Items filtered by date: Tuesday, 02 December 2014

Mitre 10, Tower Insurance and Storage King are the latest businesses to join Airpoints™, giving members even more ways to earn their way to their next flight.

They follow a number of other new partners announced recently, including Mercury, Z, New World, Liquorland, Henry’s, Gilmours and Trents.

Airpoints members can currently earn Airpoints Dollars™ at Mitre 10 and Mitre 10 MEGA stores under Airpoints’ current partnership with Fly Buys. Mitre 10’s decision to partner directly with Airpoints will make it easier for members to understand how to earn Airpoints Dollars in the future and create further opportunities for customers.

Storage King, Australasia’s largest self-storage business has joined the Airpoints for Business programme and is now offering Airpoints Dollars to businesses signing a new storage contract and on a range of packaging materials.

Tower Insurance will be offering Airpoints Dollars on its car, house and contents insurance in the near future.

Airpoints members now have a choice of 55 businesses where they can earn Airpoints Dollars.

Air New Zealand General Manager Loyalty Mark Street says the growth of Airpoints’ significant network of partners has been a strategic focus for some time.

“We have added 29 new businesses to our coalition over the past two years, which has delivered unparalleled opportunities for members to earn Airpoints Dollars on everything from their weekly food shop to the purchase of a new car.

“This is reflected in an additional 33 million Airpoints Dollars earned by members over the past 12 months compared to the prior year, resulting in a staggering 860,000 flights taken by members using their Airpoints Dollars, up more than 100,000 on the year before.”

Dave Elliott, Mitre 10 General Manager Marketing says Airpoints Dollars are a great way for Mitre 10 to keep building its relationships with customers.

“As a 100% New Zealand owned Co-operative we are excited to take our place to directly offer the benefits of Airpoints to our customers, including the ability to earn and spend Airpoints Dollars across a fantastic family of New Zealand businesses.”

Richard Harding, CEO Tower Insurance, is excited to begin rewarding customers with Airpoints Dollars.

“Tower’s customers are incredibly loyal and this partnership is a great way for us to thank them for choosing Tower,” he said. “I’m pleased that we can now reward those customers who trust Tower to insure what’s important to them.”

Airpoints and Fly Buys have elected to focus on their own respective loyalty programmes and will no longer offer Airpoints Dollar earning through the Fly Buys network from 17 October.

The organisations have worked together since 2010, but both acknowledge the need to offer something new to their respective membership bases.

Stephen England-Hall, CEO of Loyalty New Zealand, the company which runs Fly Buys, says both businesses are changing the way they work together.

“Fly Buys is enhancing its programme to make it easier for our 2.5 million customers to earn Fly Buys and claim the rewards they want. Air New Zealand has been a great partner in the Fly Buys programme, but we are jointly moving to a relationship that suits both companies’ needs better.”

Mark Street, General Manager Loyalty at Air New Zealand says Airpoints’ focus is on making it simpler for customers to earn Airpoints Dollars at a growing number of direct retail and travel partners.

“The current arrangement worked well for both organisations, but has come to its natural end point in its current form. Over the past 18 months we have been focused on expanding our own partner network to better meet the needs of our membership base.

Both Fly Buys and Airpoints will be providing further information to their respective members in the coming days.

the Southland Times reports that earthworks have begun at the McNab site which will soon become the home of the Mataura Valley Milk dairy factory.  Mataura Valley Milk director Aaron Moody, of Gore, said it was exciting to see some work getting under way on the 26.2 hectare site after several years of planning.  "It's really great to finally see some progress, it's been a long time coming."  Three tenders had been received to build the $200 million plant, but he was unable to say whether they were from New Zealand or overseas.

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An increasingly divided Auckland of “ghettos and gated communities” is what lies ahead if the city and nation fail to tackle the widening gap between rich and poor. Solutions must come from all quarters – local and central government, iwi, community grassroots, business and philanthropy – and start with empathy, caring, and aroha.

Stark warnings and tangible hopes were delivered by speakers in a panel discussion last night on how to make Auckland more inclusive. The event was the first of three in the Ballot Box series, organised by the University of Auckland Business School to inform debate about top issues in the lead-up to the local body elections.

On the panel were Alan Johnson, a South Auckland-based public policy analyst and community activist; independent economist Shamubeel Eaqub; Susan St John, an honorary associate professor of Economics and adviser to the Child Poverty Action Group; and Rangimarie Hunia, chief executive of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei's social development company, Whai Maia.

Speakers described how the concentration of poverty into certain neighbourhoods undermined the whole city.

Eaqub predicted “an increase in ghettoization of the poor and gated communities amongst the rich” with continued status quo.

“Auckland is a city that is increasingly divided: those who have good jobs versus those who don’t; those who own a home, versus those who don’t. It is called the ghettoization of Auckland, and it is completely unacceptable.”

St John spoke of a “two-speed city: on one hand we have Real Auckland Housewives, on the other we have desperate people living in cars in winter”.

Johnson gave a view from the south that illustrated the concentration of disadvantage. Some examples:Recorded assaults are up to twice as common in some parts of South Auckland than elsewhere in the city55 per cent of children in South Auckland go to a decile one schoolTwice as many South Auckland school leavers leave with less than NCEA Level 1 than other Auckland school leaversEaqub argued the twin forces of technology and globalisation are polarising the city’s labour market into the “highly skilled and highly unskilled”, and that the house market is “totally broken”.

“Our Prime Minister was on the radio a couple of days ago saying it’s always been hard for young people to buy houses in Auckland. Bullshit,” he said, referencing a series he writes for thespinoff.co.nz.

“When you’ve got this kind of denial, when the average house price in Auckland is nearing $1 million, it’s ridiculous. We’ve got politicians quibbling over whether this is a 'challenge' or 'crisis' - I don’t care. We just have to fix it.”

The “hollowing out of the middle” is evident as more and more nurses, police, teachers and other crucial service workers are priced out of Auckland.

Eaqub said that although Auckland has the highest average household income of all regions in New Zealand, once you take into account purchasing the average house, disposable income is the lowest of all regions.

“Auckland is meant to be our most competitive city, our one big hope of competing with cities around the world. How are we going to do it when there isn’t enough disposable income for even people on good incomes to live their lives in dignity?”

Speakers agreed today’s inequality is rooted in three decades of flawed policy and policy neglect, compounded by international forces beyond our control.

They also agreed that solutions existed, but values need to shift to set them in motion.

St John emphasised the role of central government and the need for tax reform, pointing to her and Johnson’s idea for an imputed tax on housing equity above a threshold, equivalent to tax on interest from savings, as a means of arresting the housing bubble.

She also encouraged New Zealanders to celebrate the success story of universal superannuation.

Hunia argued the impetus had to come from empowered communities: “You cannot do something to a community; you must enable a community to take control of its destiny.”

Ngāti Whātua’s story of transformation showed what is possible in a post-settlement world with “bold and courageous leadership”, she said.

“In 1840 we invited Governor Hobson onto the shores of Waitemata...within five years we lost most of our tribal land; by 1951 we only had a quarter acre, and that was our cemetery. Over two generations the landscape and narrative can change: Ngāti Whātua was virtually landless; Ngāti Whātua was in poverty; Ngāti Whātua had suffered, however today we’ll post a balance sheet of over $900 million.”

She described an award-winning, medium density housing development by the iwi that put 30 architecturally designed homes housing 150 people on a site that used to hold 10 state homes.

“We’ve seen a reduction in preventable diseases in the children. We have 150 who come from homes where employment is the norm and that is creating a ripple effect in this community that no policy ever did.”

Business has a “huge part to play” in addressing some of the systemic barriers facing underprivileged children, she said.

“Government will struggle to invest in new ideas, but business and philanthropy and even the community can back some of these audaciously bold ideas, give them some wings to fly, and allow groups like us and Alan’s to actually have a crack."

All speakers stressed the need for equal education.

“Health, homes and education: the combination of the three will give our children the traction to succeed,” said Hunia.

Eaqub also advocated for massive investment in infrastructure, such as was last seen post-war.

“For me the mechanics of the solutions are not the problem,” he said. “For me the problem is always the politics: what values to we hold ourselves to, how do we measure ourselves and what kind of society do we want to live in?

“Over the last 20 years we’ve put competition and individualism on a pedestal. We judge people and ourselves and society against metrics that make us extraordinarily selfish and make it very difficult to care about others...

“Right now there is such a divide between the rich and poor of New Zealand that the well-off cannot empathise with the pain and suffering that’s going on. They are more likely to blame [the poor] for being poor, to punish them for being homeless, to penalise, and to be happy with a system that is grudging and unfair.”

He warned the widening “fault lines” of inequality threaten more than the city’s economy.

“There seems to be a growing acceptance that it’s OK for people to miss out. I worry because what we seeing in Auckland is that it is not going to be OK: very soon it will be the majority who are excluded.

“If we don’t want to live in a society that is racked by envy and hatred and division and exclusion, the only way to avert this is not with economists, not with public policy, but with politics that engage our better values.”

Hunia argued “inclusion” in Auckland really began with the partnership between Ngāti Whātua and the British Crown in 1840.

“Tāmaki Makaurau is translated as Tāmaki, loved by many. It is the most loveable city, and it’s everyone’s role who chooses to live in this land, to make it so.”

Upcoming events in the Ballot Box series are Auckland: The Innovative City, on Wednesday 7 September; followed by Auckland: The Sustainable City, on Thursday 22 September.

RElease from:   The University of Auckland Business School

A report in American Machinist says that ANA Holdings Inc., the world's largest operator of the 787 Dreamliner, confirmed it will replace or repair all Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines on its Boeing 787 Dreamliners in order to deal with an outbreak of cracks in the medium-pressure turbines caused by excessive vibration. The issue has caused All-Nippon Airways to cancel 18 flights in the past week, and reports indicate up to 300 more flights may have to be canceled in the coming weeks as the issue is addressed.

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A report in American Machinist says that ANA Holdings Inc., the world's largest operator of the 787 Dreamliner, confirmed it will replace or repair all Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines on its Boeing 787 Dreamliners in order to deal with an outbreak of cracks in the medium-pressure turbines caused by excessive vibration. The issue has caused All-Nippon Airways to cancel 18 flights in the past week, and reports indicate up to 300 more flights may have to be canceled in the coming weeks as the issue is addressed.

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Togs reveal limits of diversity and multiculturalism

A swimwear outfit designed in Australia is pulling apart the ruling coalition of the world’s sixth largest economy and in doing so is granulating the two central pillars of modern social democracy—diversity and multiculturalism.The beach togs are unraveling the threads of these backdrop tapestries of contemporary liberal belief not because they reveal too much. But too little.The burkini has become the symbol of the limits of diversity and multiculturalism. Throughout France, local municipalities, notably in the Nice area, continue to defy a high court ruling to the effect that their wearers are entitled to wear them on public beaches.The argument against the burkini goes like this:-   · It is a symbol of a religious extremism   · As such its wearers are deliberately being used to display this extremism and thus to promote it by pushing out the boundaries of public tolerance   · The coverall design of the burkini is unhygienic   · Lifeguards would find their work impeded by the multi-layer structure of the costume   · The voluminous composition of the outfit means that it is suitable for hiding explosivesThe beach outfit has split the women’s movement with those on the left saying it is women’s right to wear what they want, when they want, and where. The feminists in president Francois Hollande’s government have seen the burkini in the context of womens’ right to choose instead of in the context of a visible signal that women are obeying males.France’s prime minister the energetic Manuel Valls has sided against a large proportion of his ruling Socialist Party coalition by backing local seaside authorities and supporting their ban on the burkini, and their right to arrest wearers of it.France’s president Francois Hollande has stood aside from the issue. He is known for his analysis by paralysis, a process known in France as being uncertain about who is the goat and who is the cabbage? Is one the eater or the eaten?Mr Valls is in no such quandary. He was an early opponent of eye-slits only religious street garb and followed through when the burkini became a much more intense symbol of rampant sectarianism and thus absence of assimilation.With Mr Hollande being devoured by the polls, Mr Valls (above in a cartoon from the Liberation daily) is viewed as the obvious last minute presidential substitute.The burkini meanwhile can take many forms ranging from home-made rigs resembling hooded anoraks complete with leggings to variations on the original and much copied Australian design.This centres on a fabric wetsuit style with a modified turban headpiece with flashes of colour and varying volumes of shrouding and enveloping drapes – the cause of the live-saving chagrin.

From the MSCNewsWire European reporters' desk - Thursday 1 September 2016

The newly formed business James Cropper 3D Products (JC3DP) based  in Cumbria, UK, has launched a renewable and recyclable moulded packaging product which it says is a “sustainable alternative to plastic”.It is made from entirely renewable materials and consumers can recycle it with household paper.   It said this has been developed as a bespoke, design-engineered, moulded paper packaging product which challenges plastic in terms of colour, quality and performance and will add value for brand owners, designers and other customers – ‘going above and beyond the capabilities of any other moulded fibre packaging’.

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Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully has announced Michael Upton as New Zealand’s next High Commissioner to Kiribati.

“New Zealand and Kiribati have a strong relationship and we work closely in areas of sustainable economic development, fisheries cooperation, water and sanitation, climate change, and maritime safety,” Mr McCully says.

“The High Commissioner will be responsible for overseeing New Zealand’s aid programme in Kiribati, which will total around $17 million this year.

“A major focus is working to address the impacts of overcrowding in South Tarawa, where about half of Kiribati’s population live, and improving waste management, water and sanitation.

“Kiribati faces some major challenges that will only be made worse by climate change. We are currently considering a major programme of investment, alongside other donors, that will help address these issues and offer the people of Kiribati some protection against rising sea levels and King tides,” Mr McCully says.

Mr Upton has extensive experience working across the Pacific region and is currently First Secretary at the New Zealand High Commission in Samoa.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully has named new Consuls-General in Guangzhou, Los Angeles and Honolulu.

Rachel Maidment will be New Zealand’s next Consul-General Guangzhou. Following a 10 year career as a diplomat, she established a leading Asia consultancy, Navigate, providing services to a wide range of government and private sector clients.

“Guangzhou is one of China’s largest and most prosperous cities, and is now the centre for politics, business, innovation and culture in South China,” says Mr McCully.

“As the third largest municipal economy in China after Beijing and Shanghai, the city is one of the main gateways for New Zealand’s burgeoning trade with China. Guangdong province is home to China Southern Airlines and a major source of tourists and investors.”

Maurice Williamson will be appointed as Consul-General in Los Angeles. He has been MP for Pakuranga since 1987 and has held several Ministerial portfolios, including Science and Technology and Information Technology.

“Mr Williamson will be responsible for engagement with US investors and innovators to ensure New Zealand policies and exporters remain at the leading edge of change,” Mr McCully says.

“California and other western states of America are major export markets for New Zealand and important investment partners, particularly in added-value food and beverage and technology. The United States is New Zealand’s largest market for intellectual property-based exports, and those exports will continue to grow strongly.”

Karena Lyons will be the next Consul-General in Hawaii and will also be New Zealand’s accredited Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Palau and Republic of Marshall Islands. She is a diplomat who served in New York during New Zealand’s United Nations Security Council campaign and most recently as an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

“The Consulate-General in Honolulu is a vital post for managing New Zealand’s relationship with the United States in the Pacific region,” Mr McCully says.

“As the home of the United States Pacific Command, Honolulu is the focal point for US engagement in the Asia Pacific region.

“Ms Lyons will also be responsible for managing our development, fisheries and disaster risk management work in the northern Pacific.”