If tourism is producing massive income for New Zealand why are John Key and Bill English putting it in their “back pockets” and distributing just a few “coins” to the real earners?
“That’s exactly what they did this year by giving local councils just a paltry total of $12 million funding over four years to support their infrastructure costs,” says New Zealand First Leader and Northland MP Rt Hon Winston Peters.
“Meanwhile, the government has collected GST from international tourism of $1.1 billion.
“The government is out of touch with the burden put on ratepayers. In small town NZ tourist coaches, rental cars and campervans are parked up at the toilet blocks where they don’t pay a cent, and too few spend in the town on food and drinks.
“Tekapo has an $800,000 cost for its toilet project, Hot Water Beach at Hahei used paid parking to fund toilets and Kaikoura is now wondering how to pay for toilets near the popular seal pup waterfall north of the town.
“Last year, a local government working group revealed that they spent $140 million on the tourism industry mostly in funding promotions, events and I-Site visitor centres. That excluded toilets, sewerage costs, extra water costs and bylaw enforcements.
“Why isn’t a slice of the government’s take being diverted to communities to help pay for infrastructure that support tourism?” says Mr Peters.
“A Lincoln University study estimated that in 2015 councils spent $37.90 per head of population on the tourism industry, that rose to $59.60 per head in areas with less than 10,000 people and in some councils, such as Mackenzie and Waitaki, it was over $80 a head.”
A New Zealand First release
As questions mount over the Air Force’s Boeing 757’s being used as the Prime Minister’s private jet, New Zealand First can reveal that the government ignored 2010 advice to sell them.
“At $31,000 an hour to fly, the Prime Minister’s luxury fleet of Boeing 757’s were deemed poor Value For Money in a 2010 high-level report,” says New Zealand First Deputy Leader and Defence Spokesperson Ron Mark.
“Strangely, the recommendation to sell the 757’s and charter Air New Zealand instead, were one of the few recommendations not adopted from the Defence razor gang led by Dr Sir Roderick Deane and Pacific Road Corporate Finance.
“In 2010, Sir Roderick concluded: “In terms of reduced operating costs for NZDF, the sale of the [Boeing 757] aircraft and the acquisition of certain Strategic and VIP Transport services from the likes of Air New Zealand would deliver the greatest VFM [value for money]”.
“Air New Zealand was even sounded out because they said that they’d be able to: ‘meet all NZDF's needs with the possible exception of certain freight services, flights to and from the Antarctic Continent and flying in or close to hostile environments’.
“These impediments are easily solved because the Hercules can fly to the Ice, we can buy space on larger allied aircraft while specialist charters can be used for ‘hostile environments’.
“So why did National disastrously ‘civilianise’ swathes of the Defence Force and even axe territorial bands but refused to part company with their precious Boeing 757’s? These aircraft cost $31,000 an hour to fly in 2010 at 700 annual flight hours but given the current annual average of 571 hours will be costing us a lot more.
“This 2010 report reinforces New Zealand First’s point that VIP aircraft like the B757 are square pegs in the Defence Force’s round hole. The opportunity cost for each VIP aircraft is a new C130-J Hercules type aircraft and New Zealand First knows which one we’d prefer in RNZAF colours,” says Mr Mark.
Microsoft wrapped up its New York Windows 10 event a few hours ago and the two-hour keynote packed a lot of announcements about upcoming Windows 10 features, new Surface hardware and more. As usual, these kind of fast-paced events are a bit hard to digest and if you’re looking for a good summary of everything Microsoft unveiled today, the company just helped us by highlighting its top announcements from the conference.
Following the release of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update last summer, the next major Windows 10 release will be called the Creators Update and will be available as a free update in early 2017. While Windows Insiders already had a chance to test some new features and improvements in recent preview builds (codenamed “Redstone 2“), this upcoming Creators Update, as it names suggests, will turn the lights on designers, makers, and content creators. Expect to read a lot about 3D design, game streaming, and more in the coming days and weeks.
Microsoft wrapped up its New York Windows 10 event a few hours ago and the two-hour keynote packed a lot of announcements about upcoming Windows 10 features, new Surface hardware and more. As usual, these kind of fast-paced events are a bit hard to digest and if you’re looking for a good summary of everything Microsoft unveiled today, the company just helped us by highlighting its top announcements from the conference.
Following the release of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update last summer, the next major Windows 10 release will be called the Creators Update and will be available as a free update in early 2017. While Windows Insiders already had a chance to test some new features and improvements in recent preview builds (codenamed “Redstone 2“), this upcoming Creators Update, as it names suggests, will turn the lights on designers, makers, and content creators. Expect to read a lot about 3D design, game streaming, and more in the coming days and weeks.
Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Canadian technology start-up, Beagle, have today announced the launch of Beagle Asia Pacific Pty Ltd, a new entity established to provide practical and accessible artificial intelligence technology.
The 50:50 joint venture is set to revolutionise the way Australian and New Zealand companies are using AI technology, with Beagle’s TANR™ (Technology Assisted Narrative Review technology) and productivity tools, which can be used for automatic contract analysis, offering companies a scalable and affordable product unlike anything currently available on the market.
“This is an AI-based narrative review which gives clients the benefits of AI without having to commit to the expensive and lengthy process which is the current norm,” said Corrs Chambers Westgarth Partner James Whittaker.
“Up until this point, many companies have had to rule out using AI for contract analysis because they haven’t had the scale or the budget. Beagle’s software addresses this market gap and, rather than being confined to use within legal departments, it can create benefits right across the enterprise structure, from legal, to procurement, contract administration and management, risk, insurance, IT and IP,” added Whittaker.
Beagle’s TANR™ digests and identifies important elements within text at about one page per second, and then learns the culture-specific way that an entity manages those elements. The platform augments a user’s ability to make appropriate decisions and does so in a way that increases the uniformity of these decisions in accordance with the organisation’s policies and procedures.
“Instead of adopting the common reactive approach of other software platforms in the market which look at what a company has agreed to previously, this platform is focused on quickly learning what is needed by a company based on its own policies and culture, and then helping decision-makers stay within those boundaries,” said Beagle Founder and Top Dog, Cian O’Sullivan.
“This approach drastically improves corporate compliance and provides exceptional transparency, in fractions of the time currently invested,” concluded O’Sullivan.
The product is being introduced to the market as a pilot program for a select number of Corrs’ clients, though the platform will ultimately be available to all of Corrs clients and non-clients throughout Australia and New Zealand.
The Beagle JV is both Beagle and Corrs’ first joint venture and reflects Corrs’ strategy to embrace technology and pioneer new ways of adding value.
“At Corrs, we recognise the continued and increasing importance that technology is playing throughout the business landscape – both in legal departments and more broadly. Our aim is to be at the forefront of these changes, to catalyse them. The key to ensuring we thrive in the shifting delivery of legal services is to ensure our innovations deliver value to the market. At times, this extends beyond our immediate client base, and our joint venture with Beagle is a great example of this,” said Corrs Partner and CEO John W.H. Denton.
Founded in Canada in 2014, Beagle is already gaining significant traction, with German automaker Volkswagen (VW AG) deploying Beagle’s technology to assist in all car part procurement decisions for its entire family of companies and brands.
Beagle was one of 14 recipients of Microsoft Ventures’ 2015 Seattle-based Accelerator Program, a graduate of the prestigious Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto) Creative Destruction Lab, and one of the recipients of the Canadian Innovation Exchange top 20 most innovative companies of 2015 (CIX Top 20 2015). Beagle’s founder, Cian O’Sullivan, is a fellow of CodeX, the Stanford Center for Legal Informatics.
BISON, the specialist developer of portable container weighing solutions, today announced the launch of a world first system for weighing containers on trailer chassis.
The new container weigh system is a timely innovation, with recent amendments to the SOLAS convention forcing shippers around the world to verify the weight of every export container with certified weighing equipment or processes. The SOLAS rule change has added cost and complexity to container shipping operations, with many shippers having to adopt inefficient or poorly timed weighing processes, such as hauling containers extra distances to offsite weighbridges or weighing every single cargo item before it is loaded into the container.
"BISON C-Legs solve this problem," says BISON CTO, Dr Mark Fahey. "They equip shippers to accurately weigh containers on chassis in any location, without reliance on capital-intensive weighbridges, cranes and container handlers, which are not always available at the right time or in the right place."
BISON C-Legs are self-contained scales that attach to and lift a container just clear of the chassis, then transmit the gross container weight via Bluetooth to a feature rich smart phone App. The App confirms the container’s weight distribution, captures photos and shipment details and sends weight certificates and related data via email.
Targeted at exporters and logistics companies needing to weigh containers outside of ports and other high volume container hubs, BISON C-Legs provide a flexible solution for SOLAS VGM compliance and allow shippers to optimize cargo loads, manage container weight limits and weigh containerized cargo for trading purposes.
C-Legs are compatible with shipping containers of all types and sizes up to 35,000kg and work with both air and spring suspension chassis. Full OIML certification and type approvals in Europe, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and other countries will be completed by the end of 2016.
BISON C-Legs build on the success of BISON’s pioneering C-Jacks, the portable system for weighing grounded shipping containers. BISON CEO, Mr Greg Fahey remarks:
"Our ground based container scales have sold well this year and are now being used in over 20 countries to produce SOLAS VGM certificates. However we’ve had strong pull for a similar solution to weigh containers on chassis, especially from Europe and North America where chassis based loading is mainstream. C-Legs really are a market led innovation."
BISON will mark the C-Leg launch, plus the opening of a new sales office in Europe, by showcasing its weighing hardware and data management systems at the Intermodal Europe exhibition in Rotterdam in mid-November. The BISON team will be based at stand 74. BISON CTO, Dr Mark Fahey, will give a presentation at the conference, talking about the benefits of verifying container weights before they enter the logistics chain.
Product innovation is critically important for business because it’s one of the keys to unlocking growth, says Mondelez International’s New Zealand Country Head James Kane.
Speaking in a NZ Food and Grocery Council Leaders Series video interview, he says innovation was critical to staying ahead of the competition.
“We know as a business we have the ingredients in people and brands and broad portfolio to be successful, but innovation really gives us another platform to genuinely grow the category.
“The approach we take is to try and leverage the growth of our global network for innovation but also to take the best of local where we can as well.”
He says the best recent example of local product innovation was the Jaffa block, which Cadbury developed last year after asking Kiwis via a social media campaign what they were looking for. The block “struck a chord” with consumers and sold more units than any other block.
Another example of innovation was taking a global product and developing it for New Zealand tastes. Consumers told them they wanted higher cocoa content so they developed Cadbury Cocoa, which “was a great example of taking a global product but localising it by bringing it to the New Zealand marketplace”.He says innovation is going to continue to be a massive focus for Mondelez.
FGC Chief Executive Katherine Rich says innovation is one of the main ingredients that keeps business growing, be it domestically or in export markets.
“The old saying ‘innovate or die’ has never been more accurate than in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace.”
A London reader revisits the genesis of middle class fashionable discontent
I have followed the MoW revisited discussion from afar and with great curiosity. I would like to add now my recollections. In my view the original reason for what can only be described as the diabolical aura that attached itself to the old Ministry of Works was the Wellington urban motorway (pictured) which necessarily tore a swath through the capital’s main student flatting area in Thorndon. This precipitated Wellington’s accommodation shortage which exists to this day.
The resentment that this detonated was not immediately evident and the Ministry of Works was allowed to work its way without let or hindrance up the Waitaki with its series of hydro-electric generation dams which remain masterpieces by any standard..
Utah Williamson Burnett was allowed also at this time to peacefully proceed with the Manapouri hydro electric project, another masterpiece if ever there was one.
It was now though that in the early 1970s the dam of public anger broke and its ostensible cause was the raising of Lake Manapouri in order to derive the greatest value from the immense investment in the project by the now also extinct New Zealand Electricity Department.
This middle class revolt was centred in Wellington and encased in its wrath were perpetrators of any large scale civil engineering project of any description.
The righteous fury of the Manapouri protest fed on itself in a compounding manner. Only Prime Minister Robert Muldoon’s determination and political boondoggling ensured that the Cromwell project went through. This ensured that New Zealand’s proportion of renewable, yes “renewable” energy was in place to act as shock absorber for the various power crises experienced by the rest of the world.
In Wellington recently I noticed with appreciation the engraved plaque from IPENZ on the Thorndon stretch commemorating the Ministry of Works construction of the urban motorway.
But I fear that it was this stretch of the motorway that sowed the whirlwind of active discontent that still plagues, and often freezes, the nation’s large scale/large benefit civil engineering construction projects.
SincerelyCharles LautenbachLondon
TOKYO -- "The wound is the place where the light enters you." These words of the 13th century Persian poet Rumi sang in my head as I examined a simple, ceramic bowl in a tiny cafe in a western suburb of Tokyo. The bowl had been elevated to a luminous, compelling objet d'art, by the gold-filled cobweb of cracks snaking across it.
Light had indeed entered this bowl along the lines where it had once shattered, thanks to the particular Japanese art of repairing ceramics called kintsugi. The technique uses the sap of the urushi tree, a powerful natural adhesive, mixed with powdered gold.
Unlike other methods of repair like welding or gluing, kintsugi's power lies in its refusal to disguise the brokenness of an object. It does not aim to make what is broken as good as new, but to use the cracks to transform the object into something different, and arguably even more valuable.
Kunio Nakamura demonstrates the kintsugi technique. (Photo by Pallavi Aiyar)Kintsugi (kin means gold and tsugi means to join) is not just a practical craft, although it undoubtedly prolongs the utility of things. It is also a philosophy that speaks to the human condition. As with much of Japanese aesthetics it is steeped in philosophical concepts rooted in Zen Buddhism.
One of these is wabi-sabi, an aesthetic ideal that emerged in the 15th century as a reaction to the contemporary preference for ornate designs and rich materials.
Foreign Minister Murray McCully today announced the appointment of diplomat Michael Burrell as High Commissioner to South Africa.
"New Zealand is placing increasing priority on our relations with Africa," Mr McCully says.
"Our relationship with South Africa is based on our shared Commonwealth history, respect for democracy, strong links between our people, and close sporting ties.
“We are also continuing to grow our trade and investment links, and a significant aspect of the High Commissioner’s role is to support New Zealand business develop export markets in South Africa.”
Mr Burrell is currently the Director Sustainable Economic Development at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and before that was CEO of Aquaculture New Zealand.
Mr Burrell will also be accredited to Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, Angola, Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania.
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242