Feb 13, 2018 - Some of the world’s leading tech experts, including tech Ministers from other countries, will attend a coding session with a bunch of young New Zealand’s school children at the Young Coders Showcase during the international Digital Nations tech summit in Auckland next week. International and New Zealand tech leaders, social innovators, future thinkers and maybe even the Prime Minister will get a coding lesson from students at sessions from New Zealand's leading initiatives to get kids involved with coding – Code Club Aotearoa, Code Avengers and OMG Tech. The February 19 and 20 summit – organised by NZTech and Conferenz – is the biggest ever global tech summit held in New Zealand and is a lead-up event to the world's leading digital nations D5 meeting in Wellington on February 21. D5 is a network of the world’s most advanced digital nations. NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says New Zealand is recognised globally as being leaders in getting kids to code. “The new education curricula introduced this year has all year one students learning about digital technology. Initiatives like these will help support teachers and schools as the demand for skills increase faster than we can prepare the teachers. It’s great to see the government buying into the massive impact of technology,” Muller says. “NZTech and initiatives like Code Club Aotearoa, OMG Tech and Code Avengers believe the new curricula will expedite the tech-digital knowledge that every child needs for future employment,” Muller says. Code Club already teaches more than 4000 New Zealand children how to code with 273 clubs operating nationwide from Whangarei to Bluff. One of the goals of the Digital Nations summit is to figure out the actions needed to create a Kiwi digital nation by 2030. Teaching kids to code is one way to create a digital nation, empower our next generation, and to help Aotearoa fulfill its potential. The, Digital Nations 2030 summit is the biggest and most important international tech conference ever to be staged in New Zealand and will help pave the way for faster advances in the Kiwi economy. Muller says the conference will cover every aspect of how New Zealand and global digital economies are shaping. The event has attracted more than 500 delegates including D5 Ministers and their delegations, invited international experts and New Zealand digital leaders and influencers representing all sectors.
| A MakeLemonade release || February 13, 2018 |||
Feb 12, 2018 - E tū is extremely disappointed with the confirmation today that Juken New Zealand Ltd (JNL) intends axing the jobs of about 90 workers at its East Coast mill in Gisborne.
E tū represents production workers at the mill.
Feb 12, 2018 - University of Canterbury (UC) Physics Professor Simon Brown is developing a neuromorphic computer chip that may solve one of the biggest problems in the computer industry – power consumption – and create a New Zealand semiconductor industry.
Feb 12, 2018 - Will robots really steal our jobs? According to PWC, New Zealand is “among the most prepared countries for the coming waves of automation,” not through any initiatives to plan for robotisation, but simply because it has a very high percentage of the workforce in jobs that will not easily be taken over by robots, writes Stuart Cornor ComputerWorld.
The findings come from a new global PWC report “Will robots really steal our jobs?” It found New Zealand had the sixth-lowest share of jobs that are at high risk of automation.
“New Zealand is part of a small group of countries, along with the Nordic countries and Greece, where the workforce is concentrated in industries with relatively lower potential automation rates, and the roles workers hold are also on average less automatable,” PWC said.
According to PWC, across the 29 countries covered, the share of jobs at potential high risk of automation is around three percent by the early 2020s, but this rises to almost 20 percent by the late 2020s, and 30 percent by the mid-2030s. It estimates the mid 2030s figure for New Zealand will be 24 percent.
Andy Symons, innovation partner at PwC New Zealand said the findings were no cause for complacency. “Both businesses and government should be developing strategies around retraining options for workers and building an education system that allows us to replace jobs that are lost through automation,” he said.
“The data suggests New Zealand has the opportunity to continue creating jobs for people as the world navigates through the coming waves of automation.”
PWC identifies three waves of automation
- the automation of simple computational tasks and analysis of structured data, affecting data-driven sectors such as financial services, which will run until the early 2020s;
- dynamic interaction with technology for clerical support and decision making, including robotic tasks in semi-controlled environments such as moving objects in warehouses, which will run until the late 2020s.
- the automation of physical labour and manual dexterity, and problem solving in dynamic real-world situations that require responsive actions, such as in transport and construction, in the mid to late 2030s.
Source: ComputerWorld || February 12, 2018 |||
Feb 12, 2018 - Forestry and wood processing company, Juken New Zealand has today confirmed it is going ahead with changes to the products made at its East Coast Mill in Gisborne to return the plant to profitability and secure its long-term future.
The company told staff on January 23 that it was considering stopping production of Plywood and Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) products and reducing the manufacture of Structural Laminated Veneer Lumber (SLVL) at its East Coast Mill because those parts of the business had been operating at significant losses for a number of years. The Mill will continue to make high-value solid wood products used for high-end residential and commercial interior cabinetry, furniture, solid doors and feature walls and, overtime, this side of the business will expand.
Juken General Manager, Dave Hilliard said that the final number of roles to go at the Mill as a result of the changes wouldn’t be known for another two weeks. “Now that we have made the decision to go ahead with these changes, we will be working through a process to confirm exactly which roles and how many will go as result,” said Hilliard.
“This is a tough time for our people and their families. We’re a major wood-processing and forestry employer in Gisborne so a decision like this that cuts local jobs is difficult. But for local companies like us, it’s even more critical for the future of our communities that we consolidate into a sustainable business. We can only do this by making high-value products where we have a competitive advantage, so that we can keep growing job opportunities here into the future.”
“There are around 100 roles impacted by the changes, but we anticipate that the final number of redundancies will be less than this, as a number of staff have applied to take voluntary severance and we also have some roles in our sawmilling side of the business that we’ll look to redeploy people into.”
“All staff have redundancy pay provisions in their contracts. Part of the extra assistance we’ll be putting in place is to give a minimum of six weeks pay and four weeks notice for those who have been here for less than a year.”
The company has spent the past two weeks consulting staff and Unions about the changes, which follow a decline in demand from Japan, the mills’ main Plywood market. The company’s Plywood is also increasingly unable to compete in the domestic and international markets against product out of large-scale wood processing plants from the likes of China and South America.
Dave Hilliard said the consultation sought alternative proposals to mothballing the Plywood production line and reducing the production of SLVL (veneer) products.
“We’ve carefully considered the feedback received, including a suggestion to start producing plywood for ‘affordable housing’ in New Zealand. However, given the age of the machinery and the investment required to upgrade it to produce different plywood products these proposals don’t give us a viable solution to the issues we’re facing. The proposal asked for the decision to be delayed. However, we can’t continue sustaining these losses. Delaying the decision does not change the fact that the machinery cannot economically make product suitable for the low-cost housing market.”
“We have started work onsite with staff, unions, WINZ, Ministry for Social Development, local MPs, iwi, community and business representatives to support our people through this difficult process and to make sure they are supported into new jobs or re-training if their roles go. We are also working with a number of local employers, including Far East Sawmills who have come forward to offer our people new jobs.”
We’d like to thank them all for their hard work and support. We are also engaging with the Government on how we are investing to get the most value for the local industry out of our forestry resource through the manufacture of high-value products and how we are adapting to keep local processing and manufacturing competitive in the international market place.
The Juken mill at Matawhero opened in 1994 and employs around 200 full time employees. The mill processes Radiata Pine from the company’s East Coast forests to produce a range of solid wood and engineered wood products like Plywood, LVL (Laminated Veneer Lumber) and SLVL (Structural Laminated Veneer lumber), mainly for the Japanese housing market.
| A Juken release || February 12, 2018 |||
Feb 12, 2018 - Research released today reinforces the need to do more to stop people being unnecessarily killed and injured on our roads, says Associate Minister of Transport Julie Anne Genter.
Feb 12, 2018 - Agreement signed on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai reinforces strong aviation ties between the UAE and France
Feb 12, 2018 - The government are planning to sign the re-branded Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Chile on March 8th 2018.
“The TPP might have been re-branded as the CPTPP but it's still the same bad deal”, says Professor Jane Kelsey, New Zealand's expert on international economic regulation.
Professor Kelsey will speak on the current situation of the CPTPP at a public meeting today, Monday 12th February at 6.30pm, in the Ellen Melville Hall, 1 Freyberg Place, Auckland CBD.
Rebranding it as "comprehensive and progressive" doesn't make it any better when it still contains the discredited ISDS (Investor-State Dispute Settlement) provisions which allow foreign investors to challenge the laws and policies of the New Zealand government in off-shore investor-state dispute settlement tribunals,” Professor Kelsey says." “ISDS is unchanged from the original text; it's only some peripheral enforcement options that have been suspended."
The suspended clauses and more could be reinserted into the TPP-11/CPTPP, as it appears there is interest from the US in rejoining. At the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Donald Trump raised the possibility that the US might rejoin the new TPP.
Also speaking will be Dr Burcu Kilic from Public Citizen, Global Trade Watch (US), and Laila Harre, who will speak about the issues confronting the unions, and her assessment of the problems and solutions.
Prior to last year’s election, Labour, New Zealand First and the Green Parties all said that they would not support ratification of the TPP. During the parliamentary examination of the text, Labour cited concerns about sovereignty, secrecy and inadequate economic modelling leading to uncertainty in projected outcomes. The Greens added that the TPP is an obstruction to the imperative of sustainability. New Zealand First focused on the anticipated dangers of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS). What has changed?
Local activists remain firmly opposed to the CPTPP. TPP Action Auckland spokesperson Lisa Er says that the concerns about Treaty rights, ISDS, environmental protection, constraints on climate action, and affordable healthcare are issues for all New Zealanders.
In the past there has been much concern from the public. The 3 News Reid Research Poll in November 2015 found, 87 per cent of NZ First voters, 84 per cent of Greens, 73 per cent of Labour, and 23 per cent of National voters opposed the TPP."
"CPTPP is an old-fashioned agreement that privileges multinational corporations over sustainable businesses," Er says, "TPP is not a sustainable agreement for the 21st Century."
Come and hear Professor Kelsey explain what this will mean for New Zealand. There will be an opportunity for questions afterwards.
The Auckland event will also be live streamed from 6.30pm on The Daily Blog at this link for all those who may not be able to make it along to a meeting.
For the details of meetings in other centres, please visit Its Our Future.
Source: SCoop || February 12, 2018 |||
HomeGeneralFood & drink export sales soar in Brexit boost
Feb 12, 2018 -UK (STL.News) Overseas sales of UK food and drink continued to soar last year, with record exports of over £22 billion demonstrating a clear desire for British taste, quality and high standards around the world. UK food and drink businesses are now selling their products to 217 markets – with sales of milk & cream increasing by 61%, salmon by 23% and pork by 14%.
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