Sir Bob Jones takes on Europe, pressure on Cunliffe, Moller’s red flag, and taxman avoidance shift

Property giant Robt Jones Holdings is opening its inaugural European office and may extend into central Europe.

In today’s National Business Review print edition, property magnate and NBR Rich Lister Sir Bob Jones reveals the reasons behind the move, what it means for his Australian and New Zealand investments and how it will be funded.

Meanwhile, questions have been raised over whether Labour leader David Cunliffe’s wife, Karen Price, stands to gain if Labour wins power and enacts its climate change policies.

Ms Price comments on her one-third ownership of NZCX – a company which, in partnership with international firm ICAP, brokers carbon credits under the emissions trading scheme.

In other news, the Overseas Investment Office’s consideration of SkyCity’s controversial “convention centre for pokies” deal throws up a conflict involving chairman Chris Moller, over a traffic flyover near Wellington’s Basin Reserve.

Completing a triumvirate of conflict stories, chief reporter Duncan Bridgeman reveals NZX-listed Abano Healthcare is embroiled in a multimillion dollar lawsuit which questions the conduct of managing director Alan Clarke.

Economics editor Rob Hosking reports on Inland Revenue’s latest shift on anti-avoidance rules, moving them even further in favour of the taxman.

To the political hot potato of housing, columnist Jacqueline Rowarth questions whether a capital gains tax will help or hinder New Zealanders in their bid to achieve their house-buying dream.

Property editor Chris Hutching foreshadows a torrent of Chinese investment into markets around the world as a result of financial system reforms, including direct convertibility of the New Zealand and Chinese currencies.

Market watchers are also questioning whether Chinese buyers of several Auckland development sites are land bankers, or if they’ll go ahead with developments that could be worth $1 billion.

Major manuka honey player Manuka Health New Zealand continues to promote levels of “non-peroxide activity” despite a Commerce Commission warning last year over potentially misleading claims, primary industries reporter Jamie Ball reports.

Media reporter Victoria Young explains why state broadcaster TVNZ opposes parts of new health and safety laws.

Guest columnist Edward A Hudson delves into the lessons of history from government interference and what it means for pre-election talk of corporate welfare.

Meanwhile, Anderson Lloyd lawyer Jackie St John tells dairy farmers why they need to take note of a recent Environment Court enforcement order over effluent management.

In Business Traveller, editor-in-chief Nevil Gibson reveals the New Zealand expansion plans of two major cruise ship companies – P&O Cruises and Carnival New Zealand – which will feature larger and newer ships.

Executive Health has a must-read for coffee-addicts, as researchers explore the idea of using caffeine’s behaviour as a chemical chameleon inside the brain to protect people from neurodegenerative diseases.

Briefly:

• In Tray blows the lid off the Kim Dotcom-John Campbell cover-up, as its special three-year investigation asks: who were those unidentified men on the grassy knoll?
• Order Paper outlines how the government is quietly overturning assumptions about the welfare state.
• Columnist Neville Bennett says it’s time for the Treasury to move beyond its neo-classical economic paradigm, in relation to immigration.

All this and more in today’s National Business Review. Out now.