A Napier engineering apprentice is on a mission to get more people into trades.
Paul Taurima is an engineering apprentice at Foot Engineering in Napier through Competenz (an industry training organisation). He is a speaker at a series of events organised by Competenz to encourage Maori and Pasifika school levers into trades apprenticeships, especially engineering.
Mr Taurima says his job involves a range of roles and responsibilities to ensure the workplace runs smoothly including being a courier driver, rubbish man, a builder, forklift driver and cleaner as well as engineering tasks. "Every day is a challenge and that's why I love it.
"I love that at my job you might be welding a bicycle then one phone call later, you're packing the bush truck to repair a digger, then maybe at the port doing maintenance.
"Every day is different and the variety of work my company covers is so vast, I'm going to have a good set of skills when I qualify."
Continue to the full article here on Hawkes Bay Today || October 9, 2017 |||
The new government should make it a policy priority to help rebalance the economy, says BNZ boss Anthony Healy.
"I do think the shape of our tax system needs to be looked at, particularly when you consider some of the widening gaps between rich and poor.
"I think addressing that through redistribution, particularly with a capital gains tax, would certainly be something I'd like both (potential) governments to be considering."
Hear Healy's comments in the video player above
Healy said there were four main reasons why the housing market stopped going up.
The first was a lack of affordable houses – a lot of buyers were simply priced out of the market now.
Secondly, the LVR restrictions were having a significant impact particularly on investors.
Thirdly, all the major banks had stopped lending on foreign income which had removed a lot of foreign investors from the market.
Finally, Healy said capital controls in China had cut the number of Chinese buyers in the market.
Healy said the banks “weren’t” panicking about the slow-down but agreed that property developers were now having difficulties in financing some projects.
| A Newsroom release || October 09, 2017 |||
New Zealand Ambassador to the Philippines David Strachan expects stronger ties between his country and Cebu as the two parties further explore opportunities in trade, tourism and education.
At a time when the people-to-people links between New Zealand and the Philippines are burgeoning, Strachan led an 11-strong New Zealand delegation to Cebu to look into potential areas of collaboration.
“We continue to strengthen our ties and explore partnerships that would be beneficial for Cebu and New Zealand,” he said in a roundtable discussion with local media at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel last Friday.
According to Strachan, 80 percent of New Zealand exporters are small and medium enterprises who could be the right match for Cebu-based entrepreneurs.
He said New Zealand is exploring potential investments on food and beverage, wood processing and furniture as well as information technology innovations.
Investments
Hernando Banal, the New Zealand trade commissioner, said they see a sustained entry of investments particularly into the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry.
Aside from the BPO sector, he said New Zealand is also looking for collaborative projects in renewable energy, especially since the country is known for geothermal power sources.
Banal said the bilateral trade of the Philippines and New Zealand has been growing, registering $1 billion in trade value in the last five years, making the Philippines the 15th largest export destination for New Zealand.
He added that Philippine companies are also investing in firms in New Zealand, particularly those involved in food and food processing.
New Zealand boasts of a large Filipino community, with more than one percent or about 6,000 of the country’s population being Filipinos and making it the fastest growing Asian community there.
Tourism
Steven Dixon, Tourism New Zealand regional manager, meanwhile, said more Filipinos now see New Zealand as a travel destination.
They expect more Filipinos to travel to New Zealand as Philippines Airlines is set to launch a non-stop service between Manila and Auckland starting December.
“This decision by PAL would inject greater momentum into the fast growing two-way tourist flows,” he said.
Around 28,000 New Zealanders travel from New Zealand to the Philippines while 23,000 Filipinos travel to New Zealand every year, mostly for business, incentives, as well as visiting family and friends.
Education
Education New Zealand Regional Director John Laxon, for his part, said Cebu is becoming a promising education market for New Zealand.
He said that more than 1,000 students have registered for the New Zealand Education Fair hosted by Golden Summit Immigration Consultancy held at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel last Oct. 7.
“Filipinos pursuing their education in New Zealand are learning from some of the best education institutions in the world. They earn degrees that are internationally recognized. This gives them an advantage in pursuing their careers in the Philippines or elsewhere around the world,” Laxon said.
More than 4,000 Filipino students study in New Zealand, making the Philippines the fifth largest sources of international students worldwide.
Year to date, the number of Filipino students choosing to study in New Zealand universities has risen by 35 percent in 2017 compared to the same period last year.
The popular degree programs among Filipinos, Laxon said, are those related to management and commerce as well as health studies, animation, cyber security and ICT.
| A TravelWireNews release || October 8, 2017 |||
New Zealand software innovator CS-VUE has enhanced an environmental compliance management system for one of the country’s largest infrastructure projects – the NZ Transport Agency’s $709.5m motorway from Pūhoi to Warkworth. It is the first stage of the Ara Tūhono – Pūhoi to Wellsford Road of National Significance.
It’s a long way from where it all began. In 2004 the software start-up business was created to help the former Auckland City Council better manage its stormwater consents.
CS-VUE has since grown in staff, clients and turnover. In recent years, work includes providing software to manage the New Zealand Transport Agency’s operational network and capital project consents. Roads of National Significance projects can involve hundreds of consents across multiple teams and construction areas, with work often staged.
The Transport Agency says prior to using CS-VUE’s software to help manage their consent conditions and compliance, they relied on a range of spreadsheet-type systems that differed from contract to contract.
When the Transport Agency’s second Public Private Partnership (PPP) Pūhoi to Warkworth was in the procurement phase, CS-VUE General Manager Wayne Fisher got a phone call.
“I recall they wanted us to design some enhancements to the software and quickly,” he laughs. “We were thrilled for the call up. It was scoped, designed and built in time for the award of the contract to Northern Express Group (NX2).”
Mr Fisher says with construction underway, their software module is now doing its job and will continue to well after the four-lane motorway opens because many of the consents are ongoing, as is monitoring and compliance.
Known as their ‘Two Step Sign Off’ module, CS-VUE has built in extra capability and better data exchange to effectively allow “two-way conversations” between the consent holder and its contractors and the regulator, Auckland Council.
“Normally a consent holder would rely solely on its contractors to ensure every consent was being monitored and complied with. Our module gives the Transport Agency direct oversight and Auckland Council instant access to the status of consents with the ability to directly sign them off.”
Graham Jones, Senior Monitoring Officer at Auckland Council’s Resource Consents department says: “To the best of my knowledge this is the first time the regulator has shared a common platform with both the consent holder, the NZ Transport Agency and the contractor, NX2. All parties having access to common software allows us all to be on the same page at any instant in time on the status of conditions. As a project team, it allows us to work in a more collaborative manner.”
Tom Newson, NZTA’s Principal Project Manager, says: “As a PPP, the Pūhoi to Warkworth conditions require input and oversight from the three key parties during construction and once in service to ensure compliance and management of the outcomes-based consents set by the Board of Inquiry in 2014. CS-VUE’s new system provides all parties with quick access and a single source of truth via a two-step validation process with Auckland Council. We’re using it as a pilot with a view to using the same CS-VUE application on other large roading infrastructure projects, such as East West Link and the Northern Corridor improvements.”
Mr Fisher says with the 18.5km motorway scheduled to open by 2022, having a cloud-based environmental compliance management system that each party can access 24/7 not only means greater transparency, which helps to avoid any breaches and saves time.”
CS-VUE is proud of its role with the Pūhoi to Warkworth PPP, which will ultimately help in the Northern Express Group’s construction, management and maintenance of the motorway for the five-year construction and its further 25-year operational period.
“The Transport Agency is a massive government agency with a huge work programme. They’re also champions of innovation. As a New Zealand-owned and operated software business, we’re delighted to be working alongside them on a daily basis. It just goes to show there is room for local products and suppliers if they can deliver and keep up.”
Mr Newson says the Pūhoi to Warkworth outcome-based RMA conditions provide greater flexibility to the contractor in both design and construction than most other Transport Agency projects. It also requires vigilance from a compliance standpoint.
CS-VUE is also working with about 20 percent of the country’s district and city councils ensuring they keep on top of their often complex and lengthy consents granted by regional councils. For Auckland Council, CS-VUE manages its stormwater and contaminated land sites.
“Our clients have achieved great results around improving information accuracy and auditability. We provide tools to achieve better business analytics and we can reduce an organisation’s annual operating costs.
Board directors prick up their ears when we talk about improvements to governance, risk and compliance. While helping to keep the rates down seems to resonate with council procurement managers. Our products actually offer many tangible advantages.”
He says public and private entities also respond positively to the concept of resilience and keeping critical information safe from the likes of earthquakes, floods or fires. CS-VUE achieves this as its software is entirely cloud-based, putting everything in one place for easy management, and no capital expenditure on hardware is required.
CS-VUE also manages and tracks resource consents for big infrastructure players and heavy industry. Most consents being managed are around air discharge, water, land use, and trade waste, or consents issued by NZ Petroleum & Minerals for extraction. Sectors include oil and gas, quarrying, mining, and some of the country’s key ports. While clients include GBC Winstone, Bathurst Resources, Fulton Hogan, Landcorp, NZ Defence Force, KiwiRail, BP and Shell. Large packaging company, PACT, is among its Australian clients.
And it’s not just about delivering up-to-the-minute environmental balance sheets. Since the Health and Safety At Work Act came into force in April last year, CS-VUE has designed and implemented software to help businesses and organisations better manage and mitigate risks in the workplace.
“Over the past 13 years in software we’ve learnt you can have all the marketing, management and techno speak you want, but what really defines whether you succeed or not is the quality of your software developers and CS-VUE has an exceptional team.
“We work really hard to keep ahead of change and continuously improve. That is how we’ve secured great clients and big projects,” says Wayne Fisher.
| A CS-VUE release || October 10, 2017 |||
Victoria University – Chicago Survey still remains the last word
We are told by former prime minister Jim Bolger among select others that what Winston Peters MP really wants is “respect.”
Yet what precisely is respect these days and who exactly has it?
One thing is obvious and it is that the Right Honourable Winston Peters MP PC does not believe that he has enough of it.
Otherwise he would not be so actively seeking more of this elusive commodity.
Our starting point to putting flesh on the bones of the elusive respect is what became known as the “Congalton” report on the status of occupations here.
This report named after its driving force A.A Conglaton of Victoria University was a joint venture with the University of Chicago.
It was one of the rare academic reports to have generated a strong response outside the university, as well as the usual fluttering of the dovecotes inside.
In the midfield of the occupations in terms of status that of politician appeared under that of journalist or “news reporter” as it was described in the survey.
Standing unrivalled in the top three positions of this survey were in order :-
*Medical doctors
*Solicitors
*Company directors.
Would Mr Peters have thus been accorded more respect had he remained just a solicitor instead of chancing his arm as a professional politician?
Possibly.
There have been numerous other such reports since the Congalton one.
These though have been adjusted around the funding available to complete them and therefore have been of a modish and thus tendentious nature woven around gender and ethnic pivots.
In the context of today’s debate the ascendancy of the occupation of news reporter over that of politician remains the outstanding condundrum.
This was prior to the university-isation of journalism. Before it became feminised. Before its pseudo -professional “investigative” era
In those days news reporters did just that. They reported the news.
It is hard to discern any other clues.
One might be in the old city & guilds type of grading qualifications such as in Pitmans.
Still, this must be set against the status from which National member of parliament were drawn in those days which then as now was from a farming-professional one.
Or the notably much stronger profile in those days of the Labour members, drawn from a union-academic background.
Mr Peters meanwhile is no politico-literary slouch and enjoys quoting from David Lloyd George among whose utterances are those to the effects of the “baubles” of office and “the glory of the unadorned name.”
In the event Lloyd George was hardly immune to such temptations having succumbed to the title of Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, OM, PC.
Is there something familiar about this?
| From This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. || Saturday 7 October 2017 |||
Of the top five countries writes by Pam Tipa in RuralNews, New Zealand trades with, it only has trade deals with two, an ExportNZ conference has heard.
“That leaves us very vulnerable,” says trade expert Charles Finny. “We don’t have links to those markets that others do.”
National trade spokesman Todd McClay had earlier pushed the case for NZ to forge ahead in doing deals with like-minded countries.
Of our top five goods export countries -- China, Australia, US, EU and Japan -- we only have trade deals with China and Australia, he told the Auckland conference held on September 21.
McClay says when we do trade deals we get it right and trade flows increase significantly in both directions, as has been the case with China. He says that FTA got NZ through the global financial crisis (GFC).
“To continue to offer opportunities to NZ we need more trade deals.”
EU commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has expressed a desire to have a trade deal with NZ within two years; “that will take a lot of hard work”, McClay added. He expects this will take “three years rather than two”.
NZ is one of only six WTO countries that don’t have a trade deal with EU.
McClay says with the UK we are in a good space since Brexit was announced last year. UK trade secretary Liam Fox confirmed earlier this year that NZ will be first cab off the rank with Australia for new FTAs once they got through Brexit.
Meanwhile, McClay says TPP11 is a high-quality deal.
Continue to read Pam's full article on RuralNews || October 6, 2017 |||
A subsidiary of Graphic Packaging has completed the acquisition of Spanish carton manufacturer Norgraft Packaging for an undisclosed sum.
Norgraft, which aims at food and household goods markets, operates two converting plants in Maliaño and Requejada, and converts around 25000 tons of paperboard each year.
Graphic Packaging president and CEO Michael Doss said: "The announced transaction is consistent with our strategy to pursue acquisitions that allow us to grow our folding carton volume in attractive geographies and end-markets, improve our cost position, service our customers with excellence, and increase our mill to converting plant integration levels over time.”
Established in 1998, Norgraft Packaging has a workforce of over 200 and specializes in cardboard packaging.
The firm also has pollution risks prevention system that ensures environment and occupational health and safety by manufacturing products under controlled hygienic conditions.
With a workforce of over 10000, Graphic Packaging offers packaging solutions to food, beverage and other consumer products companies.
The firm specializes in folding cartons, paperboard, packaging machinery, package design and recycled paperboard.
In May 2016, Graphic Packaging has acquired Australian folding carton supplier Colorpak, which converts around 38,000 tons of paperboard into folding cartons annually though three facilities in Melbourne and Sydney in Australia, and Auckland, New Zealand.
Graphic Packaging’s subsidiary Graphic Packaging International has purchased the converting assets of Carded Graphics, a Staunton-based provider of packaging solution to the food, craft beer and other consumer product markets, in October 2015.
| A Graphic Packaging release || October 6, 2017 |||
Leading food company Alliance Group announced today it is investing $54 million in capital expenditure in the co-operative over the next year as its annual road-show is held across the country. Alliance Group chief executive David Surveyor said the success of the business strategy meant the co-operative was in a position to re-invest in continuing to build the company’s operational performance. In addition to a pool payment, the company will have a bonus share issue and reward farmer shareholders by increasing their shareholding in the co-operative. The level will be based upon the supply of lambs, sheep, cattle, calves and deer during the 2017/18 season. “Alliance is now a much fitter co-operative as a result of our focus on lifting efficiency and improving sales and marketing,” said Mr Surveyor. “We are making good progress against our key measures with a stronger balance sheet, improved profitability and better livestock pricing for farmers. “We’re working hard to ensure our improvements are sustainable through further investment, growing our value add and building our organisational capability.: The co-operative was encouraged by its health and safety performance with the Total Recordable Injuries Frequency Rate improving by 42% year on year. “Looking after our people is the right thing to do. We have made good progress, but there is still some way to go. We were unfortunately reminded of that by a serious accident at our Smithfield plant in March.” As part of the strategy programme, Alliance Group has made significant investments in technology and operational improvements, lifting processing and productivity across its plants and incorporating best practice from around the world, said Mr Surveyor. That included new primal cutters and middles technology at the Dannevirke plant, a range of investments to lift the recovery of “5th quarter” products, improving chiller performance, investing in the Pukeuri plant beef chain and packaging innovations. The co-operative expected to make further gains as a result of its recent acquisition of Singapore-based marketing and sales company Goldkiwi Asia, which will be known as Alliance Asia. Alliance is focused on being a co-operative and supporting New Zealand’s best farmers. “We are doing a better job of rewarding loyal shareholders. More frequent minimum price contracts are helping provide our farmers with certainty. However, there is still some work to do in this area and our prime beef performance needs to be lifted.” Alliance is continuing to maximise the schedule price to farmers, he said. Meanwhile, James Ogden is to retire as an Alliance director at the end of his term of appointment on 30 November. He will be replaced by Peter Schuyt. Mr Schuyt is an experienced independent director on a range of New Zealand businesses including Tatua Co-Operative Dairy Company, TSB Bank Ltd and Foodstuffs North Island Ltd. He has also held senior executive roles at the New Zealand Dairy Board, Fonterra and the NZ Post Group. Mr Schuyt is a Chartered Fellow of the New Zealand Institute of Directors. The annual roadshow programme, covering the North and South Islands, began in Dannevirke on 2nd October and finishes in Fortrose on 19 October.
| An Alliance release || October 6, 2017 |||
The New Zealand Government has achieved its third fiscal surplus in a row with the Crown accounts for the year ended 30 June 2017 showing an OBEGAL surplus of $4.1 billion, $2.2 billion stronger than last year, Finance Minister Steven Joyce says.
“The 2016/17 Crown accounts are a direct demonstration of the hard work of New Zealanders since the Global Financial Crisis and the benefit of a strong economic plan that is delivering consistent growth,” Mr Joyce says.
Core Crown tax revenue was $75.6 billion for the 2016/17 year, up 7.4 per cent from the previous year with all major tax types increasing.
“The 12.3 per cent growth over last year in company tax, a 7.1 per cent growth in GST, and a 7.4 per cent growth in personal income tax, are a direct consequence of the confidence and growth of Kiwi companies and the growth in jobs.”
Core Crown tax revenue growth of $5.2 billion outpaced core Crown expenditure growth of $2.4 billion.
The final OBEGAL result for the year is $363 million better than predicted by Treasury at the time of the Pre-election Fiscal Update, largely due to core Crown expenditure being $502 million less than forecast.
“This better result should be seen as a one-off. Treasury advises that much of this expenditure reduction reflects timing differences and is likely to reverse out in the years ahead,” Mr Joyce says.
The country’s net debt has reduced in nominal terms by $2.4 billion from last year, to $59.5 billion. Net debt has dropped to 22.2 per cent of GDP.
“This is the first time net debt has reduced in actual dollar terms since the GFC and the Christchurch earthquakes,” Mr Joyce says. “It’s a significant milestone in the country’s economic recovery from those twin shocks.”
Mr Joyce says that the 2016/17 full year result should be interpreted with caution, and not seen as automatically flowing through into higher surpluses than forecast in the years ahead.
“Treasury has based its forecasts on current economic settings and some reasonably solid growth predictions for the years ahead. A number of commentators have noted a softening of growth indicators in recent days.
“The Government’s future surpluses will be needed to meet the cost of the significant investments we have committed to as part of the next four Budgets including the Government’s $32.5 billion infrastructure programme.
“We also need to keep reducing debt over time to prepare for the next rainy day event.”
| A Beehive release || October 5, 2017 |||
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