In the Pipeline

Minimum Redundancy Payouts
Somewhat unexpectedly, the Employment Relations (Minimum Redundancy Entitlements) Amendment Bill has been drawn from the ballot for debate in Parliament.

The provisions of the Bill are based on the recommendations of the Public Advisory Group on Restructuring and Redundancy and propose the introduction of a statutory entitlement to redundancy compensation and minimum notice of redundancy termination for redundancy to affected employees. For more information, refer to our Sept-Oct journal or log on as a member.

Limitation Bill

This bill will replace the Limitation Act 1950.

Its intention is to encourage claimants to make claims without undue delay, and protect defendants from the unjust pursuit of stale claims.

Submissions closed 4 September and the report is due on 4th February 2010.

For the text of the Bill, click here

Student Loan Scheme

Submissions for the Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill close on Friday, 2nd October 2009.

This bill amends the Student Loan Scheme Act 1992 by extending interest-free loans.

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INTEREST RATES UPDATE

Dr Bollard has indicated that the OCR could still move modestly lower over the coming quarters. "We continue to expect to keep the OCR at or below the current level through until the latter part of 2010.” he said.

In our view, it is unlikely that we shall be seeing another fall in the OCR in the short term wiith the improved levels of confidence that we have been seeing. It is possible that banks will continue to increase mortgage rates and consideration should be given to locking in loans at existing rates.

On April 30 the Reserve Bank cut the Official Cash Rate (OCR) 50 basis points bringing the rate down to 2.5%. This is how we stack up internationally:

China	Australia	NZ	Europe	UK	USA	Japan
5.31%	3%	2.5%	1.00%	0.5%	0.3%	0.1%

The Reserve Bank has dropped the rate progressively from 8.5% in July of last year and the rate is the lowest it has been since it was first introduced.

For more information, refer to the following links: