Wellington Institute of Technology (WelTec) engineering and ICT degree, diploma and graduate diploma students are gearing up to exhibit their leading edge projects undertaken in conjunction with industry. The event is being held at WelTec’s Petone campus from 5pm on 10 November.
One graduating student is young engineer Adam Webber who will be showcasing his work which could greatly enhance how concrete buildings are constructed. Adam is nearing completion of a Bachelor of Engineering Technology degree at WelTec and has already been employed by Don Thomson Consulting Engineers Ltd.
Adam’s final year project has been selected for the WelTec Engineering and Technology Showcase on 10 November. The project involved completing a new plan for the installation of concrete formwork at a water pump station in Ōtaki for local civil contracting company Juno Civil Ltd. The new design involves less materials and is code-compliant which were the parameters set by the client. Adam has taken the project one step further and is now investigating a modular formwork system that can be reused many times. This system would be able to be put together to create a wall form of varying sizes and would easily be assembled, disassembled, transportable and durable as well as cost efficient.
WelTec’s Head of Engineering Graham Carson says, “WelTec is proud to support our students with this showcase event which demonstrates to industry, the public and secondary school students how engineering and ICT can be applied in everyday settings and really make a contribution to industry and advancing thinking and practice, and that there are really exciting careers in these industries.
“We are incredibly excited about the students exhibiting this year. The engineering projects cover a range of areas including CNC profiled Plywood for medium density housing which has the potential to significantly reduce the cost of constructing dwellings to an environmental solution for capturing rain water and hydraulic modelling of a bio retention device plus much more,” says Graham Carson.
In the ICT field there are projects that investigate the presence of malicious software, new forensics software, a mobile app using smart phones that enables users to view profiles of influential business leaders, a Bluetooth app that allows tourists and trampers to send and receive information while in remote areas of New Zealand, a centralised cloud based scheduling system allowing potential clients to book professional services such as gym sessions and medical appointments, and an “En Route Social Travel App” which allows users to create and share trips with families and friends. There is also an impressive new app - the “Finder Android” - a tool which locates your Android mobile phone using GPS technology plus many more projects that our ICT students have completed this year.
A Weltec release
Bank officials proclaim themselves “stoked” by disappearance of depositor protection.
In a remarkable display of modern financial marketing presentation techniques the cancellation of Kiwbank’s deposit guarantee is being portrayed as an advantage for........Kiwibank’s depositors.
The 14 year old deposit insurance scheme will disappear on February 28 next year.
The deposit guarantee was always an important selling proposition for Kiwibank. The reason is that other New Zealand bank deposits are not guaranteed by anyone and certainly not the government.
Kiwibank marketeers are slickly presenting the pending disappearance of the bank deposit guarantee as an example of the bank maturing and generally coming of age.“This reflects how far Kiwibank has come.......We are now a successful and profitable bank...so a guarantee to give customers confidence in a brand new bank is no longer needed.”
The grounds for seeking to convert what is in customer terms is a negative into giving the appearance of a full-fledged advantage attribute is based on the investment in the bank by the New Zealand Super Fund and Accident Compensation Corporation.
“It means the profits Kiwibank delivers will continue to stay in New Zealand directly benefitting all Kiwis.”
Exulting in this somewhat nebulous benefit the letter to depositors (pictured) devolves into street-language in order to express the full measure of its own enthusiasm for the disappearance of the deposit guarantee scheme. “....So we are absolutely stoked,” declares in his letter to depositors Mark Wilkshire the Kiwibank marketing head.
In the event the investment in the publicly-owned bank has merely diversified. The underpinning is now spread around additional public bodies in the form of the Super Fund and Accident Compensation.
It is not immediately apparent how this public risk-spread will reinforce the retention of profits within New Zealand.
The deftly presented transformation of a marketing drawback, the withdrawal of the guarantee, into a customer benefit underlines though the continuing and misplaced belief that all bank deposits in New Zealand are somehow guaranteed. This continues in spite of assertions, notably from the Reserve Bank, that no guarantee exists.
However the government-sponsored and multi-faceted and attenuated bailing out of the BNZ after the 1987 bust greatly contributed to reinforcing this misapprehension to the effect that all banks, notably the trading banks are covered by a guarantee.
In the event, the publicly-owned Kiwibank was the exception in that its deposits were, and until February 28 will continue to be, underwritten by the state.
From the MSCNewsWire reporters desk - Monday 7 November 2016
Bank officials proclaim themselves “stoked” by disappearance of depositor protection.
In a remarkable display of modern financial marketing presentation techniques the cancellation of Kiwbank’s deposit guarantee is being portrayed as an advantage for........Kiwibank’s depositors.
The 14 year old deposit insurance scheme will disappear on February 28 next year.
The deposit guarantee was always an important selling proposition for Kiwibank. The reason is that other New Zealand bank deposits are not guaranteed by anyone and certainly not the government.
Kiwibank marketeers are slickly presenting the pending disappearance of the bank deposit guarantee as an example of the bank maturing and generally coming of age.“This reflects how far Kiwibank has come.......We are now a successful and profitable bank...so a guarantee to give customers confidence in a brand new bank is no longer needed.”
The grounds for seeking to convert what is in customer terms is a negative into giving the appearance of a full-fledged advantage attribute is based on the investment in the bank by the New Zealand Super Fund and Accident Compensation Corporation.
“It means the profits Kiwibank delivers will continue to stay in New Zealand directly benefitting all Kiwis.”
Exulting in this somewhat nebulous benefit the letter to depositors (pictured) devolves into street-language in order to express the full measure of its own enthusiasm for the disappearance of the deposit guarantee scheme. “....So we are absolutely stoked,” declares in his letter to depositors Mark Wilkshire the Kiwibank marketing head.
In the event the investment in the publicly-owned bank has merely diversified. The underpinning is now spread around additional public bodies in the form of the Super Fund and Accident Compensation.
It is not immediately apparent how this public risk-spread will reinforce the retention of profits within New Zealand.
The deftly presented transformation of a marketing drawback, the withdrawal of the guarantee, into a customer benefit underlines though the continuing and misplaced belief that all bank deposits in New Zealand are somehow guaranteed. This continues in spite of assertions, notably from the Reserve Bank, that no guarantee exists.
However the government-sponsored and multi-faceted and attenuated bailing out of the BNZ after the 1987 bust greatly contributed to reinforcing this misapprehension to the effect that all banks, notably the trading banks are covered by a guarantee.
In the event, the publicly-owned Kiwibank was the exception in that its deposits were, and until February 28 will continue to be, underwritten by the state.
From the MSCNewsWire reporters desk - Monday 7 November 2016
The latest New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA) Survey of Business Conditions completed during October 2016, shows total sales in September 2016 decreased 6.72% (year on year export sales decreased by 11.72% with domestic sales increasing by 17.12%) on September 2015.
In the 3 months to September, export sales decreased an average of 7.0%, and domestic sales increased 5.2% on average.
The NZMEA survey sample this month covered NZ$276m in annualised sales, with an export content of 78%.
Net confidence fell to -23, down from 22 in August.
The current performance index (a combination of profitability and cash flow) is at 94.3, down from 100.7 last month, the change index (capacity utilisation, staff levels, orders and inventories) was at 99, down from 101 in the last survey, and the forecast index (investment, sales, profitability and staff) is at 102.33, down on the last result of 109.2. Anything over 100 indicates expansion.
Constraints reported were 77% markets, 15% skilled staff and 8% capital.
There was no net reported productivity increase for September.
Staff numbers decreased 2.81% year on year in September.
Supervisors, tradespersons, managers, professional/scientists and operators/labourers reported a moderate shortage.
“Coming off the solid increase in export sales felt in August, year on year export sales in September moved back into negative, showing an 11.72% fall on sales in September 2015. This lead to an average monthly decrease of 7% of export sales in the three months to September – extending this out to over the last 12 months gives an average export sales growth of 0.8%.” Said Dieter Adam.
“The majority of manufacturing sales reported in September came from exports, at a reported 78% of total sales from respondents. September domestic sales in comparison to exports saw increases on the previous year. Domestic sales increased 17.12% on September 2015. This gave an average increase of 5.2% in the three months to September, and 3.7% over the last 12 months.
“Last month’s increase in confidence was reversed, with net confidence down to -23 in September. This was the first time net confidence has been negative since May 2015, and the lowest result since March 2014.
“The fall in confidence was accompanied by reductions in all three index measures. The performance index fell back into contraction at 94.3, the lowest level since March 2015. The forecast index fell back on the highs felt last month, but remained in expansion at 102.33, while the change index move down to 99, from 101 in August.
“These results in September do show some contrast with other measures, such as the PMI, which moved higher in September from August. Domestic sales are more consistent with the PMI. Some of the decline in exports we observed may be explained by lumpy sales month by month, but when paired with the lower confidence and index measures, it does suggest some challenges hitting export sales in September. The currency has fallen back from highs, but remains at a level where it is adding pressure on exporters and import competition manufacturers.” Said Dieter.
For results table and historical series, click here.
Nanogirl – Dr. Michelle Dickinson MNZM – is bringing science, technology and engineering to life for young people right across New Zealand this December with a national tour of her live, theatrical science show “Little Bang, Big Bang”.
With the support of Spark, the University of Auckland Faculty of Engineering, and the MacDiarmid Institute, the tour will visit seven centres around New Zealand between December 2nd and December 17th (see tour schedule below).
“Little Bang, Big Bang” presents engineering and science in ways New Zealand has never seen before. Audiences can expect a performance packed full of explosions (LOTS of explosions!), liquid nitrogen, giant fireballs and daredevil stunts – there’s even a jet-powered supermarket trolley! (See a video at nanogirllive.co.nz).
“Little Bang, Big Bang” is both the title and underlying idea behind the show. Each scientific concept is first explored with a ‘little bang’ – an experiment carried out with the help of a volunteer from the audience. From there, Nanogirl and her assistant Boris use engineering to build an experiment that explores the same science on a MUCH larger scale (the “BIG Bang”!).
Dr. Dickinson believes that understanding of science and engineering – and inspiring people to explore STEM subjects in education – is critical to New Zealand’s long-term success.
“I’m passionate about ensuring that all New Zealanders have access to science education. One of my goals is to challenge the stereotypes around engineering and science. I really believe that science is everywhere – and for everyone – and that’s what this project is all about. It’s also a huge amount of fun!”, says Dickinson.
A group of sponsors has come together to make this project a reality. Clive Ormerod, General Manager Customer & Marketing at Spark (Platinum Partner) says “We see science and technology playing an important role in New Zealand’s future, and it’s our children who’ll be driving that. We want to them all to have the opportunity to do great things...This science show will be an awesome step toward that.”
Alongside the theatrical performance schedule, Nanogirl will be visiting schools in each centre to engage with students and teachers through a partnership with The MacDiarmid Institute, demonstrating exciting experiments and providing teachers with lesson plans and curriculum material to support the delivery of science and engineering lessons in schools. Thanks to the generous support of the project’s sponsors, this is provided at no cost to the schools.
Nanogirl says “I’m so excited to be bringing this show to towns and cities around New Zealand. The experiments are going to be huge (talk about a ‘BIG BANG!’!) – I just can’t wait to get on the road. One thing I’ve learned already – steering a jet-powered trolley is harder than it looks!”
“Little Bang, Big Bang” opens at Rotorua’s Civic Theatre on December 2nd. Tickets are available online at nanogirllive.co.nz.
Wanaka, Nov 7, 2016 - Wanaka-based global exporter Aquasystems Australasia has collected a business excellence award in recognition of the company’s innovation and growth. Aquasystems Australasia, owned by former Invercargill innovator Bruce Henley, won the Outstanding in Infrastructure/Trades category at the inaugural Ignite Wanaka Chamber of Commerce Business Awards on Friday night (November 4).
Aquasystems Australasia designs and supplies wastewater aeration systems for industrial and municipal clients, including Fonterra in New Zealand and Australian Government-owned authorities Melbourne Water and Water Corporation. It has recently been involved in the major expansion of Fonterra’s Lichfield plant in the South Waikato, for the treatment of milk solids waste.
A specialist company serving a global market, Aquasystems designs technology for biological wastewater treatment.
“Our day job involves keeping aerobic bacteria alive by taking oxygen out of the atmosphere and dissolving it in wastewater. This is to provide an aerobic environment for microbial degradation of organic matter and to oxidize various contaminants and render them harmless before their return to the environment,” Henley explains.
Tertiary Education Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce says the Labour Party has completely missed the mark with its idea of marshalling young people into a new make work scheme.
"Labour has completely mis-read the current job market in New Zealand. The problem is not finding enough work for young people, it’s finding enough young people and skilling them up for the work that is already there.
"It makes no sense to have a make-work scheme competing with Kiwi businesses for young talent when the biggest concern of employers around the country right now is finding enough young people to fill the jobs available."
New Zealand already has the second highest employment rate in the OECD. As a country we added 33,000 jobs in the last quarter and the growth in jobs is expected to continue.
The numbers of 15-19 year olds not in education, employment or training (NEET) is currently 22,000. New Zealand has never had fewer than 21,000 15-19 year olds who are NEET. Meanwhile the annual 15-24 NEET rate is back down to pre-GFC levels.
"The challenge now is to get those NEET levels down further in a strong job market, and that means finding those young people and getting the help of their families and communities to get them into work,” Mr Joyce says.
That's why the government has introduced schemes like:
The numbers of apprentices is also rising rapidly as the economy grows. There were more than 42,000 people enrolled in apprenticeships and apprenticeship training in 2015. This government plans to recruit another 5,500 apprentices.
"In regions right around New Zealand, like Hawke’s Bay, Marlborough, Otago, Bay of Plenty, Canterbury and Auckland employers are searching high and low for young people ready to work in their industries.
"Labour should join with the government in encouraging more young people into the work that is already there, not pretending we need make-work schemes when we clearly don't."
BusinessNZsays Labour's proposal to tax employers who are not providing training would bea blunt instrument that would not fix the problem of skills shortages.
ChiefExecutive Kirk Hope said the real problem is that many employers can't find NewZealanders to employ.
"Theunderlying problem is that many employers can't get New Zealand staff, whetherskilled or unskilled – and if they can't get them, they can't train them."
Hesaid the proposal raises the issue of whether small businesses have thecapacity to be able to deliver training.
"NewZealand businesses are practically all small businesses and they are not set upto be training establishments. A subsidyfor businesses to build capacity for training might be more practical.
"Businessappreciates the fact we have large numbers of young people not in employment,education or training. Social investmentis clearly needed to help this group, and business supports assistance beingprovided to ensure these young people do not becomeunemployable.
"However, taxing small businesses because they can't findNew Zealand staff would not help this and other issues involved in the complexarea of skill shortages.
New Zealand was the first country to embrace inflation targeting, along with a raft of other polices that have come to be known as the broad neoliberal policy approach. In contrast to the northern hemisphere in New Zealand many of these changes were championed by the left of politics, and has become the entrenched position, for the most part, across our political spectrum for the past thirty odd years. Has this period of political thought delivered the promised well balanced improvements in our economic wellbeing, and what has been the outcome for the productive sectors of our economy?
What happened to Manufacturing?
New Zealand, along with most of the Anglo Saxon world, has offshored a significant amount of manufacturing activity since 1985. This accelerated when import tariffs were abandoned for most manufactured and agricultural goods. What manufacturing activity existed prior to the 1985 was targeted at rural support and infrastructure: road, rail and power generation plus some consumer durable manufacturing that could only function behind significant licencing and import tariff barriers.
Some types of pre 1985 activity, particularly that could be mass produced was quickly replaced by imports, and in the longer term more and more activity moved to low-cost countries. In a small economy local supply chains have found it hard to sustain themselves as volume fell through the 1990s, and as volume falls skills, capability and competitiveness become increasingly hard to sustain.
Many manufacturers in New Zealand did, and still do, have supply chain positions within the domestic market, even for goods that are finally exported. This dependence means that the loss of capability early in a supply chain can have a broader impact on the ability to compete via downstream effects on the manufacturing ecosystem – one more recent example of this was the loss of local manufacturing capability related to the rail industry in Dunedin.
There are pockets of success with some specialised products where New Zealand producers of elaborate goods do well in global niche markets but these successes cannot fully offset the decline in well-paid employment and elaborate product export revenue. New entrants are more likely to produce offshore, often not by choice: design, development, prototyping and early production can and do happen in New Zealand but the loss of any such local activity generally happens at some point.
Weekly incomes in manufacturing are higher than all industries both in average and median termsii.
New Party will shake up self-serving Members of Parliament
Like a South Seas version of Donald Trump New Zealand economist–philanthropist and family man Gareth Morgan has launched himself into the firmament of Oceania politics astride his own freshly minted political party and has done so with the same purpose which is to introduce a new order to replace the current one in which he sees Members of Parliament primarily fixated on becoming MPs. Then remaining MPs.
Mr Morgan proclaims that he intends to “light a fuse” under the existing order and thus break the stranglehold that he claims “career” politicians have on the nation of under five million people.
Igniting his “fuse,” in the form of his Opportunities Party on the eve of Guy Fawkes, he does not object to being compared to Donald Trump in terms of Trump’s determination to smash the status quo.
The Opportunities Party will start issuing segments of its manifesto soon.
Mr Morgan’s decision to launch his own political vehicle comes as no surprise. The Welsh-born economist was a household business name before his family began and then spectacularly sold its version of Ebay.
The family’s TradeMe online site which replaced newspaper classified advertising was sold to the Australian-based Fairfax media chain for $700,000,000. This was approximately the same amount that News Corporation paid at the same time for Myspace which was at the same time one of the world’s busiest social networking sites. When additional management contracts were taken into account the sum is considered to have been in the region of NZD1 billion.
The problem for the new acquirer, Fairfax, was that TradeMe which retained its saturation in New Zealand had mixed results in market penetration internationally, notably in Australia.
In addition to his family’s wealth, Mr Morgan fills the other side of the equation for being admired in New Zealand which is that he is a sportsman being, with his wife, a big capacity motorbike traveler across the world’s most demanding terrains.
It is unlikely that Mr Morgan will have any problems in acquiring the 500 members required in New Zealand for his new party to obtain official recognition.
Mr Morgan is likely to enjoy from the wider voter spectrum approval for lighting the blue touchpaper under the seats of “career” politicians, an unknown species in New Zealand until the 1980s.
Until that time Members of Parliament were drawn from those who had served as farmers, businessmen or commercial lawyers (National Party) or trade unionists, educationalists or advocacy lawyers (Labour Party.)
From the 1980s onward the trend became defined for candidates to start aiming for election at an early age and to bring with them, if successful, no previously acquired practical or applied experience beyond that of campaigning and boondoggling to become an MP.
It remains uncertain if Mr Morgan will offer himself as a candidate for his new party. A problem for him will remain that in spite of proportional representation being well installed in New Zealand, it has not propagated the same diversity of splinter parties which it has done, for example in Latin nations where it has long been standard.
The two monolithic parties continue to dominate. Though with a degree of permutation and combination with smaller parties, notably Greens and Maori, and the Winston Peters New Zealand First.
However, Mr Morgan’s move will act to crystallise disquiet about the general numbers, terms and conditions, especially those relating to emoluments of New Zealand’s sitting MPs. There are 120 of them, and they are rather better paid than their 650 counterparts in Westminster.
He will tap too into electorate disquiet about the ease with which their pay increases enjoy easy legislative passage at a time when everyone else is being urged to tighten their belts. Similarly with the seemingly infinite career duration of certain members along with the perennial matter of MPs long-tail entitlements.
From theA MSCNewsWre reporters' desk
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