Fraud allegations against lawyer kept secret, Shewan's review: whitewash or double bluff? Xero cans revealing quarterly reports

In NBR Print today: Auckland Council is no closer to unlocking the key to alternative financing, six months after paying $500,000 for two consultants’ reports. Councillors are concerned work on the consultants’ reports is not getting to the nub of the issue and are challenging staff to come up with a full and frank assessment of alternative financing and not excuses. Sally Lindsay reports.

Seldom has the appointment of a tax expert triggered such a political storm. Opposition parties claim former PwC chairman John Shewan has been appointed to do a quick whitewash job for the government on an inquiry into disclosure rules for offshore trusts registered here. Yet that appears too crude, too obvious. Rob Hosking has another theory.

Meanwhile, Tim Hunter probes the relationship John Key has with Lord Ashcroft and wonders what the former British MP would tell the prime minister about tax havens.

Until recently Xero’s [NZX: XRO] disclosure has been the exact opposite of zero disclosure. But as Jenny Ruth finds, a pattern of reducing disclosure appears to be developing, most lately seen in its decision to cease issuing quarterly cashflow reports.

A heavily anonymised series of judgments have revealed a husband and wife who arrived in New Zealand in 2006 with “substantial funds” have filed a lengthy and detailed claim against their former solicitor with allegations tantamount to fraud. Hamish McNicol reports.

Speculation is mounting the Reserve Bank will again surprise the market at its next meeting, Jason Walls reports.

Long-hoped for simplification of tax for small to medium-sized enterprises marks the formal start of the countdown to Budget 2016. At first glance, the package looks good, says Rob Hosking.

“Dead man walking” is how Chris Keall has typically described Sky Network TV [NZX: SKT]  over the past couple of years when people have enquired about its prospects in the age of Netflix. Now he thinks the company’s chances are a lot brighter. So what’s changed?

A former EU trade negotiator tells Nevil Gibson future free-trade agreements cannot be conducted in secrecy while praising New Zealand as the “poster child” for fair trade.

Former NBR political editor Ben Thomas returns to the print edition this week to pen a column on Nick Smith’s Kermadec Islands marine reserve plan. Matthew Hooton is away in London for two weeks.

It's still early days as far as Cavalier Corp’s [NZX: CAV] recovery goes but what the company has done so far seems to be working, Shoeshine writes.

Zespri’s “precautionary hold” on approximately 1.7 million trays of gold kiwifruit has served as a reminder of just how opaque the operations of the marketing and exporting monopsony can be, Nick Grant reports.

The headlines for the property companies reporting their annual results next month are going to look splendid, Jenny Ruth reports.

Five years ago, Chris Heaslip and Eliot Crowther wanted to make donating to their church as easy as it is to buy an iTunes song. Now, their respective share holdings in PushPay [NZX: PAY] put them firmly on the NBR Rich List radar. Campbell Gibson reports.

All this and more in today’s NBR Print Edition. Out now.

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