisingly resilient to fire,

Just wanted to keep you across the news that Marriott International Inc. has signed agreements with CP Group, to bring three new hotels to New Zealand by 2029, adding 335 rooms to their portfolio in New Zealand and strengthening their growing presence in the region.


The agreement is expected to mark the country debut of flagship brand Marriott Hotels in Rotorua, as well as the debut of the Autograph Collection in Auckland and Wellington.

As part of the agreement:

• Rotorua Marriott Hotel will mark Marriott International’s entry in Rotorua as part of a conversion deal of the existing Arawa Park Hotel Rotorua, following a 12 month renovation slated to be completed in 2027.
• The Official Auckland, Autograph Collection is set to bring Marriott’s premium Autograph Collection brand to Auckland in 2028, marking the brand’s arrival in the city through the transformation of a historic building on Eden Crescent in Auckland’s central business district.
• Fable Wellington, Autograph Collection will bring the Autograph Collection brand to Wellington, anticipated to open in 2029, through the repurposing of the historic 1940s office building located on the corner of Lambton Quay and Stout Street.

Marriott currently operates two hotels in New Zealand; JW Marriott Auckland, and Four Points by Sheraton Auckland. Two new openings are expected in 2027, with Sheraton Christchurch and Moxy Auckland.

With the addition of the three CP Group hotels, Marriott is continuing to grow its presence across New Zealand, complementing its existing portfolio and pipeline of properties across the country and offering Marriott Bonvoy members more opportunities to earn and redeem points while exploring New Zealand.
Please see further details in the attached press release. Imagery is available here. Please let us know if we can assist with anything further.

Retirees could make their pension stretch thousands of pounds further by relocating overseas, according to new research from Cargo Force.

The study ranked 130 countries using factors including affordability, purchasing power, healthcare and quality of life to reveal the destinations offering the best overall value for retirement.

Malaysia tops the global rankings with an overall score of 8.51/10, thanks to its low cost of living, affordable housing and strong healthcare system. North Macedonia follows in second place at 8.23, while Japan(8.08 ), Vietnam (8.10), and India (8.05) complete the top five.

Although Malaysia claims the overall crown, India offers the greatest spending power of any country in the top 10, with the equivalent of £3,768 in local purchasing power for every £1000 spent in the UK. Vietnam also does well in this factor, with £1000 in the UK stretching to around £2,535 in Vietnam.

Japan boasts the highest life expectancy among the top-ranked destinations at 84.7 years, alongside one of the strongest healthcare systems on the list.

Despite scoring highly for healthcare (80) and life expectancy (81.3) , the UK ranks just 81st overall with a final score of 6.98. Higher day-to-day living costs mean retirees' money doesn't stretch as far, with countries such as India, Vietnam and Malaysia offering considerably greater purchasing power for the same retirement income.

The findings suggest that when Brits are looking for the best balance of affordability, healthcare and quality of life, they may benefit from looking beyond the traditional European retirement hotspots.

He said it was mostly property developments that went to mortgagee sales.

New Zealand heads toward the 2026 election facing three interconnected difficulties that are shaping voter sentiment: a deepening cost‑of‑living crisis, a perception of political instability within the governing coalition, and unresolved attacks on our constitutional integrity through co‑governance.

These pressures have been intensified by global events, particularly the conflict in the Middle East which Treasury warns could worsen inflation, slow growth, and push unemployment higher than previously forecast.

Get rid of the Maori seats. They have been a disaster particularly in the current term; their voter turnout is very poor. . Get rid of co-governance and other apartheid outlooks and from there, the economy will sort itself out eventually, as long as the left don’t get in next election. And yes, I am part Maori.

Auckland University’s Professor Elizabeth Rata, has long followed Maoridom’s “aggressive march through public institutions to co-governance” and her views on the matter are clear:

“The co-governance of New Zealand’s institutions, including parliament itself, by both a tribal entity and a democratic one is impossible. There is no ‘co’ in democratic governance.”

Yet in spite of ‘co-governance’ being illegitimate, it continues to exist.

Professor Rata explains, “In the 1990s, I developed the theory of neotribal capitalism to explain a phenomenon occurring in New Zealand’s version of identity politics. The phenomenon was the rapid emergence of the neotribal corporation. These economic entities gained their initial capital in the 1980s by claiming Treaty of Waitangi Settlements on behalf of all Maori. They have since become the political and ideological vehicle for co-governance demands. This poses a serious threat to nearly two centuries of democratic nation-building by both Maori and colonists.

“Those in charge of the neotribal corporations have grandiose ambitions. Not content with righting historical wrongs, their ambitions extend to acquiring both vast amounts of capital and political power … through ‘co-governance’.

“Neotribal capitalists are rent-seekers living off the profits of others’ investment and labour. Acquiring capital as a tribal entitlement by falsely claiming to be the inheritors of history, their main ambition is to acquire political power.”

A WAKE-UP CALL
By Dr Muriel Newman


New Zealanders are now confronting the most serious energy and fuel pressures in a generation.

Diesel prices have surged to record levels, truck stops in several regions have already run dry, and questions are increasingly being raised about whether national fuel supplies will hold.

Fertiliser importers are warning of tightening global markets, supply chains are under strain, and the latest price spikes are already feeding directly into the cost of living and inflation.

The Middle East crisis has not only disrupted global shipping routes and fuel flows; it has revealed just how dangerously exposed New Zealand has become.

Unlike many countries, we entered this crisis having deliberately dismantled our refining capacity, constrained our gas supply, and imposed ideologically driven climate policies that deliberately increased energy costs throughout the economy.

The end result is a country acutely vulnerable to global shocks.

With the consequences of governments prioritising climate activism over energy security now abundantly clear, the question that needs to be asked is whether New Zealand would be more resilient if we had not committed to the United Nations Paris Agreement.

The evidence strongly suggests we would.

To recap: the Paris Agreement sets New Zealand’s international climate commitments; the Zero Carbon Act converts them into domestic targets through five-year emissions budgets aimed at achieving net zero by 2050; and the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) puts a price on emissions of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in order to force the de-carbonisation of the energy sector through the phase out of fossil-fuelled thermal generation and the electrifying of transport and industrial heat.

New Zealand’s ETS is unusually broad based. While most countries only apply carbon pricing to large industrial emitters, our scheme was designed to cover the entire economy - driving up electricity prices, fuel prices, freight, manufacturing costs, food, and ultimately, household budgets.

By pricing CO₂ emissions from the gas and coal‑fired power stations needed to keep New Zealand’s lights on during dry years and periods with little sun or wind, the ETS guarantees that wholesale electricity prices will continue to rise - pushing up costs for households and businesses. And as more capital‑intensive wind and solar generation is added to the grid, the need for backup generation increases, driving electricity prices even higher.

With the Zero Carbon Act imposing legally binding emissions budgets that restrict economic activity regardless of market conditions or technological readiness, these two policies have created a cost structure that amplifies global shocks rather than cushioning them. Together they have driven the “de-industrialisation” of New Zealand – as energy‑intensive industries relocate offshore, pulp and paper mills close, and food processors scale back.

For exporters, the challenges are especially severe as they compete against producers in countries where carbon prices are lower, or non-existent, eroding competitiveness and squeezing margins.

The closure of the Marsden Point oil refinery in 2022 was the most consequential loss of all, leaving New Zealand totally dependent on imported refined fuels.

Marsden Point illustrates how the Ardern Government prioritised climate ideology and UN directives over energy security and the national interest.

Originally opened in 1962, the site near Whangarei was chosen for its deep‑water port, proximity to major North Island markets, and low earthquake risk. The “Think Big” expansion, completed in 1986, enabled the refinery to produce around 70 percent of New Zealand’s refined fuel needs from domestic and imported crude – including petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, kerosene, fuel oils, and bitumen.

When the Clark Labour Government ratified the UN’s Kyoto Protocol in 2003 and committed to reducing greenhouses gases, it entered into a 20-year Negotiated Greenhouse Agreement with the refinery. In exchange for an exemption from carbon charges, the refinery committed to an emissions-reduction pathway that included removing lead from petrol, supplying lower sulphur diesel, and reducing benzene in petrol.

As the Agreement’s expiry date approached and the refinery began negotiating its transition into the ETS, it became clear that significant carbon costs would be imposed.
With the Green Party Climate Minister James Shaw pushing to tighten industrial allocation rules, the Refining NZ Board warned that rising carbon charges would increase operating costs and threaten the refinery’s viability.

By 2020, the refinery was already under intense financial strain from collapsing global refining margins and rising domestic energy costs. Confidence in New Zealand’s long‑term energy security had been eroded by Jacinda Ardern’s “Captain’s Call” ban on offshore oil and gas exploration, and with the Zero Carbon Act signalling the wind‑down of fossil‑fuel infrastructure, Refining NZ advised the government that its climate policy settings had made ongoing refinery operations unsustainable.

When Cabinet rejected intervention on fuel‑security grounds, the refinery ceased operation, and in April 2022 converted into an import‑only terminal.

While the closure was described as a commercial decision, the destructive impact of the UN’s climate agenda is unmistakable: by facing rising carbon costs, tightening ETS settings, declining gas supplies, and a decarbonisation pathway that offered fossil‑fuel infrastructure no future, the policy environment made long‑term refining untenable.

The economic fallout from this radical climate ideology was not confined to Marsden Point.

With the Zero Carbon Act’s binding emissions budgets constraining investment and increasing compliance costs – and the ETS raising the price of fuel, freight, and production across the entire economy – the cumulative effect has undermined energy security in New Zealand and driven de‑industrialisation as energy‑intensive industries close or relocate offshore.

What’s even worse is that the architecture that underpins this destructive climate ideology, is fundamentally flawed.

Let me explain.

New research shows that plant absorption of CO₂ from the atmosphere has been significantly underestimated in the climate models that underpin international policy.

A 2024 study by Cornell University and Oak Ridge National Laboratory published in Nature, found that plants absorb 31 percent more CO₂ through photosynthesis than previously estimated – as this week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator, distinguished New Zealand Climate Researcher Dr Richard Reaney, explains:

“Every so often, science gets a reminder that the natural world doesn’t bend to our models. The recent findings from Oak Ridge National Laboratory are one of those reminders. For years, we were told that plants absorb a certain, tidy amount of CO₂. Now we learn that figure was off by a wide margin – about 30%. That’s not a rounding error. That’s a sign we’ve been working with an incomplete picture.

“For decades, global CO₂ absorption was estimated using indirect signals: satellite greenness, atmospheric readings, and scattered ground measurements. Useful tools, but hardly precise. The new research used carbonyl sulphide – a gas plants absorb during photosynthesis and never release. It’s a cleaner, more honest indicator of what’s actually happening. And once scientists measured it properly, the truth was obvious: Earth’s vegetation is pulling far more CO₂ out of the air than we gave it credit for.”

Dr Reaney describes his recent research trip into the heart of the Borneo rainforest to measure CO₂ levels throughout the day: “The rainforest was literally ‘hovering’ CO₂ out of the atmosphere at an increased photosynthetic rate… A stronger natural carbon sink means the planet is more resilient than we thought. But it also means our climate models – the ones used to guide policy, investment, and public messaging – were built on shaky foundations.”

And that’s the point: the climate policies embedded in our legislative and regulatory framework – that are causing untold damage to our economy and way of life – are based on inaccurate assumptions. There’s no other conclusion that can be reached.

But it gets worse. Not only are CO₂ emissions overstated, so too are agricultural emissions.

New Zealand’s latest Greenhouse Gas Inventory reports gross national emissions of 76.4 million tonnes of CO₂-equivalent, with agriculture accounting for 53 percent. Under the standard GWP100 metric used in Paris Agreement accounting – which measures how much heat a greenhouse gas traps over 100 years compared with CO₂ - methane produced by livestock digestion is treated as trapping around 28 times more heat.

However, because biogenic methane is short-lived, only remaining in the atmosphere for about 12 years, GWP100 significantly overstates its long-term warming impact. A more accurate metric GWP* has therefore been developed, which reduces the warming impact of stable livestock methane by roughly 75 percent – equivalent to a multiplier of four, instead of 28!

Applying both corrections – a 31 percent reduction in reported CO₂ and a 75 percent reduction in biogenic methane – New Zealand’s gross emissions would fall to around 40 million tonnes, and the need to de-industrialise our economy would disappear.

Instead of accounting for a miniscule 0.15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, New Zealand’s share would fall to an infinitesimal 0.07 percent.

On a per capita basis, New Zealand would shift from appearing to be a relatively high emitter of greenhouse gases to one of the world’s cleanest and greenest advanced economies. This corrected view would properly recognise our highly efficient pastoral farmers, who produce some of the lowest emissions per kilogram of milk and meat anywhere on the planet. It would highlight agriculture as a genuine national strength – demonstrating that we feed the world with unmatched efficiency - while maintaining one of the cleanest electricity systems amongst developed nations.

But here’s the catch. While New Zealand and others might lobby the UN to update Paris Agreement metrics and correct the data, there’s no guarantee they’ll agree. That means inflated targets will continue to dominate climate policy – undermining energy security and driving up costs across the economy – unless the Coalition acts decisively in the national interest.

To their credit, they’ve already been moving in this direction: In 2024, they reversed Labour’s plan to bring agriculture into the ETS, and in 2025, they tookon-farm emissions pricing “off the table” in recognition that future reductions will come from technology and productivity gains.

However, the on-going pressure on our economy from the ETS remains. By driving up wholesale power prices, increasing fuel and fertiliser costs, and contributing to the closure of energy-intensive industries – including Marsden Point – the ETS is undermining energy security at a time when we most need affordable, reliable energy to support industry and households. That’s why it must go.

China offers a practical model for how a major Paris Agreement party can pursue its national interests while remaining fully signed up. Beijing continues to build large-scale coal-fired power stations on the explicit grounds of energy security, grid stability to support intermittent renewables, and the need to sustain rapid economic and industrial growth. Its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) focus on carbon intensity and technology-led progress rather than absolute emission volumes.

If concerns that New Zealand exiting the Paris Agreement would compromise trade are genuine, we could follow China’s pragmatic path: remain a party to the Agreement, state our corrected figures, scrap the ETS, and submit a revised NDC that prioritises energy security, food security, and economic growth while pursuing lower emissions through technology and efficiency.

Such a move would demonstrate the Coalition is prioritising the national interest – just as our largest trading partner already does.

Finally, if Jacinda Ardern had put the national interest ahead of climate ideology and allowed the refinery’s exemption from carbon charges to continue, it’s possible it would still be operating today. If that were the case, New Zealand would have the added security of at least 350 million litres of stable crude oil stored in tanks that are currently sitting empty – on top of the present holding of 300 million litres of refined fuel, with its relatively short shelf life of 6 months for petrol, 6 to 12 months for diesel, and 12 to 24 months for jet fuel.

The current global fuel crisis should be a wake‑up call. New Zealand cannot afford to repeat the mistakes that have left us exposed: dismantling critical infrastructure, constraining domestic energy supply, and subordinating national security to international climate orthodoxy. Energy security is not optional. It’s the foundation of economic strength, social stability, and national resilience. If we are to protect our industries, our households, and our sovereignty, future governments must put fuel and energy security first — unequivocally and unapologetically — in the national interest.

Around 2018, New Zealand became known as a destination for tech billionaires said to be building “doom-prep” bunkers. The country, which has a population of 5 million on two islands, is seen as a safe haven due to its distance from the rest of the world.

Now it’s become a magnet for a larger group of Americans, many of them venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and investment advisers drawn to the country’s vibrant startup community. Adding fuel to the fire is a recent shift in New Zealand’s visa policies, which makes it easier for wealthy foreigners to buy homes in the country.

Kelly McGonigle Squier, 41, co-founder of the nonprofit Ladies Who Launch, and her husband, early-stage investor Trevor Squier, 42, are about to put an offer of roughly $2.5 million on a bungalow in Auckland’s Grey Lynn neighborhood.

They are planning to bring their parents with them when they relocate from Seattle to New Zealand. Because Kelly and Trevor have permanent New Zealand residency, their parents will be able to get visas, as long as they meet certain requirements.

The Squiers plan to buy land to put up two modular houses for their parents, who they say are all enthusiastically on board.

For New Zealand, attracting investment and expertise for its startups is seen as key to increasing growth and exports. Its economy has sputtered in recent years, with tens of thousands of Kiwis leaving the country.

“We are a little bit short of capital, which is why we love our American friends,” New Zealand’s outgoing Attorney-General Judith Collins said at a January dinner that included about 30 American tech-industry players.

U.S. investors bring in expertise and connections, New Zealand Minister of Immigration Erica Stanford said in an interview. “The caliber of the Americans applying has been absolutely outstanding.”

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Latest data from realestate.co.nz shows that more than $40 million was trimmed from property asking prices across New Zealand in the last quarter of 2025.
In a shift that may signal improving market conditions, the total amount that dropped out of the market was $14 million less than the $55 million slashed in Q4 of 2024.
Key findings from the data show:

• 1,374 listings recorded a price drop in Q4 2025, the lowest number in two years
• Nationally, vendors who reduced their asking prices in Q4 2025 took an average of $30,065 off each listing.
• $41,309,345 million was the total value of price reductions, the lowest total price drop in a quarter since we started tracking this data two years ago
• Stable OCR could be first sign of a property market recovery in 2026

Vanessa Williams, spokesperson for realestate.co.nz, says the latest figures could be an early indicator that the market is beginning to swing in a different direction.
"The significant amounts we saw slashed from the market in the earlier quarters of 2025 certainly hasn't continued, which is a sign confidence is slowly returning to the market," says Williams. "The stability of the OCR in this week's announcement should also be an encouraging sign that the market may not be too far away from hitting its stride in 2026."

Avant Homes said its houses were energy efficient and built to National House Building Council (NHBC) standards on thermal performance.

"For 10 months, I was left with water pooling in and dripping all the way through the frames, all the way along to my bed, and at 05:00 when there was a thunderstorm having to put towels down and trying to stop the water going down to the rooms below.

"My floorboards are lifting and bowing and they will never be the same again."

Sispal said his main problem was the cold - with heat escaping quickly from the house.

"Through the day when I'm working in my office, the floor is cold as if it's wet. It's freezing cold in the whole house.

"Ultimately, because my health worsened, I had to leave the property over winter and I've had to do that two years in a row and stay with my parents while still being on hook to pay all the bills, council tax and mortgage."