Waikato Business News | November 1, 2023

NOVEMBER 2023 

The voice of Waikato 

A tick for tourism 

Getting visitors to the 

Waikato to stay longer 

and explore deeper is 

paying dividends already, 

senior writer Mary Anne 

Gill discovers. 

Waikato tourism has bounced 

back bigger and better - 

outperforming most of the 

country post Covid with the region’s 

13.2 million visitors spending $857 

million on card transactions. 

Tourist operators are treating 

visitors to quality and not just quantity 

and it is paying off, says Hamilton and 

Waikato tourism chief executive Nicola 

Greenwell in her wrap of the year 

ended June 30. 

That “stay longer and explore 

deeper” approach has resulted in 

an annual domestic visitor spend of 

$751.6 million – up nearly 20 per cent 

on the previous year, the fourth best in 

New Zealand and $110 million more 

than the 12 months ended June 30, 

2019. 

Waikato people visiting Waikato 

were the top spenders followed by 

Aucklanders and Bay of Plenty. 

And the international visitors – 

Australians, Americans and the British 

were the top three - came back to spend 

their money leaving $105.5 million in 

the regional coffers; up 224 per cent on 

the previous year and $11 million more 

than 2019. 

Sporting, travel and cultural events 

are back at places including Lake 

Karāpiro, Mystery Creek, Hamilton 

Gardens, Waikato Stadium and 

Claudelands while business events also 

returned in a big way with Waikato 

holding 799 and accounting for 10 per 

cent of all the business events in New 

Zealand. 

Only Wellington and Auckland are 

ahead of Waikato with the region 

hosting 108,500 delegates. 

Hamilton and Waikato Tourism’s 

role is to generate competitive 

economic benefit through visitor sector 

strategies focused on increasing visitor 

length of stay and spend. 

Its funds come from the region’s 

tourism industry and six local 

authorities – Hamilton, Matamata- 

Piako, Ōtorohanga, Waikato, Waipā 

and Waitomo. 

Greenwell says June 30 seems a 

distant memory as the first four months 

of this financial year were already busy 

with events like the Women’s World 

Football Cup bringing even more 

people to the region. 

Recent promotional trips by staff to 

South East Asia, America, United and 

Kingdom were looking very strong for 

the Waikato market. 

“We’re feeling quite buoyant.” 

The organisation’s approach has 

been to promote Waikato as a place to 

“stop, stay and dwell” and by “selling 

the dream” it puts Waikato into 

people’s minds. 

At Hobbiton before Covid and at the 

height of the season, a tour bus would 

run through the movie set every five 

minutes. Now it is 10 minutes, she 

said. 

At Waitomo Caves where there were 

24 people on the boat before, now 

there are 20. 

Operators are providing tourists with 

a better experience, better engagement 

while they are there and a lighter 

footprint in the community. 

Waikato’s $1 million share of the 

government’s $26 million Covid 

recovery funds was put to good use. 

Only $9 million is left unspent, said 

Greenwell. 

“We have maximised the use of these 

funds with many projects, campaigns 

and activities for our operators. We’ve 

developed tools and content for the 

ongoing benefit of the region and the 

mahi that we undertake.” 

The tourism organisation topped 

up its image library used to promote 

Waikato overseas. 

It also ran sentiment surveys among 

residents on what they thought were 

the ups and downs of increasing tourist 

numbers. 

Waikato’s tourism approval rating of 

51 towards international visitors was 

streaks ahead New Zealand’s 44 and 

the 67 rating for domestic visitors was 

ahead of the country’s 63 rating. 

Residents liked the benefits tourism 

brought such as local businesses 

opening longer, employment, a greater 

appreciation of buildings and sites and 

an enhanced profile. 

Challenges came with more litter, 

parking and traffic congestion and 

damage to the natural environment. 

“We look back on the year with pride 

in our region and (our) industry’s 

resilience to rebound from global 

pandemic and cyclone damage to now 

be performing very strongly,” said 

Greenwell. 

• See Nicola Greenwell’s column on 

Page 18 

This young 

Te Awamutu 

man is playing 

his cards right 

– read about 

Young Enterprise 

Scheme winner 

Jacob Chetwin 

on Page 5. 

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2 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS 


Editor 

Roy Pilott 

027 450 0115 

News 

Mary Anne Gill 

021 705 213 

Viv Posselt 

027 233 7686 

Jeremy Smith 

022 317 9499 

CONTACTS 

editor@goodlocal.nz 

maryanne@goodlocal.nz 

viv@goodlocal.nz 

jeremy@goodlocal.nz 

Advertising Director 

Janine Davy janine@goodlocal.nz 

027 287 0005 

Owner 

David Mackenzie 

david@goodlocal.nz 

Office 

07 827 0005 admin@goodlocal.nz 

Website 

wbn.co.nz 

Readers’ contributions of articles and letters are 

welcome. Publication of contributions are entirely at 

the discretion of editorial staff and may be edited. 

Contributions will only be considered for publication 

when accompanied by the author’s full name, 

residential address, and telephone number. Opinions 

expressed are not necessarily those of the publishers. 

Waikato Business News is published by Good Local 

Media Limited. 

Also publishers of 

This newspaper is subject to NZ Media 

Council procedures. A complaint must first 

be directed in writing, within one month of 

publication, to the editor’s email address. 

If not satisfied with the response, the 

complaint may be referred to the Media 

Council P O Box 10-879, The Terrace, 

Wellington 6143. Or use the online complaint 

form at www.mediacouncil.org.nz 

Please include copies of the article and all 

correspondence with the publication. 

EDITORIAL 

Getting the 

News to you 

When Good Local Media owner David 

Mackenzie announced the purchase of 

the respected Waikato Business News 

masthead a month ago, a simple message 

about its editorial content was made 

clear. 

“Our news stories are pro-business – 

but not written to promote business,” 

he said. 

It is a policy I subscribe to. Many if not 

most of our stories will be good news for 

business, but that will not be the starting 

point for what we write. 

Good Local Media believes in 

maintaining a healthy wall between 

editorial and advertising and has 

consistently done so in its two community 

publications, the Cambridge News and 

Te Awamutu News. 

The two departments do liaise, it would 

be folly not to – but the demarcation line 

between what is a story and what is an 

advert is healthy. 

In short, we don’t write complimentary 

stories about businesses as a reward 

for their decision to spend money on 

advertising, and we don’t limit our stories 

to businesses who take out adverts. 

It is a policy which ensures the content 

presented to you, our readers, has passed 

the news test. 

This month’s first edition of the Waikato 

Business News under Good Local Media’s 

banner contains a raft of stories we have 

generated – from the Cambridge Festival 

of Sport to a review of Ombudsman Peter 

Boshier’s report on council workshops. 

It also brings you other stories, like 

the report on Waikato University’s Hiko 

hub, which has benefitted from having 

editorial and photographic material 

provided by skilled and knowledgeable 

writers working in the communications 

field for Waikato companies. 

The Good Local team of writers is led by 

Mary Anne Gill – whose award winning 

work has featured in the Waikato for 

many years. Her stories feature in this 

edition, and you can expect to see many 

exclusive reports from her in future. 

Janine Davy leads the advertising team 

who will help you promote your business 

– and she is another award winning 

highly experienced 

member of our team. 

I look forward to 

helping the Waikato 

Business News continue 

a proud history of being 

Waikato’s voice. 

Roy Pilott, editor 

New bishop appointed 

By Mary Anne Gill 

Waikato-born priest Richard Laurenson 

has been appointed by Pope Francis as 

the new Catholic bishop in the Hamilton 

Diocese. 

The appointment was announced in Rome 

last month. Laurenson replaces Stephen 

Lowe, who was appointed Auckland bishop 

two years ago. 

It means all six New Zealand dioceses now 

have a bishop. 

Laurenson says he is looking forward to 

his new role with a mix of fear and peace and 

is praying that he does not disappoint. 

He is the parish priest at All Saints by the 

Sea in Papamoa Coast and has served in 

other parishes around the diocese in Waihi, 

Taumarunui and Hamilton. 

Laurenson was born in Hamilton in 1968 

and was ordained by Bishop Denis Browne 

in 1995. 

He attended Holy Cross Seminary in 

Mosgiel, has a Baccalaureate in Theology 

from Otago University (1992) and studied 

for and obtained a Licentiate in Canon 

Law from Pontifical Urbaniana University in 

Rome from 2007 to 2010. 

As a military chaplain for a decade, he 

served for a time with peacekeeping forces 

in Bougainville and Timor Leste. 

Laurenson is the first priest since Bishop 

Max Takuira Mariu to have been in the 

diocese. Mariu, who was auxiliary bishop of 

Hamilton from 1988 to 2005 and the first 

Māori to be ordained a Catholic bishop, was 

born in Taumarunui and died in Auckland 

18 years ago. 

Laurenson says being a parish priest 

means always thinking parochially, with a 

nod to diocesan impacts. 

“This change in my situation will take 

some getting used to, so I beg the indulgence 

of my brother priests and the good people of 

God in the diocese as we all get to grips with 

my new situation.” 

Briefs… 

Board members 

Janey Haringa and Mark Donovan have 

joined the Waikato Chamber of Commerce 

board. They were elected along with 

returning member Andrew Boyd at the 

chamber’s annual meeting where Tracy 

Clark’s nine year service was acknowledged. 

New chief 

Simon Wickham will succeed Kelvin 

Eglinton as Momentum Waikato chief 

executive in January. Wickham is presently 

chief executive at Harkness Henry in 

Hamilton. In making the announcement 

chair Neil Richardson said the organisation 

had evolved under Kelvyn Eglinton’s 

stewardship “and we’re delighted to have 

someone of Simon’s calibre come onboard 

for Momentum’s next phase”. 

Bishop-elect Richard Laurenson. 

The Hamilton Diocese is a huge one and a 

multi million dollar business. 

It starts in Huntly at St Anthony’s, down 

to Hamilton and across to the Coromandel 

and Bay of Plenty, down the eastern coast 

to Gisborne, east to Taupō, Tūrangi and 

Taumarunui and then up the west coast to 

Hamilton with everything in between. 

Formed in 1980, the diocese has five 

secondary schools, two of them in Hamilton, 

28 primary schools and two early childhood 

education centres. 

Its cathedral is the Blessed Virgin Mary in 

Hamilton East where Laurenson is expected 

to be ordained on Friday December 8 – 

Feast of the Immaculate Conception. 

Rail boost 

A third daily return run for the Hamilton to 

Auckland rail service Te Huia will run on 

Thursdays and Fridays, and a second return 

service on Saturdays. The additional runs, 

announced by Waikato Regional Council 

and KiwiRail will start on February 8. 

Wananga planned 

Māori social impact organisation Tapuwae 

Roa will stage four wananga – including one 

in Hamilton on November 18 - as part of 

a push to grow the number of Māori startups. 

Business mentor Saara Tawha said it 

was hoped the interactive one-day wānanga 

would “ignite the entrepreneurial spirit of 

participants while providing key tools and 

skills to progress their business ideas into 

reality”. 

Tim van de Molen 

Your MP for Waikato 

Backing Waikato Businesses 

Tim.vandeMolenMP@parliament.govt.nz 

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Briefs… 

Top trainers 

Fleetcoach was crowned 

best fleet safety product 

at the 2023 Australasian 

Fleet Champions Awards 

for their online driver 

training platform. The 

annual awards celebrate 

the achievements of fleet 

organisations working to 

reduce road deaths and 

injuries and improve fleet 

sustainability. Fleetcoach 

was based in Hamilton until 

early 2023 when it moved to 

Christchurch. 

Voting starts 

Voting has opened for Mitre 

10’s Project Playground 

initiative, which so far 

has seen seven schools 

around the country receive 

new areas for children to 

play. Fairfield Primary, 

Ngāruawāhia Primary, 

Whatawhata School and 

Rhode Street School are 

among schools in a public 

voting round. One will get 

a new $90,000 playground. 

Sister act 

Hamilton Mayor Paula 

Southgate has hosted 

sister city Chengdu 

Mayor, Wang Fengchao 

for economic, education 

and tourism opportunity 

discussions. The round 

table talks included Waikato 

University and Wintec, 

Fonterra, Waikato Tourism, 

the Waikato Chamber of 

Commerce, Hamilton and 

Waikato Tourism, Project X, 

the Waikato Weekly Chinese 

Newspaper and the New 

Zealand China Friendship 

Society. 

Hiring in Taupo 

Hire company Kennards 

Hire has acquired Taupo 

Hire. The company, which 

has an outlet in Hamilton, 

has now extended its New 

Zealand footprint to 29 

outlets. 

New offices 

Financial advisors Total Life 

have opened a new Victoria 

St office in Cambridge. The 

company’s head office is in 

Invercargill. 

WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS 3 

Festival fit for a king 

A new festival launched to fund a mental health charity could become an annual 

fixture. Roy Pilott reports. 

Alwyn Poole was so 

impressed by Mike King he 

undertook to raise $10,000 

a year for his I am Hope 

mental health crusade. 

Poole, an experienced 

educationalist with a 

sporting background is 

making good on that pledge 

with his Cambridge Festival 

of Sport which will run at 

the end of the month. 

He has a vision of the 

November 23-26 festival 

becoming an annual event 

– yet despite a star studded 

start, he readily admits 

Alwyn Poole 

Looking at art in the city 

Ethan Bennett follows Graeme Cairns as he leads a tour as part 

of the Boon Street Art Festival in Hamilton. 

In the youngest city in 

New Zealand, creativity is 

thriving and can be seen 

from all angles, though 

sometimes it is hidden away 

from plain sight. 

Offering a captivating 

glimpse into this is the 

Boon Street Art Walking 

Tour, open on Saturdays. It 

provides the opportunity to 

discover Hamilton’s striking 

art murals. 

Tour guide Graeme Cairns 

provides an entertaining 

and informative experience 

while you roam the city. 

He started the tour I 

he doesn’t expect the first 

one will get him over the 

$10,000 mark. 

But for King’s Gumboot 

Friday “I’ll find the money 

one way or another”. 

The festival combines 

two major events – a 

Gumboot Friday concert at 

Claudelands and a dinner at 

Tieke Golf Estate featuring 

Rod Dixon – and marking 

the 40th anniversary of his 

Yew York City marathon win 

– with sporting events where 

the greater the participation, 

the more benefit it will be 

for host clubs. 

Poole has lined up Mahe 

Drysdale and Juliette Haigh 

as spokespeople for the 

event. 

Cambridge High School 

band Pineja will open at 

Claudelands for Jason 

Kerrison and The Feelers. 

The festival of sport 

programme includes events 

aimed at children, adults, 

families and schools. 

Swimming, athletics, 

golf, rowing, goalkicking, 

basketball, cycling, crossfit, 

fishing and football events 

will be held in and around 

Cambridge. 

Poole doesn’t hide his 

was on by mentioning his 

personal experience as an 

artist, though his only mural 

was done back in the 80s. 

This lined up with the first 

instance of street art in 

Hamilton, the 1980s Artline 

scheme. 

He also chatted briefly 

about the history of 

Hamilton’s city centre. 

With a liaison between the 

Boon Festival, the owners of 

buildings and the council, the 

opportunity for artists has 

brought to life some of the 

side streets and prominent 

buildings of the city. 

admiration for King. 

From bawdy – and 

successful – comedian, 

King has transformed into 

a passionate campaigner for 

greater awareness of mental 

health since launching his 

community korero show a 

decade ago. 

Poole describes King’s 

passion for mental health as 

almost a conversion. 

He was considering 

getting King to speak in 

schools eight years ago, so 

went and watched him at 

Tamaki College to be certain 

he would be the right fit. 

“Phenomenal – he had the 

kids laughing, engaged – he 

also spoke exceedingly well, 

too, to kids who were not 

struggling to tell them about 

their role to keep an eye out 

for others.” 

King subsequently spoke 

to middle schools for Poole. 

“He blew us away – we 

thought we knew our kids. 

He finished speaking and 

invited anyone who wanted 

to come up and chat. We 

left him with eight students 

and what they told him was 

extraordinary and resulted 

in actions we could take to 

ensure they were looked 

Cairns said specific 

guidelines are in place that 

ensure the art is deemed 

appropriate for all ages, 

something some of the 

artists had to look out for. 

From northwestern art 

styles, such as a bear and 

a wolf that are prominent 

in native American art and 

culture by Mica Still, all the 

way to traditional Chinese 

imagery on the side of a 

Chinese shop by Waikato 

artists who ate there while 

studying at Wintec, the 

range of style is massive. 

For an engaging look 

after.” 

King was made an Officer 

of the New Zealand Order 

of Merit in 2019. Two 

years later, through tears, 

he handed the medal back, 

imploring people to do 

something. 

He spoke of a profound 

sense of sadness that “no 

one’s listening”. 

King’s Gumboot Friday is 

a free counselling service for 

people 25 and under and 

delivers more than 3400 

sessions a month. 

On his website he laments 

that more than 100 families 

will lose a loved one this 

year, and thousands more 

Graeme Cairns chats about the Wintec students who used to 

eat at Canton Hong Kong Restaurant and the mural they painted 

years later 

into Hamilton’s street art, 

as well as a way to simply 

local businesses and artists, 

the Boon Street Art Walking 

Mike King 

will be destroyed “trying to 

navigate a broken system”. 

“Sadly, this crucial lifeline 

is not funded by central 

government and or will it 

ever be,” he says. 

Rowing champion Mahe Drysdale, in his heyday, is now a 

spokesperson for the event. Photo: Supplied. 

Tour is definitely something 

to dive into. 

• Ethan Bennett is a Wintec 

journalism student. 

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WHO WE WORK WITH


A 

12-year-old from Te Awamutu 

who invented an educational card 

game has picked up the Te Pūkenga 

Company of the Year at the Waikato 

regional Young Enterprise Awards. 

Jacob Chetwin attends Te Awamutu 

College. 

The year-12 students’ game is designed to 

teach year 7 and 8 students about business 

concepts and financial literacy. 

The strategic game consists of 75-card 

deck and has been played by over 700 

students across the Waikato. 

Jacob plans to continue developing and 


Jacob plays his cards right 

Martin Brock presented Jacob Chetwin, with his certificate. 

expanding his business, called Liquidation, 

into 2024. 

He will compete at the Lion Foundation 

sponsored Young Enterprise National 

Awards in Wellington on December 4. 

More than 250 Year 12 and 13 students 

participated in Young Enterprise Scheme 

in 2023, setting up and operating their 

own businesses, creating, promoting, and 

selling a product or service, conducting 

market research, planning, budgeting, 

managing risk and turning problems into 

opportunities. 

The annual event aims to provide young 

people with opportunities to develop an 

entrepreneurial mindset. 

Results from the regional 

awards night: 

Foster Construction’s Runner Up 

– Reusaballs, Sacred Heart Girls 

College (Hamilton), Waikato Chamber 

of Commerce’s Excellence in Financial 

Management Award – UniquelyMe, Sacred 

Heart Girls College (Hamilton), EMA’s 

Excellence in Production Award – Down 

to Earth, Hamilton Boys High School, 

Waikato Pacific Business Network’s Pasifika 

Enterprise Award – Doughnas, Sacred 

Heart Girls’ College (Hamilton), Waikato 

Business News’ Excellence in Promotion 

and Marketing Award – Cheeky Chocolates, 

Fraser High School, CAL Isuzu’s Excellence 

in Innovation Award – Tyred Dogz, Hauraki 

Plains College, The University of Waikato’s 

Excellence in Leadership Award – Anna 

Hart, Hauraki Plains College, Excellence 

in Sales - Bubble No Trouble, Waikato 

Diocesan School for Girls, Best Trade Fair 

Presence – Reusaballs, Sacred Heart Girls 

College (Hamilton), E x c e l l e n c e 

in Sustainability Award – Sprowt, St 

Peters Cambridge, Best Annual Review – 

Play Kāri, Waikato Diocesan School for 

Girls, Commitment to Business Award – 

Liquidation, Te Awamutu College. 

Grayson Clements associate thrives 

on simplifying the complex for clients 

Banking 

by degrees 

Waikato University has introduced the 

country’s first Bachelor of Banking, Finance & 

Technology. 

Waikato Management School pro vice 

chancellor Matt Bolger said employers say they 

will increasingly need people who can thrive in 

both finance and technology: 

“The world of finance runs on digital 

technology. From investment platforms 

and digital currencies to the way we make 

payments, nothing happens without digital. 

Yet no undergraduate degree in New Zealand 

currently recognises the need for these dual 

competencies.” 

“The BBFinTech will fill this critical skills 

gap. Graduates will help businesses continue 

to innovate and evolve - whether they are a 

local Kiwi champion or a Silicon Valley startup.” 

A 2022 Fintech Insights report found that 

200 New Zealand tech companies generated 

an export revenue of $1.8 billion that year. 

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s 

investigation into digital currencies also signals 

an even more cashless future, according to 

Bolger. 

Shane Marsh, founder of fintech innovator 

Dosh and University of Waikato alumni, said 

they will require more skilled people 

He says this sector has a range of opportunities 

and that regulation will be especially critical. 

“There is a real need for people with fintech 

skills who can help shape the future of financial 

services. We need people who understand how 

open banking, digital currencies and emerging 

technology will define the future solutions we 

want in New Zealand and overseas.” 

The BBFinTech degree will arm students 

with expertise in financial markets, 

investment platforms, digital finance, banking 

operations, automated trading, blockchains, 

cryptocurrencies, cyber security, and more. 

ADVERTORIAL 

Grayson Clements’ Associate Lawyer, Philip McHugh, thrives 

on complexity and the challenge of navigating uncertainties. 

What sets 

him apart, 

however, is 

his ability 

to put the individual, his 

client, at the center of 

the issue and develop 

bespoke legal solutions 

to protect them, their 

interests, and their 

families. 

Philip was recently 

promoted from lawyer 

to associate at Grayson 

Clements, a law firm 

based at Hamilton’s 

Innovation Park. The firm 

was established in 2008 

by directors Michael 

Grayson and Andrew 

Clements with the desire 

to grow a firm that was 

“a little bit different” in 

its value-driven, clientcentric 

approach. It 

now employs 26 legal 

professionals across a 

wide range of areas. 

Philip’s love of 

learning is clear, and 

it’s an approach that 

he carries into his 

interactions with clients. 

He has a Bachelor 

of Arts, majoring in 

philosophy and political 

science, another 

Bachelor of Arts, 

majoring in history 

and religious studies 

and a Bachelor of 

Arts with Honours in 

Religious Studies from 

Victoria University in 

Wellington. After forging 

a successful career 

in retail, including a 

stint in the complaints 

department for a small 

ship cruise line in 

London, Philip went back 

to university to study law 

in 2015, graduating with 

a Bachelor of Laws with 

Honours in 2018. 

He has been 

practicing as a solicitor 

since then, reaching 

associate level after 

only four years of his 

admission to the bar. 

He is also passionate 

about developments in 

emerging technologies, 

including blockchain, 

encryption, and AI and 

the developing legal 

framework to regulate it. 

At his best in complex 

situations, Philip is 

When I’m working 

with a client, I start 

by getting to know 

them, what drives 

them, what their 

internal motivators 

are. By knowing 

this, and building a 

great relationship, 

we can come to a 

legal solution that 

best suits their 

needs and can 

grow as they grow. 

passionate about helping 

his clients achieve their 

goals with simple legal 

solutions. 

“Just because your 

life is complex, doesn’t 

mean your legal 

structure has to be,” he 

says. 

It’s no surprise then 

that Philip thrives on 

making his clients feel 

comfortable with their 

legal structures and 

explaining complex legal 

terms in plain language. 

His specialty is in helping 

individual and corporate 

clients structure their 

relationships with 

deeds, agreements and 

other documentation, 

and he has a particular 

interest in the interplay 

of legal persons 

(companies, trusts, 

Limited Partnerships, 

etc) to protect, preserve 

and commercialise his 

Philip McHugh 

clients’ potential. 

“As a lawyer, I love 

exploring the ‘what if’ 

scenarios with clients, 

going down rabbit 

holes and getting 

to the heart of a 

situation and exploring 

the opportunities 

from there. It’s really 

satisfying when you’ve 

explored all the options 

available and come to a 

solution that is beneficial 

for the client, not just in 

protecting their assets, 

but also in knowing you 

have looked at every 

possibility and come to 

the best solution based 

Grayson Clements – Design, Deliver, Protect 

Grayson Clements was established in 2008 by lawyers Michael Grayson and 

Andrew Clements, who both had a desire to grow a firm that focused on designing 

solutions, delivering results and protecting people. Their work and reputation have 

gained traction and their client base has grown organically to a point where they 

now have a team of 26 staff across a range of practice areas. 

on their needs. 

“I’m particularly 

interested in the 

technology space as 

it relates to the law, 

especially as so much of 

it has not been legislated 

and there’s no right 

answer. There’s a huge 

amount of work to be 

done in that space and 

that can only come 

through us, as legal 

professionals, learning 

more and doing more 

work in the field to 

establish some best 

practices.”



Hiko will open for business 

Businesses will have an opportunity from next year to work at 

Waikato University. So what is Hiko all about? 

Waikato University 

has announced 

plans to establish 

a new hub for business 

opening next year. 

The Gateway building, 

a short walk from the 

Waikato Management 

School and The Pā, will 

become the Hiko hub which 

will provide opportunities 

for businesses, particularly 

those who want to work with 

students and researchers 

and take advantage of 

campus grounds and 

amenities. 

It follows similar 

initiatives such as the 

Newmarket Innovation 

Precinct in Auckland. 

Hiko means lightning in 

te reo Māori and reflects the 

fact the new venture is about 

the ignition of big ideas and 

the energy needed to grow 

them. 

The project is being 

overseen by chief operating 

officer Jim Mercer and 

Pro-Vice Chancellor at 

the Waikato Management 

School, Matt Bolger. Natalie 

Swart recently appointed as 

the Hiko Hub manager. 

The university says the 

new hub aspires to improve 

the connection between the 

business community and the 

University, acknowledging 

it can be a challenging 

landscape to navigate. 

“This is a concept that’s 

been brewing for several 

years, motivated by a desire 

to be more aligned to the 

needs of specific industry 

groups, as well as making 

smarter use of our space,” 

Jim Mercer said. 

“We’re confident Hiko hub 

meets a real need for small 

businesses in the region 

who want to offer their 

teams a vibrant and modern 

workplace and generally be 

part of something bigger.” 

Hiko will comprise a mix 

of open plan, private and 

semi-private offices. 

Operational costs and a 

raft of support services will 

be bundled into tenancy 

fees. 

The Hiko team say interest 

has been strong, particularly 

from the technology sector. 

The university had taken 

inspiration from co-working 

spaces around the country, 

along with feedback from 

business owners across the 

region. Swart said. 

“What we’ve been hearing 

is that many of them are 

reassessing what they need 

from a commercial office 

but creating a sense of 

community when people 

are in the office is more 

important than ever.” 

Scholars announced 

The Waikato Regional Council and Waikato- 

Tainui Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu 

scholars for 2023 have been announced. 

The list includes 10 Waikato tauira studying 

a range of academic fields have won. 

The scholarships provide up to $4400 

to support Māori students pursuing fulltime 

undergraduate programmes at 

Waikato University, particularly in resource 

management or environmental fields. 

Applicants must be enrolled in full-time 

undergraduate study at Waikato University, be 

of Māori descent, and from a family that resides 

in the Waikato Regional Council boundary. 

The scholars are 

• Tina Hille-Taylor (Te Waenganuitanga), 19, 

who is studying a Bachelor of Management 

Studies with Honours and Bachelor of Laws 

and lives in Hamilton. 

• Jasmine (Ngahuia) Young (Te Rarawa), 20, is 

due to complete a Diploma in Te Tohu Paetahi 

and is enrolled for further undergraduate study. 

• Keana Hepi (Tainui), 19 is studying a Bachelor 

of Arts and Bachelor of Laws and lives in 

Hamilton. 

• Tui Barrett (Tainui/Kaitahu), 26, is from 

Hamilton is undertaking a Bachelor of Health 

Sport and Human Performance. 

• Tiffany Walker (Ngāti Tūwharetoa), 36, 

from Tūrangi is undertaking a Bachelor of 

Environmental Planning in Te Ara Taiao: 

Māori and the Environment. 

• Atawhai McDonnell (Tainui), 19, from 

Hamilton is undertaking a Bachelor of Arts. 

• Mekayla Peneha (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Maniapoto, 

Te Rarawa, Ngāti Kahu), 30, from Ngāruawāhia 

has just commenced her third year of study 

of a Bachelor of Health in Poutū-manahau 

Population Health. 

• Kimihia Solomon-Banks (Tainui), 24, from 

Raglan is undertaking a Bachelor of Business. 

• Aaron Barnsdall (Waikato, Raukawa, Ngāti 

Tūwharetoa, Ngāti Pūkenga, Pouākani), 38, 

from Hamilton is undertaking a Bachelor of 

Environmental Planning in Te Ara Taiao: 

Māori and the Environment. 

• Ella Cooper-Levin (Whakatōhea), 21, is 

completing an honours year of her Bachelor of 

Computing and Mathematical Sciences and is 

from Te Kauwhata. 

Pro Vice-Chancellor for the Waikato Management School, Matt Bolger, left, pictured with HIKO hub 

Manager Natalie Swart and Chief Operating Officer Jim Mercer. 

Celebrating scholars: Back, from left, Bruce Clarkson (Waikato Regional Council), Dr Charles 

Lee (Waikato University), middle, Kimihia Solomon-Banks, Glenda Taituha (Waikato-Tainui), 

Tim Manukau (Waikato University), Aaron Barnsdall, Tui Barrett, Johnny Kenny (Regional 

Council), Tina Hille-Taylor, front, Mekayla Peneha, Hone Thompson (Tumuaki o te Kingitanga), 

Jasmine (Ngahuia) Young, Atawhai McDonnell, Tiffany Walker and Keana Hepi. 

AI – the need for transparency 

Heather Claycomb sees huge benefits that will come with artificial intelligence 

adoption – but she believes it has muddied the waters of trust between 

businesses and their customers. 

Businesses face new 

challenges when building 

and maintaining trust in 

the ‘ChatGPT age’, Heather 

Claycomb says. 

With the help of artificial 

intelligence, AI, businesses 

are streamlining operations, 

enhancing customer 

experiences, and even 

creating written and visual 

content that was once the 

sole domain of human 

creativity. 

But people are nervous 

about the use of AI and 

distrustful of companies 

using it, Claycomb, a 

director of PR agency HMC, 

says. 

The trust issue is tackled 

in the company’s latest 

podcast. 

A global, 31-country 

survey by Ipsos in July 

found New Zealanders were 

more nervous about AI 

and more distrustful than 

their global counterparts. 

It found only 43 per cent 

of New Zealanders trust 

companies that use AI will 

protect their personal data, 

and a similar percentage 

trusted companies that use 

AI as much as they trust 

other companies. 

In the same study, 63 

per cent of New Zealanders 

surveyed said products and 

services that use AI make 

them nervous - compared 

with a 52% global country 

average. 

“Generative AI is relatively 

new – we are just days 

away from ChatGPT’s oneyear 

launch anniversary,” 

Claycomb said.. 

“However, most people 

in our community have 

virtually no awareness or 

understanding of generative 

AI technologies. So, 

when they discover that a 

photographic image isn’t 

a real picture, or that an 

article was produced by a 

computer, not a person, it 

jars their mind. They can 

become distrustful very 

quickly.” 

She says one key to 

maintaining trust when 

embracing the use of 

generative AI is full 

disclosure. 

“Not only does this 

maintain business integrity, 

it also helps people 

acclimatise to the use of the 

technology. As AI becomes 

normalised, it’s likely 

disclosure will no longer be 

necessary. But it is for now,” 

she says. 

With AI stirring up 

nervousness and suspicion, 

businesses must be 

purposeful to reap the 

benefits of trust. 

“Creating a high-trust 

organisation is basically 

your license to operate. 

It gives you the power to 

take risks and recover 

quickly when you make 

mistakes. Trust gives you a 

competitive advantage. And 

high-trust organisations 

reap the rewards of loyal, 

hard-working staff,” says 

Heather. 

• See meet your new 

partner, Page 18



How Company-X grew during the pandemic 

BUSINESS SHOWCASE 

It was the worst of times. 

Company-X co-founders Jeremy 

Hughes and David Hallett called 

a companywide meeting as New 

Zealand responded to the global 

pandemic with its first lockdown. 

Hallett and Hughes were prepared for 

the worst and hoped for the best. 

More than 50 people joined the call 

from home offices, bedrooms, dining 

rooms and lounges around New Zealand 

to hear the co-founders promise that 

they would take Company-X to a fourday 

week rather than lose anyone in a 

pandemic-propelled downturn. 

The Company-X team took a 

collective sigh of relief. 

Three years on and Company-X 

has retained and grown its team while 

avoiding going to a four-day week. 

“We immediately expected a 

downturn and a struggle to retain our 

team,” Hughes reflected. 

“Our goal was to keep everyone 

together and leave no one behind,” 

Hallett added. 

Hughes and Hallett had spent 

eight years building a team of around 

50 highly skilled, tightly knit, selfmanaging, 

and co-located team 

of analysts, architects, designers, 

developers, testers, and project 

managers. 

Company-X’s team had earned a 

reputation creating tools and systems 

that help their clients make evidencebased 

decisions. 

The software specialist is renowned 

for creating solutions that consolidate 

“We hired a bunch 

of people who are 

prepared to take 

initiative. That is 

one of the things 

that really made a 

difference.” 

asset, financial and other statistical 

information from a range of sources to 

provide insights into performance. 

Company-X supports clients to 

improve the quality of business-critical 

data for effective decision making. 

The team also has deep expertise in 

simulation and virtual reality. 

“We firmly believed we had a 

fantastic team that we wanted to 

retain,” Hughes said. 

“Looking back, we are so pleased, 

grateful and thankful that we came 

through the last few years growing as 

a company and retaining the team,” 

Hallett said. 

“We hired a bunch of people who are 

prepared to take initiative. That is one of 

the things that really made a difference,” 

Hallett said. 

Company-X had implemented 

strategies that supported team 

members mental, physical, and 

emotional health during the pandemic. 

“The vision was to help the team 

‘stay the course’,” Hallett said. 

“During the pandemic it was 

not unusual for team members to 

receive a phone call from a wellbeing 

representative asking how they were 

going.” 

Company-X sent care packages to 

team members who tested positive for 

COVID-19. 

“We are proud of what we 

have accomplished during the 

pandemic,” Hallett said. 

“We have shown that we 

are a resilient company that 

is able to adapt to change,” 

Hughes concluded. 

Above: Company-X retained and grew 

its team during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Below: Company-X co-founders Jeremy 

Hughes, left, and David Hallett. 

Navigate the 

digital landscape 

with us



Being mayor, doing that… 

Mary Anne Gill catches up with Waipā’s 

first female mayor, Susan O’Regan. 

Plenty of people are 

prepared to put a 

wager on Waipā mayor 

Susan O’Regan becoming a 

National Party member of 

Parliament. 

But right now, it would be 

a tough ask prising her out 

of the job she describes as 

the best she has ever had. 

Politics pores through 

her veins – her mother 

Katherine O’Regan was 

the first woman elected on 

the Waipā County Council 

and was then an MP from 

1984 to 1999; serving 

as a minister in various 

portfolios during the fourth 

National government. 

In 2018 when Katherine 

died of breast cancer – 

diagnosed through the free 

screening programme she 

helped set up as Associate 

Health minister – Susan was 

in her first term as a Waipā 

district councillor. 

Two years earlier she 

turned down the opportunity 

to become the National 

Party MP in Taranaki-King 

Country because she was 

pregnant with son Jack. 

The 51-year-old is Waipā’s 

first female mayor. 

O’Regan recently reflected 

on the 12 months as 

mayor before heading off 

to Le Quesnoy in France 

to represent Waipā at the 

opening of Te Arawhata – 

New Zealand Liberation 

Museum followed by her 

first break in a year. 

Cambridge, Waipā’s 

largest town, and Le 

Quesnoy are sister 

cities and in 2018 Waipā 

controversially donated 

$150,000 towards the 

museum’s establishment. 

O’Regan abstained early 

on from voting on moral 

grounds saying she would 

have preferred to see that 

money go on a museum 

of relevance for Waipā 

ratepayers – one which 

would acknowledge the New 

Zealand Land Wars’ impact 

on the district. 

“I always had a little bit 

of reservation in my mind 

because there were our own 

histories here which needed 

attention. 

“But this is a crucial piece 

of telling New Zealand 

history in an area where 

there is a paucity of New 

Zealand stories. 

“It’s such a great story and 

the connection Cambridge 

has to Le Quesnoy and the 

town has with New Zealand 

means it is an important 

story to tell.” 

When O’Regan stood for 

the mayoralty last year, her 

biggest task was getting to 

know what the issues were 

in Cambridge. 

She is closely aligned 

with Te Awamutu. The 

Judge Road 240ha dairy 

farm she and husband John 

Hayward have is closer to Te 

Awamutu than Cambridge – 

the town is where she and 

her family play sport and 

gravitate to - plus she had 

been a practising barrister 

in Te Awamutu specialising 

in family law. 

So, she worked Cambridge 

hard and secured the 

business community’s 

support at the Chamber 

of Commerce’s Town Hall 

meeting. She romped home 

campaigning on “A Time for 

Change” against incumbent 

Jim Mylchreest and 

newcomer Chris Woodhams, 

a brash businessperson 

who lost crucial support 

when he said Cambridge 

businesses had nothing to 

offer by way of employment 

Meet the family: Susan O’Regan and husband John Hayward with their children, from left: Lily, George, Jack, Emily and Ben. 

 

Photo: Mary Anne Gill. 


As Waipā’s first female 

mayor, she joined other 

Waikato women in politics 

with two National Party MPs 

Louise Upston (Taupō) and 

Barbara Kuriger (Taranaki- 

King Country) and Labour’s 

Nanaia Mahuta, whose 

Hauraki Waikato seat was 

won at the election by Te 

Pāti Māori’s Hana Rawhiti 

Maipi-Clarke. 

There are four Waikato 

women mayors: O’Regan, 

Jacqui Church (Waikato), 

Paula Southgate (Hamilton) 

and Adrienne Wilcock 

(Matamata-Piako). 

Plus, there are three 

women deputy mayors – 

Angela O’Leary (Hamilton), 

Liz Stolwyk (Waipā) and 

Carolyn Eyre (Waikato) and 

rounding out the female 

influence is Waikato regional 

council chair Pamela Storey. 

O’Regan threw herself into 

the job which she describes 

as “full time and then some.” 

Her conscience played 

havoc with her emotions 

and time in those earlier 

months. She now admits she 

did too much. 

“It’s a female thing. If I’m 

not here, you are failing the 

people, and if you are here 

too much, you are failing 

the children, the husband, 

the farm.” 

She feels she has the 

balance right now even 

tacking on some days away 

in Europe with her husband 

at their own cost. 

“He’s never been to 

Europe, and I only had a 

fleeting visit 20 years ago.” 

O’Regan is expecting 

a tough workload on her 

return, a reference to rising 

Watching you: National’s Christopher Luxon, then Leader of the 

Opposition, and Taupō MP Louise Upston will have to wait a bit 

longer before Susan O’Regan joins them in Wellington. 

 


Women in charge: A zone two meeting at Lake Karāpiro brought together some of Waikato’s female leaders, from left: Pamela Storey 

(Waikato Regional chair), Adrienne Wilcock (Matamata-Piako), Susan O’Regan (Waipā), Paula Southgate, Angela O’Leary (both 

Hamilton) and Liz Stolwyk (Waipā). 


costs and rate increases 

or the three Is – inflation, 

interest and insurance. 

“The very obvious elephant 

in the room is that very strong 

headwinds in the financial 

space. I can’t emphasise 

enough the challenges we 

will have.” 

In that respect Waipā is 

not alone among Waikato 

councils but she rules out any 

thoughts of a Super Waikato 

City including neighbours 

like Hamilton and Waikato. 

“We already have a high 

level of cooperation and 

there are a lot of (other) ways 

to collaborate.” 

Collaborations, shared 

services, deals with 

neighbours – that is the way 

to do it, she says. 

“I see we (already) have a 

high level of co-operation.” 

There are two more years 

before another local body 

election – O’Regan is in the 

camp which thinks it should 

be four and not three years. 

“We are making decisions 

that fit into a picture that 

lasts more than a three-year 

cycle.” 

Decisions should be 

longer-term ones making 

elected officials better 

ancestors. 

She wants to keep focused 

on the end goals. 

Prime Minister 

Christopher Luxon once gave 

her some advice – ‘write your 

last report or letter now and 

when you do decide to leave 

or are pushed out, you better 

hope that what you said at 

the beginning has come to 

fruition’. 

The fact she references 

Luxon is a nod to O’Regan’s 

continued interest in 

national politics but for now 

she loves being mayor more. 

“It’s been really fun. It’s 

such a privilege, a huge 

privilege, it’s the best job I’ve 

ever had. It just plays to all 

of the parts about me as a 

person. 

“I just love this district. 

The more time I spend out of 

the district, at mayoral things 

and local government things, 

I realise how fortunate we 

are.”



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NOVEMBER 2023


Playing pass 

the parcels 


ADVERTORIAL 

So, what does the change 

of Government really 

mean for you? 

A Waikato couple have gone 

head to head with New 

Zealand Post – what’s it all 

about? Roy Pilott reports. 

Dani and Ian Kennedy fear for their company’ future. 

The next stage of a festering row over 

postal deliveries is days away as 

Justice Gault prepared to release a 

ruling on an injunction bid. 

Te Awamutu couple Ian and Dani Kennedy 

are challenging New Zealand Post’s plans to 

change delivery services and introduce a 

Multi Run business model. 

The couple say they have invested 

significant money and their company, Three 

Hills Group Ltd , is protected by a contract, 

while New Zealand Post is attempting to 

change who can deliver where. 

In particular, the company wants to make 

changes in rural areas which are being 

swallowed up as towns and cities expand. 

One such case is the outskirts of Hamilton, 

where the RD3 run Dani and Ian Kennedy 

maintain is, they say, under threat. 

They were in the High Court in Hamilton 

last month challenging the change – now 

they are waiting to see whether or not their 

injunction application succeeds. 

Their case is backed Pro Driver Advocates 

whose chief Peter Gallagher said the latest 

edition of the company’s communique 

discusses the idea of “one network” for one 

person to deliver both mail and parcels to 

each address. 

“What this is saying is what we have been 

stating all along – that the contracted right 

for an exclusive run is only as exclusive as 

NZ Post decides it is – and this is definitely 

not what these RD guys have been paying 

big money for.” 

The Kennedys are well known in their RD 

community – when a parcel is dropped off, 

they send a text message to someone in the 

home. 

Gallagher says the couple invested almost 

$500,000 in their run four years ago, and 

New Zealand Post wants to terminate their 

contract to make way for a multi run courier 

business model and increase its use of 

CourierPost deliveries. 

The court has been told the couple were 

the victims of a marketing strategy which 

was entirely for the benefit of NZ Post “and 

its culmination was in the dismembering of 

urban fringe rural delivery routes”. 

Gallagher says mail is declining, but there 

is an increase in parcel fright – and that is 

where future profit lies. 

Dani and Ian Kennedy updated their 

customers last month with a “we need your 

support” flyer outlining their concerns and 

inviting them to tick a box to indicate their 

support. 

It says the new One Network model 

was announced with no consultation with 

existing operators. 

Look before you leap… 

Two Waikato centres have 

tapped into an app which 

enables users with specific 

needs to “call in” ahead of 

their visit. 

Cerge is a communication 

platform which assists 

people with disabilities. 

In its promotional 

material Belgravia Leisure 

says “as an individual with a 

disability, imagine having an 

exceptional guest experience 

every time you visit your 

local leisure centre, simply 

by using an app to alert the 

venue ahead of time of your 

service preferences.” 

It says the facility is now 

available in five centres 

around New Zealand and 30 

venues in Australia. 

The New Zealand centres 

are the Gallagher and Huntly 

aquatic centres in Waikato, 

Mount Albert Aquatic 

Centre, Franklin Pool and 

Leisure Centre and Trust 

House Recreation Centre in 

Masterton. 

The Cerge app is free and 

allows users to alert customer 

service staff to their needs. 

Belgravia says it provides 

an access pathway. 

“This includes personalised 

greetings, express check in 

or skip the queue, having 

accessible equipment set 

up before arrival, arranging 

guided tours pointing out 

accessible features and any 

other tailored experience 

necessary to allow the guest 

to have an exceptional 

experience, all whilst 

removing the guesswork 

for staff to provide these 

services.” 

The platform can also 

provide virtual tours where 

visitors can explore venues 

in advance and audio guides 

powered by A.I. 

Belgravia Leisure operates 

more than 230 venues across 

New Zealand and Australia. 

“Launching Cerge in 

Belgravia Leisure’s New 

Zealand venues is a 

significant step towards our 

mission of making leisure 

venues more inclusive and 

accessible,” the company’s 

Disability and Diversity 

Manager Jeff Walkley said. 

If we look at the respective policies 

of ACT, National and NZ First, 

there’s a lot of commonalities. 

They include: 

• Cancel the planned fuel tax hikes 

which would have added another 

12 cents per litre of petrol. 

• Repealing the Ute Tax will be a 

boon for farmers and the large 

Waikato motor industry. 

• Start reducing public sector 

expenditure by 6.5% on average 

by requiring CEOs to identify 

back-office spending not critical to 

frontline services. 

• Establish a permanent Rural 

Regulation Review Panel to assess 

regulations affecting the primary 

sector in order to cut red tape. 

• Introduce legislation to restore 90- 

day trial periods for all businesses. 

• Begin work on establishing a 

National Infrastructure Agency and 

issue a draft Government Policy 

Statement on Transport reflecting 

new Roads of National Significance 

and public transport projects. 

• Begin work on National’s Going for 

Housing Growth policy, to expand 

housing supply, build infrastructure 

and give councils flexibility to 

deliver. 

• Introduce legislation mandating 

approval of building materials 

and product systems meeting 

international standards equivalent 

to New Zealand’s. 

• Repeal the RMA 2.0 legislation and 

introduce a fast-track consenting 

regime. 

• Repeal of the Three Waters 

legislation. 

And, even if NZ First does come into 

a formal coalition arrangement, there 

are things they are keen on that would 

be good for business. Such as: 

• On infrastructure and logistics, 

Connect - Grow - Inspire - Represent 

Don Good, CEO of Waikato 

Chamber of Commerce. 

they want the medium-term 

focus to be on infrastructure that 

improves productivity. A new 

Ministry of Infrastructure will 

be tasked with determining an 

optimal investment programme 

to provide greater investment and 

employment certainty for private 

sector contractors. 

From the Waikato Chamber’s 

perspective, there have been three 

projects we wish to see the new 

government start ASAP. 

The first is complete the Cambridge 

to Piarere extension of the Waikato 

Expressway. 

The second is the University of 

Waikato Medical School. It is an 

investment in our regional NZ health 

and well-being. 

The third is the big Southern Links 

project which gives the Waikato region 

a huge economic boost. 

So, a lot of positive changes that 

will make it easier to do business, both 

here in the Waikato and around the 

country. 

We look forward to the proposed 

mini budget before Christmas which 

will give us clear direction as to 

what the new Government wants to 

achieve.



Looking to maximise 

value – well, you can’t 

sell a secret 

ADVERTORIAL 

Meta picks up 

legacy award 

In the current 

challenging 

environment of 

commercial real estate, 

marketing your property 

for sale is not just a choice; 

it’s a strategic necessity. 

Effective marketing 

can often significantly 

increase the likelihood of 

a successful sale, firstly by 

leaving no stone unturned 

to find the best buyer(s) 

and secondly by adding 

the element of potential 

competition. 

Many vendors (and I 

know of some agents too 

for that matter) seem to 

think that if it’s on TradeMe 

and the agent has fired it 

off to a few parties from 

their database, then job 

done. Not so! 

When executed well, marketing is an 

investment, not an expense. So why 

market your property and what are 

the benefits ? 

1. Attracting a Larger Pool of 

Potential Buyers 

• You broaden the buyer pool by 

ensuring it is seen by a wide and 

diverse audience. This is essential 

in a challenging market where 

finding the right buyer can be more 

complex. 

2. Exposure and Competitive 

Advantage 

• Your property competes with 

numerous other listings, so by 

highlighting its unique features, 

benefits, and potential, your 

property is set apart to stand out 

and make it more appealing to 

potential buyers. 

3. Price Optimization 

• Wide coverage increases the 

likelihood of receiving multiple 

offers, which can lead to a 

competitive bidding process that 

ultimately improves terms and 

drives up the selling price. 

4. Speed of Sale 

• Effective marketing can expedite 

the sale of your property. In 

a challenging market where 

properties may linger, a strategic 

marketing plan can reduce the 

time your property spends on the 

market. Length of time on the 

market is often detrimental to its 

value. 

5. Confidence Building 

• A well-planned marketing strategy 

demonstrates commitment to 

selling, which can instil confidence 

in potential buyers. It showcases 

a genuine desire to sell and 

provides transparency and 

honesty in the transaction. 

Some Potential Marketing 

Components To Consider 

• Websites: such as 

Realestate.co.nz, 

Trademe.co.nz, 

Oneroof.co.nz 

• Databases: both 

the agents and 

their companies. 

• Print: major daily’s 

such as Waikato Times, NZ Herald, 

The Press, The Post, Sunday Star 

Times 

• Print: regional papers exist all 

around the country and have strong 

local followings 

• Signage: Pedestrian and vehicle 

profile - a call from a sign indicates 

that the party knows where the 

property is and they like what they 

see. 

• Social Media: LinkedIn, Facebook, 

Instagram, Google etc. this can be 

demographic and geo targeted. 

• Industry and trade publications: 

Real Estate company portfolios, 

databases, newsletters, social 

media coverage etc. 

And there are more ……….. 

“The number one reason people 

don’t sell, is because they believe 

there is a better offer out there” - 

John Abbott 

Marketing isn’t a cookie cutter or 

one-size-fits-all approach. Effective 

strategies need to be adjusted to 

align with the specific property and 

changing market conditions. Ensuring 

that your property remains attractive 

to buyers even in challenging times is 

absolutely paramount. 

Whether it’s a small vacant 

industrial unit likely to attract a 

local owner occupier, or a large 

commercial building with national/ 

corporate/government tenants 

attracting national and even possibly 

international interest, a marketing 

investment must be tailored 

specifically to the likely buyer pool for 

your property. 

What is the one thing that potential 

purchasers are currently looking 

for? – genuine vendors with genuine 

motivation to sell. These are the 

instances that attract more buyers, 

which invariably leads to the prices 

being maximised. 

Talk to your marketing specialist 

today, to ensure that the best 

possible plan has been put together, 

ensuring maximum exposure – 

and that the marketing content 

is being reviewed regularly. 

Mike Neale. Managing Director 

NAI Harcourts Hamilton. 

Pacific business successes have been celebrated in Hamilton 

The Waikato Pacific 

Business Network has 

presented the founder 

of a Hamilton East business 

with a Legacy Award. 

Meta Tyrell is a co-founder 

of the LM4 Group which has 

its head office in Hamilton 

and branches in Auckland 

and Tauranga, 

Her enterprise was 

launched in 2002 when 

she set a goal of enhancing 

the lives of her community 

by fostering better career 


The company oversees 

three subsidiaries - Alignz 

Recruitment, Puatele and 

Oyonnx – employing more 

than 400 people and serving 

more than 100 clients. There 

are plans to expand the 

business into Christchurch, 

Wellington and Samoa next 

year. 

The company is providing 

training and labour for 

the civil works across the 

Rotokauri Rise Project, a 

residential development 

which will encompass nearly 

900 sections and include 

three park areas and several 

wetlands. 

It is also providing training 

and labour for the work on 

the Lockerbie retirement 

village development at 

Morrinsville and has 

partnered CB Civil to 

provide training and labour 

on the Peacocke wastewater 

project for Hamilton City 

Council. 

The country’s largest battery energy 

storage system – Bess - will store energy to 

meet the daily demands of over 2000 homes 

and provide reserve support for the North 

Island grid. 

Bess was being commissioned lsst month, 

marking the completion of the 35MWh 

project at Rotowaro, Huntly, started in July 

2022. 

The project was a joint venture involving 

Infratec and its parent company WEL 

Networks. 

Almost 300 people were 

at the inaugural Waikato 

Pacific Business Excellence 

event where the presentation 

was made by network chair 

Rachel Afeaki Taumoepeau. 

Excellence awards were 

also presented to Josh 

Stowers (Mixmaster) Robbie 

and Jacina Stapleton (Wash 

and Pest Control), Pivot Bail 

Accommodation, Talents 

of the Pacific Academy, 

Deep Dive Division, Grace 

Ratima (Acie Designs), 

JP Landscaping Ltd, TJ 

Brothers Construction, 

Waikato Shutters & Blinds, 

Felila Asiata-Feausi 

(Oyonxx), Ray Allen, 

Meleane Burgess (Dynamic 

Advisory), Taimaaiono 

Grace Stowers (Hartson 

Stowers Law), Nanise 

Ginnen (Impact Hub 

Waikato), LT8 Design and 

Fabrication and Surgeons 

on Clarence. 

Meta Tyrell, right, pictured with Hamilton mayor Paul Southgate 

and, left, Impact hub Waikato chief Nanie Ginnen. 

Bess be blessed 

An aerial view of Bess at Rotowaro. 

“The battery will maximise the benefits 

of solar power, providing charging capacity 

for electric vehicles and back up during grid 

emergencies,” WEL Networks chief Garth 

Dibley said. 

The battery’s role in reducing the need for 

non-renewable energy sources would also 

be a contributor to lowering emissions in 

support of New Zealand’s net zero emissions 

target by 2050. 

The battery is the first of its scale in the 

country.



UBARU 

SUBARU 

ALL SUMMER 

SUBARU ALL SUMMER 

ALL SUMMER 

FORESTER CROSSTREK OUTBACK 

O REPAYMENTS UNTIL AUTUMN * 

NO REPAYMENTS UNTIL AUTUMN * 

NO FORESTER REPAYMENTS CROSSTREK UNTIL AUTUMN OUTBACK 

NO REPAYMENTS UNTIL AUTUMN * 

* 

FORESTER 

FORESTER 

CROSSTREK 

CROSSTREK 

OUTBACK 

OUTBACK 

FORESTER CROSSTREK OUTBACK 

PAY DEPOSIT THEN NOTHING 

FOR PAY SIX DEPOSIT MONTHS. THEN * NOTHING 

PAY A DEPOSIT – THEN NOTHING 

FOR SIX MONTHS. 

FOR PAY A SIX DEPOSIT MONTHS. – * 

* THEN NOTHING 

FOR SIX MONTHS. * 

Y A DEPOSIT – THEN NOTHING 

R SIX MONTHS. * 

Summer won’t wait for economic conditions to be perfect. 

mer And 

Summer won’t neither wait won’t 

should for wait economic you. 

for economic 

As the conditions days 

conditions 

grow to longer be to perfect. be 

and 

perfect. 

Summer won’t wait for economic conditions to be perfect. our 

d neither minds 

And should neither 

and calendars you. should As you. the fill with 

As days the 

adventures grow days grow longer - 

longer 

it’s and the 

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our 

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ds and time 

minds 

calendars to 

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put a 

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with 

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perfect 

minds And neither and calendars should you. fill with As the adventures days grow - it’s longer the and perfect our 

time to put a deposit 

e to put Forester a deposit or Outback. * down Then * down on a new Subaru Crosstrek, 

time minds to and put a calendars deposit on a you new can Subaru have it All-Wheel Drive, 

Forester or Outback. Then * down fill with on adventures a new Subaru - it’s Crosstrek, 

the perfect 

you can have it All-Wheel Drive, 

ester all or Forester time summer Outback. to put or long, Outback. a Then deposit with you Then * a down 6-month can you have can a holiday new it have All-Wheel Subaru it on All-Wheel repayments. Crosstrek, Drive, Drive, 

* 

all summer long, with a 6-month holiday on repayments. * 

ummer all Forester summer or 

long, with long, Outback. 

a 6-month with Then a 6-month you can 

holiday holiday have it 

on repayments. on All-Wheel repayments. Drive, * * 

Book a test drive at Winger Hamilton 

Book Book a test a test drive at Winger Hamilton 

Book a test drive at Winger Hamilton 

1 The Boulevard, Te Rapa Hamilton 

Book 

1 The 

a 

Boulevard, 

test drive at 

Te 

Winger 

Rapa Hamilton 

Hamilton 

1 The 1 Boulevard, Te Hamilton 

07 The 838 Boulevard, 1249 Te I www.winger.co.nz 

Rapa Hamilton 

07 1 The 838 Boulevard, 1249 I www.winger.co.nz 

Te Rapa Hamilton 

07 07 838 838 1249 I I www.winger.co.nz 

07 838 1249 I www.winger.co.nz 

*Fixed interest rate of 7.10%p.a. over 60 months with repayments deferred for six months from the finance start date. These payments will be spread over 

the *Fixed 

all summer 

remaining interest 54 rate months. of 

long, 

7.10%p.a. 

with 

The 6-month over 60 

a 

months 

6-month 

deferred with payment repayments 

holiday 

period deferred 

on 

is not interest-free. for 

repayments. * 

six months Interest from will the accrue finance on start the date. principal These amount payments and will fees. be Overall spread interest over 

costs the *Fixed remaining will interest be higher 54 rate months. of as 7.10%p.a. a result The 6-month over when 60 compared deferred months with payment to a repayments non-deferred period is deferred not loan. interest-free. for Subaru six months Crosstrek Interest from will Premium: the accrue finance on RRP start the $48,990 principal date. These amount incl payments GST, and deposit fees. will Overall be $14,697, spread interest over borrow 

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ADVERTORIAL 

What Immigration 

Changes can we expect 

from the new Government? 

New Zealand’s immigration 

settings over the last 6 years 

of the Labour Government 

were very significantly 

impacted by the Covid border 

lockdown, and then the protracted 

border re-opening. It has only 

been in the last 15 months that the 

Government finally introduced the 

employer accreditation regime that 

it had announced pre-covid, the new 

investor category, and then, and only 

very recently, the new Skilled Migrant 

residence settings. 

Looking back, the main features 

of the last few years has been the 

transition to online visa application 

processing, the staggering number, 

and frequency of, policy changes 

(almost every week!), and the increase 

in incidence of migrant exploitation. 

So, what can we expect from the 

new Government? – and what would 

we like to see! 

The National Party has already 

announced it will introduce a 

5-year visitor visa for parents and 

grandparents to visit their family 

in New Zealand, and which can be 

renewed for a further 5 years. It will 

also look to expand the work rights for 

international students in an endeavour 

to revitalise the international 

education sector. Three capped visa 

programmes to attract top talent will 

also be introduced. The International 

Graduates Visa, is a 3 year open work 

visa for graduates of the top 100 

universities in the world; the Global 

Growth Tech Visa is a residence visa 

for people who have been working in 

top global tech companies earning 

NZ$400,000 pa; and the Digital 

Nomad Visa which is a 1 year visa 

to attract highly mobile people to 

come to New Zealand while working 

remotely for an overseas-based 

company. 

Collectively there is a cap of 1,000 

people under these three new visa 

policies. As always, the devil will be 

the policy detail as good visa ideas 

often lose their “gloss” once the 

policy-writers have their say! 

National has already expressed 

concerns, in regard to the present 

high levels of immigration, that some 

60% of the workers now coming 

to New Zealand fall into lower skill 

job categories. As a consequence 

it is likely we can expect some 

“tightening” in this area, with maybe 

more emphasis on getting NZers 

into, or trained for, these jobs and/or 

employers having to at least evidence 

they are doing more to fill these roles 

with NZers. 

Because the employer 

accreditation, skilled migrant and 

investor policies are all still being 

“bedded in” it is unlikely that there will 

be any immediate changes. However, 

there are obvious flaws in all these 

policies which will need attention 

sooner rather than later. 

It is expected the new Government 

will introduce a new visa fee regime 

in which an additional fee is be paid 

for urgent visa processing. This may 

be part of a bigger plan to make 

Immigration New Zealand a profitcentre 

in its own right, and similar to 

what is the case in Australia. Expect 

visa cost increases! 

Most current immigration policies 

have a linkage with the New Zealand 

median pay rate (currently $29.66 

ph). This linkage was introduced 

by the Labour Government on the 

understanding it was, in some way, 

a measure of the skill level of the 

employment role. 

Clearly this is not the case and, 

instead, the arbitrary imposition of 

the median pay rate across the various 

visa categories has simply had the 

effect of pushing up employer costs 

across the board. 

The median pay rate increase to 

$31.61 ph next February should, at 

least, be deferred while the new 

Government considers the impact 

of this additional cost on businesses 

– many of whom are under financial 

strain. 

Overall, what we would most like 

to see is the new Government being 

much more willing to engage and 

consult on the pragmatism, risks and 

outcomes of the policies it wishes 

to introduce to ensure these can 

best deliver the intended objectives. 

Taking a little more time to get it 

right first time is one lesson the 

new Government can learn from its 

predecessor – hopefully? 

Pathways to New Zealand 

Level 2 | 586 Victoria Street | Hamilton 3204 

Level 3 | 50 Manners Street | Wellington 6011 

07 834 9222 enquiries@pathwaysnz.com pathwaysnz.com 

Councils told to 

open for business 

The Ombudsman has drawn a line under councils who do too 

much talking in secret. Mary Anne Gill looks at the ramification. 

A 

report 

criticising 

councils for conducting 

business behind closed 

doors should result in an 

end to the secret exchanges 

which in some cases protect 

councillors from looking 

stupid. 

Workshops, briefings, 

forum, hui, wānanga – 

they’ve been given a myriad 

names - but too many have 

been away from the public 

glare, Chief Ombudsman 

Peter Boshier’s Open for 

Business report released last 

month concludes. 

And opening them up may 

make what are some of the 

biggest businesses in town 

a lot more relevant to their 

communities. 

District councils across 

the Waikato - Hamilton 

city councillors a notable 

exception with their robust 

debates - retreat to workshop 

style meetings, out of the 

public eye, to discuss key 

issues while voters’ interest 

in the triennial elections 

wane. 

Boshier’s hard hitting 

report tells councils to 

get back to their council 

chambers rooms and talk in 

public. 

Waikato Business News’ 

sister publications in 

Cambridge and Te Awamutu 

have been arguing the point 

with Waipā District Council 

Expect to see a spade in the ground before 

Christmas. 

That is the word from Ingham Motor 

Group principal dealer John Ingham about 

the former Bunnings site in Cambridge. 

And the man who started in Ōtorohanga 

in 1968 and then expanded into Te 

Awamutu and Hamilton as well as across 

the upper North Island has confirmed the 

development is a four-year project. 

Given the nature of the motor industry 

today, do not expect to see too much 

duplication in the Waikato market, he says. 

Ingham has eight brands - Hyundai, 

Isuzu, Kia, Suzuki, Mercedes-Benz, Renault, 

Honda and Mitsubishi – at 17 dealerships. 

“The motor industry is really changing 

Joe Wilson has received a Billie Award for 

Strengths-Based Research at the Te Auaha 

Pito Mata – New and Emerging Researcher 

Awards, hosted by Community Research 

New Zealand. 

The award recognises the work of the Lots 

of Little Fires initiative, a project under the 

Waikato Wellbeing Project, 

“We’re immensely proud of Joe Wilson and 

the Lots of Little Fires project,” Wellbeing 

Project executive director Harvey Brookes 

said. 

“Joe’s commitment to the transformative 

power of storytelling has not only enriched 

our communities but also embodies the core 

values of the Waikato Wellbeing Project.” 

He said his work was a reminder of the 

positive change that can happen “when we 

focus on the strengths and unique stories of 

individuals within our communities”. 

Peter Boshier 

all year. 

The council’s workshops 

last four to five times longer 

than their actual council 

meetings and the “informal” 

workshops between 

councillors is a chance to 

compare diaries, catch up 

on issues around the district 

and discuss who is going to 

attend the various events on 

offer. 

No decisions are made, 

staff are not present but they 

come in afterwards where 

matters are discussed for 

“information only,” according 

to the council’s Governance 

manager. 

The News’ issue with Waipā 

is the regularity elected 

members cite information 

they received at workshops 

when making decisions at 

public meetings. 

Sometimes it makes it 

difficult to follow the debate 

Ingham to drive in 

because councillors had 

information gleaned at the 

workshop which was not 

available to the public, or the 

media. 

Boshier investigated eight 

councils, none of them were 

in the Waikato with Rotorua 

Lakes Council the closest. 

He found no evidence 

that any of the councils were 

making decisions in the 

workshops. 

But the next day a new 

councillor at Rotorua – 

during a council meeting 

where its damning report was 

discussed as an “urgent item” 

- said he believed decisions 

were made in workshops. 

Boshier found some 

workshop practices were 

counter to the principles 

of openness and could 

contribute to a perception 

that workshops are not being 

used in the right way. 

“I also discovered that 

a range of council officials 

and elected members didn’t 

want to open workshops for a 

number of reasons including 

that asking questions could 

make them look stupid.” 

Protecting councillors was 

not a valid reason to close the 

workshop doors. 

“Elected members should 

be resilient enough to 

withstand reasonable public 

scrutiny. It is the job they are 

elected to do.” 

at the moment,” said 

Ingham, who would 

not confirm what three 

franchises would operate 

in Cambridge. 

John Ingham 

But one of them will 

not be Mercedes Benz, he said. 

Ingham Group’s resource consent 

application to demolish the Bunnings 

building and redevelop on the overall 6852 

sq m site for a car dealership and associated 

vehicle servicing was granted in July. 

The development would be in two stages. 

Building consents are expected to be lodged 

with Waipā District Council next month and 

site works, starting with the demolition of 

the Bunnings building, soon afterwards. 

Joe’s a bright spark 

Joe Wilson, pictured with Garth Nowland- 

Foreman (left). The Billie award is named after 

his mother. 

Through the lens of cinematographer 

Muredach Daly, Lots of Little Fires celebrates 

the journeys, resilience, and unique 

contributions of everyday people.


TECH TALK 

Talking risk 

mitigation 

By BRYAN MILES 


YOUR BUSINESS 

Meet your 

new partner 

By JOSH MOORE 

Business analysis is all 

about identifying business 

needs and determining 

solutions to business 

problems. By taking the time 

to understand the business 

needs, the current state of 

the organisation, and the 

potential risks to a project, 

business analysts can help 

to ensure that the project is 

successful. 

One of the most important 

things that business analysts 

do is to help organisations to 

identify and understand the 

risks to their projects. 

This involves gathering 

information from 

stakeholders, analysing the 

data, and identifying the 

potential risks. 

Once the risks have been 

identified, business analysts 

can help to develop strategies 

to mitigate or avoid them. 

There are several different 

ways to mitigate risk. 

One common approach 

is to develop contingency 

plans. Contingency plans are 

plans that are put in place in 

case something goes wrong. 

For example, a contingency 

plan for a software 

development project might 

include a plan for dealing 

with unexpected delays or 

budget overruns. 

Another way to mitigate 

risk is to use risk-based 

decision making. Riskbased 

decision making is the 

process of making decisions 

based on the potential risks 

and benefits of each option. 

For example, a business 

analyst might use risk-based 

decision making to help 

an organisation to decide 

whether to implement a new 

software system. 

By taking the time to 

understand and manage 

risk, business analysts can 

help to ensure that projects 

are successful and that 

organisations achieve their 

goals. 

One of the biggest risks 

in software development 

is building the wrong 

thing. This can happen for 

several reasons, such as not 

understanding the business 

needs, not having a clear 

vision for the project, or 

not getting feedback from 

stakeholders. 

There are several things 

that can be done to avoid 

building the wrong thing. 

One of the most important 

things is to have a clear 

understanding of the 

business needs. This involves 

talking to stakeholders, 

understanding their goals, 

and identifying their pain 

points. 

Another important thing 

is to have a clear vision for 

the project. What are the 

project’s objectives? What 

is the scope of the project? 

What are the success 

criteria? By having a clear 

vision, the team can stay 

focused and avoid getting 

sidetracked. 

Finally, it is important 

to get feedback from 

stakeholders throughout 

the project. This will help 

to ensure that the team is 

building the right thing and 

that the stakeholders are 

happy with the progress. 

Business analysis is an 

essential part of any software 

development project. By 

taking the time to understand 

the business needs, identify 

and manage risks, and avoid 

building the wrong thing, 

business analysts can help 

to ensure that projects are 

successful. 

• Bryan Miles is a business 

analyst at Company-X. 

What if I told you that 

the most popular business 

productivity tools—apps 

like Google Sheets, Google 

Docs, and Excel—could 

now harness the boundless 

power of ChatGPT? 

It’s like having an 

extraordinary mind at your 

side, ready to assist, suggest, 

and co-create within the 

very applications you rely 

on daily. This is not science 

fiction; it’s the current 

reality that businesses are 

taking advantage of, and 

those who aren’t are getting 

left behind. 

A joint study just released 

from Harvard, MIT, 

Warwick Business School 

and Boston Consulting 

Group tested over 700 

consultants, requiring them 

to complete a series of tasks. 

Half were allowed to use AI. 

They completed tasks 25 per 

cent quicker and produced 

40 per cent higher quality in 

their results. 

Welcome to a world 

where ChatGPT becomes 

your indispensable partner 

in achieving unparalleled 

excellence. 

You can now use GPT 

within Google Sheets or 

Microsoft Excel to write 

formulas. A small setup 

process is required, but once 

connected, you can save 

time and effort. 

Let’s look at an overly 

simple example. Having 

entered sales data for last 

year, you can ask GPT in plain 

English, for the formula you 

need to calculate the totals. 

For example, “total all sales 

figures in cells c3 to f3.” 

GPT replies saying, 

“Assuming the sales figures 

are in cells C3, D3, E3, and 

F3, you can use the following 

formula: =SUM(C3:F3)” 

But where the power 

really kicks in is writing 

complex formulas for you 

that would normally take an 

Excel expert to write. With 

ChatGPT connected you 

can just describe in plain 

English what you want to 

happen, and it will create 

the formula for you. 

You can also use some 

specific GPT functions to 

extract information from 

within cells. 

This can be extremely 

useful for extracting 

names, emails, domains, or 

company names from a big 

list of data. 

The power comes in 

ChatGPT understanding 

what you want to extract. 

One of our team members 

spent three hours manually 

creating some very complex 

formulas to extract URLs 

from a long list of data. 

Another team member 

used a ChatGPT function to 

achieve the same result in 

less than four minutes. 

One of the things ChatGPT 

has become famous for 

is its ability to write very 

well-written content. We 

can tell GPT that we want 

it to, “create a brief thank 

you email to send to the 

people who attended our 

networking evening”. The 

results come back within 

seconds, and it’s very well 

written. 

We could tell GPT that 

we want it to, “write a 

LinkedIn post, welcoming 

our new sales manager, Tim 

Major, formerly Queensland 

Territory Manager for XYZ 

Widgets in Sydney”. 

While the results aren’t 

always perfect, the speed 

and productivity boost that 

comes from embracing AI 

is so impressive that every 

office-based company 

needs to be embracing AI 

to boost productivity and 

effectiveness. 

• Josh Moore is head of 

marketing at Duoplus 

THE JOB MARKET 

Good news on 

the horizon? 

By SENGA ALLEN 

OUR ENVIRONMENT 

Too big for 

our boots? 

By PHIL MACKAY 

In the world of recruitment, it often feels 

like a rollercoaster ride, swinging between 

feast and famine. There are times when 

there are too many job openings and not 

enough qualified candidates, while at other 

times, there’s an oversupply of job seekers 

and too few opportunities. 

The disruptive impact of Covid-19 wreaked 

havoc on New Zealand’s job market. 

Lately, talk of a looming recession and 

an economic downturn has prompted 

businesses to scrutinise their staffing 

levels and financial stability. More talent 

is entering the job market, but are there 

sufficient job opportunities to match? 

Is there a glimmer of hope on the 

horizon? According to The Jobs Report 

(thejobsreport.co.nz), signs of change are 

beginning to emerge. 

This quarterly report analyses job 

demand and opportunities in Australia 

and New Zealand, providing a detailed 

breakdown by industry, occupation, and 

region. The September quarter has brought 

some stabilisation to the New Zealand 

employment market. 

The New Zealand Job Index surged by 

a promising 3.7 per cent in the quarter, 

marking a welcome return to positive 

growth after three consecutive quarters of 

contraction. 

However, the number of job postings 

remains 21.8 per cent lower than in September 

of the previous year and significantly down 

from the post-Covid peak observed in the 

last quarter of 2021. In the same period, the 

Flexible Jobs Index dropped by 6.3 per cent, 

while the Permanent Jobs Index increased 

by 5.7 per cent. It’s evident that employers 

are keen to secure scarce talent. 

Certain industries have witnessed 

substantial growth, notably accommodation 

and food services, possibly influenced by 

the FIFA Women’s World Cup. The Public 

Sector remains relatively stable, with a 

modest decline of just 2.7 per cent. However, 

there’s cause for concern in the financial 

and insurance services sector, which has 

experienced a fourth consecutive quarterly 

contraction, totalling a 37 per cent annual 

decline. 

Interestingly, despite the overall “softness” 

in employment markets, the demand for 

executives and managers remains largely 

unscathed, surging by an impressive 20.3 

per cent in the last quarter. 

Technology professionals have weathered 

a relatively minor 2.6 per cent decline in 

demand for their services, a significant 

improvement compared to the 28.5 per 

cent plunge in the preceding June quarter. 

Remuneration is also showing signs of 

returning to more “normal” market levels. 

A particularly heartening development is 

the 11.5 per cent rise in trade and technician 

roles, following a prolonged decline over the 

previous three quarters. 

Let’s keep our collective fingers crossed 

for a continuation of this positive trend for 

2024. 

• Sengna Allen is Managing Director for 

Everest 

Dad used to tell me that the powers that be 

had let Hamilton’s Central Business District 

get too big in the 1970s and ‘80s. 

I’m not sure I appreciated what he 

really meant during my teen years in ‘90s 

Hamilton, but it’s an idea I’ve reflected on 

often in the years since. 

How much more vibrant would the city 

centre be if it extended no further north 

than London Street, for example? If the 

businesses and workers in those blocks 

between London and Liverpool streets were 

accommodated in the CBD further south, 

how much busier might the retail shops and 

cafes be? 

What’s more, imagine how many people 

we might house in that same area, within 

walkable distance of the city centre, the river 

and sports stadiums. 

More recently, I’ve been asking the 

question of what to do about it now. How 

do we make a big CBD small again? 

It’s not as though we can just pick up 

those northern blocks and drop them in the 

downtown area. 

The last five to 10 years have seen significant 

re-invigoration and re-investment in the city 

centre – think Genesis Energy, Waikato 

Regional Council, and ACC, not to mention 

the regional theatre due for completion next 

year. 

But there are still empty shops on our main 

street, and the area north of London remains 

low-rise, low density, and underutilised. A 

number of people or organisations have 

approached our practice with their concerns 

about the vibrancy of the downtown central 

city. 

To their credit, Hamilton City Council 

planners have grasped this challenge – or 

opportunity. The current district plan makes 

the distinction between the core CBD, the 

‘Downtown’ precinct, and what is termed 

‘City Living’ to the northern and western 

fringe, the objective being to encourage 

more residential and mixed use development 

around the fringes of the ‘Downtown’ area. 

However, in my view we could go a lot 

further. 

The central city zone features maximum 

height overlays that enable more building 

up rather than out, but why not have 

minimum height limits as well, or explore 

other mechanisms to encourage developers 

to build up? It seems crazy that we would 

allow single storey development to happen 

anywhere in our CBD. 

Likewise, if we view that it’s desirable 

to direct commercial activity to the core 

downtown area, we could limit commercial 

above ground level in the City Living 

precinct, to ensure that this area sees more 

of a residential focus. 

Those are only a couple of ideas for 

starters, but it’s important that our city 

planners and elected members - and those 

of us who vote for them – are both brave 

and creative in thinking about how we can 

shape a better, more vibrant central city for 

the future. 

• Phil Mackay is Business Development 

Manager for Paua Architects



A view from on high… 

Viv Posselt was present when sporting legend Rob Waddell shared 

his views on what leads to success 

Rob Waddell says 

a strong work 

ethic, striving for 

excellence, teamwork and 

leadership are the core 

values that bring success. 

Top those off with joy in 

whatever activity you feel 

driven to follow, says the 

only Kiwi to win Olympic 

gold at the Sydney Olympics 

in 2000 and arguably a 

“living legend”. 

Waddell is one of New 

Zealand’s most respected 

sporting sons and attributes 

much of this country’s global 

sporting success to its ability 

to collaborate effectively. 

Kiwi sporting agencies 

and organisations work 

particularly well together, he 

told last month’s Cambridge 

U3A (University of the Third 

Age) meeting. 

“We’re big enough to have 

economies of scale but not so 

big that we are clumsy. Our 

ability to share information 

gives us a competitive 

advantage internationally.” 

He said New Zealand’s 

ranking just outside the top 

10 listed Olympic nations 

rates the country just under 

some of the world’s far 

larger players, including 

the United States, Britain, 

China, Australia and France. 

Waddell’s multi-faceted 

involvement in New Zealand 

sport has spanned decades 

and covers his roles as a 

high-achieving athlete to 

that of a successful sports 

administrator. The former 

brought the talented rower 

acclaim as a New Zealand 

Olympic gold medallist and 

double world champion 

single sculler before he 

segued into a different 

role as America’s Cup 

yachtsman. 

He was named New 

Zealand’s Supreme ‘Halberg 

Awards’ Sportsperson of the 

year winner three times and 

made a fine fist of his later 

role as Chef de Mission of 

the New Zealand Olympic 

team, leading them through 

the 2014 Commonwealth 

Games in Glasgow and the 

Summer Olympics in 2016 

and 2022. 

His prowess at giving 

sports organisations a legup 

was shown through his 

involvement in helping 

secure $32 million in 

funding for the Cambridge 

velodrome, thereby 

providing a local base for 

New Zealand’s Home of 

Cycling, and through his 

extensive contribution 

to other organisations 

including the Halberg 

Disability Trust and Te Awa 

River Trust. 

He now runs a business 

from Cambridge building 

partnerships across sport, 

business and philanthropy. 

The determination that 

led to his success was shown 

early. 

The Te Kuiti-born athlete 

arrived in this world at a 

whopping 4700g (10lb 

6oz) and spent an idyllic 

childhood ranging the 

family farm in Piopio. 

Sporting success came 

early through Roller Mills 

rugby, the second oldest 

provincial rugby tournament 

in New Zealand after the 

Ranfurly Shield. 

It is for players aged 13 and 

under and weighing less than 

55kg from Waikato, Thames 

Valley, King Country, Bay of 

Plenty, Auckland, Counties- 

Manukau, North Harbour 

and Northland. 

“I remember the 

excitement of being 

presented with my King 

Country rugby jersey by Sir 

Colin Meads.” 

Despite finding it difficult 

to settle in to boarding life at 

Auckland’s King’s College, 

it was there he found his 

passion for doing well in life 

and where he found rowing 

as a way to focus it. 

“I was all arms, legs 

and large feet… but I was 

determined to do well from 

a young age because I didn’t 

really have any natural 

ability. I worked really hard 

at it, but at each stage, I 

just wanted to make the next 

team above the one I was 

in.” 

From then on Waddell did 

life at a cracking pace, 

surging through 

his competitive 

years to move 

into governance 

with a view to 

aiding sports 

organisations 

with strategy 

management 

and funding. 

Doing a U3A version of ‘Little and Large’, Cambridge U3A’s standard-sized Lyndall Hermitage 

squares up to 2m tall Rob Waddell before his talk. 

Strategy keeps Waikato at the fore of business events 

ADVERTORIAL 

Anew strategy aims 

to see the Waikato 

business events 

industry go from 

strength to strength. 

Launched this month, the 

2023-2026 Waikato Business 

Events strategy was developed 

by Hamilton & Waikato 

Tourism in partnership with 

event industry leaders and 

other key stakeholders, such 

as Te Waka and industry 

bodies. 

It comes on the back of 

a solid performance in Q2 

2023, with the latest figures 

from the Business Events 

Data Programme showing 

the region’s market share is 

third only to Auckland and 

Wellington. 

Hamilton & Waikato Tourism 

Events Manager, Aimee Tyson, 

says Waikato remains 

New Zealand’s leading regional 

business events destination. 

“While the COVID-19 

pandemic hit the business 

events sector particularly 

hard, our share of the market 

remained largely stable 

between Q3 2020 and Q2 

2023. 

“We’ve also maintained 

our position during a period 

where other regional centres 

have increasingly prioritised 

the attraction and retention of 

business events. 

“That kind of performance 

really speaks to the strength 

of what we’ve got to offer 

here in the Waikato and 

to the professionalism of 

our local events people, 

delivering memorable delegate 

experiences resulting in 

businesses wanting to come 

back.” 

The strategy considers 

how to build on the region’s 

strengths, including its 

prime location, awardwinning 

venues and thriving 

industry sectors such as 

agriculture, technology and 

high value manufacturing. 

It also considers how to 

address challenges like 

accommodation constraints, 

intensifying competition and 

workforce shortages, in order 

to remain competitive. 

“It’s a blueprint for the 

considered growth of business 

events in the Waikato over the 

next three years, as well as 

laying important groundwork 

for the future,” Tyson says. 

“We know a thriving 

business events sector 

supports a thriving region. 

We want to ensure the 

business events we bring 

to the Waikato contribute 

positively across all four 

well-beings – cultural, societal 

and environmental, as well 

as economic – in line with the 

focus on regenerative tourism 

in both New Zealand’s Tourism 

Industry Transformation Plan 

and Waikato Destination 

Management Plan. 

“Regenerative tourism 

ensures tourism gives back 

more to people and places 

than it takes, contributing to 

a positive, enduring legacy for 

the region.” 

Business events contribute 

to the region in many ways, 

whether through local 

delegates spending money at 

local businesses, or through 

facilitation of knowledge 

creation and exchange, 

attracting trade, external 

investment and talent. 

Event organisers play 

an important role in these 

outcomes and a growing 

number are supporting 

regional communities by 

prioritising local suppliers, 

sharing of local culture, or 

contributions – whether 

financial or through 

participation – to community 

groups or environmental 

causes. 

“There is a lot of value in 

what business events bring to 

the Waikato, over and above 

the economic benefits they 

provide. 

“As an industry, we’re very 

much looking forward to 

seeing where that might take 

us in the future.” 

Meet in the Waikato! 

The Waikato has award winning venues, unique attractions, 

and a group of friendly event professionals ready to help 

you deliver an exeptional event. 

We’re here to assist with your event planning - meetwaikato.com


MORTGAGE ADVICE 

The problem with all 

stick and no carrots 

By CLAIRE WILLIAMSON 


TOURISM 

Tourism dollars 

are good for all 

By NICOLA GREENWELL 

In another life, I spend a 

lot of time in the bush, taking 

action to support nature and 

biodiversity to improve and 

grow, and restore native 

forests and ecosystems. 

A lot of nature is about 

symbiosis - our native trees 

and birds rely on each other 

for survival and longevity, 

and it’s magical how these 

two come together for food, 

seed dispersal and the longterm 

success of both species. 

This is how I’d like us to 

think about providing rental 

accommodation in New 

Zealand; property owners 

being trees that need to 

attract birds to spread their 

seeds. The birds are like 

tenants who come and go, 

but often birds return to 

areas where there has always 

been a good food source of 

food over time. 

Property has long been the 

choice for “mum and dad” to 

put their money. Bricks and 

mortar, whether residential 

or commercial, has been seen 

as a ‘safe’ investment that 

appreciates over time, and 

you can drive down the street 

and see with your own eyes. 

In recent years, the balance 

in property investment 

businesses has been affected 

by several factors, many of 

which have been legislated 

by central Government and 

are now starting to bite 

across the sector. 

This includes the extension 

of the Bright Line Test to 10 

years for existing properties 

and five years for new 

builds. The loss of interest 

deductibility for rental 

property businesses, the 

Healthy Homes standards 

in 2019, the changes to the 

Residential Tenancies Act, 

and the Credit Contract and 

Consumer Finance Act are 

some of the other changes 

we’ve seen hit investors. 

It looks as though 

National and Act policies 

will be front and centre as a 

result of the election. It will 

be important to address a 

problem we’ve been ignoring 

for too long - the demand 

for rental properties is 

starting to outstrip supply by 

a considerable amount, and 

this having a negative impact 

on tenants. 

The big issues we’re trying 

to tackle are for tenants to 

have the option of warm, 

dry, safe homes, ideally for 

a decent length of time, so 

they can put down roots as 

a family and have a level of 

certainty about their futures. 

Investors want good 

tenants to pay their rent, 

low maintenance homes, 

and a modest return on their 

investment, and largely the 

freedom to do what they 

want with their properties 

within reason. 

I believe we’re currently 

looking at it all wrong, 

and we’re all stick and no 

carrot. There’s not enough 

consideration to pull towards 

the positive - where do these 

two ‘needs’ intersect? 

Warm, dry homes (up to 

standard) - big tick for the 

Healthy Home rules here 

Certainty over time, 

both in rent and tenure of 

occupation. Why can’t we 

incentivise these outcomes? 

For investors, if they 

provide all these things 

(perhaps even guaranteed 

rent) for a period of three 

years, couldn’t they receive 

some form of small tax 

benefit? Would that stop the 

incidences of selling quickly, 

flipping properties, and 

having to vacate properties 

to maintain them? 

For tenants, if they had 

certainty of tenure and 

rental payments and 

successfully completed their 

term, could they get some 

kind of universally accepted 

recommendation? 

I’m seeing so many 

landlords fed up with 

trying to meet a plethora of 

legislation requirements, 

unable to meet tax payments, 

and worrying about whether 

their tenants will look after 

their property or not. It’s 

not encouraging the supply 

of better quality, long-term 

accommodation, which New 

Zealand desperately needs. 

I’d love to see the new 

government do more to fix it 

than just oppose legislation 

that wasn’t fit for purpose. 

Incentivising positive 

behaviour, creating some 

real benefits to those who 

are putting their money into 

building up good quality 

rental stock with long-term 

outcomes in mind. 

And while I advocate daily 

for home ownership for 

more Kiwis, there are many 

who can’t afford to buy a 

property, or choose not to 

own their own property. They 

too deserve the right to put 

down roots in a community, 

live in good quality homes, 

and raise their families in an 

environment of certainty. 

And some of the great 

forests of Aotearoa prove 

what’s possible when 

symbiosis is at its best. Long 

living, quality ecosystems 

full of thriving trees, birds 

and people. 

• Claire Williamson is a 

mortgage advisor for My 

Mortgage 

Tourism is back and so is 

its impact on business in the 

Waikato. 

With spring well and 

truly here in the Waikato 

as a tourism industry we 

now turn our attention to 

the coming Christmas and 

summer season, which is 

shaping up to be a busy one. 

With the growing air 

connectivity from of key 

international markets, we 

are hearing of predictions 

of an influx of international 

visitors to our shores, and 

if the long-range weather 

forecasts materialise, we’re 

in for an extended and 

scorching summer. A sunfilled 

summer not only 

means more international 

visitors but also more 

New Zealanders exploring 

our beautiful backyard. In 

terms of numbers some are 

predicting higher than 2019 

visitor numbers and if our 

recent months statistics are 

anything to go by then this 

could be correct. 

In August, we welcomed 

an average of 51,000 visitors 

to the region each day. Of 

these, 88 per cent were 

domestic visitors and 12 per 

cent came from overseas. 

In dollar terms, the 

impact of those numbers is 

significant. In the 12 months 

to the end of July, domestic 

and international visitors 

spent $757 million and 

$106.4 million respectively 

in the Waikato, according 

to Tourism Electronic Card 

Transactions data. Both 

are an increase on 2019 

pre-Covid visitor spend – 

domestic spend showing 

an increase of 18% and 

international is up 13 per 

cent. 

International 

visitor 

spend was up across 

all product categories 

compared to the same time 

last year, with particularly 

impressive growth in 

‘cultural, recreation and 

gambling services’, such as 

concerts, festivals and other 

events, and ‘other tourism 

products’, such as guided 

experiences. 

‘Retail sales – other’, 

which includes things like 

clothing, home appliances, 

electronics and books, has 

the highest share of both 

domestic and international 

tourism spend in the 

Waikato, at 26 per cent and 

23 per cent of total spend 

respectively. 

These figures demonstrate 

that the economic value 

tourism brings to our region 

stretches beyond those 

directly involved in tourism 

- accommodation providers, 

tourism operators and 

hospitality businesses. 

Tourism is generating 

growth and creating jobs 

for local businesses of all 

sizes such as mechanics, 

butchers, petrol stations, 

supermarkets and 

hairdressers. 

As the organisation 

charged with promoting 

the Waikato to the world 

and converting interest 

and inspiration into action, 

we’re incredibly proud of 

our collective industry’s 

work behind these figures. 

Alongside the region’s 

vibrant and talented 

communities, councils, 

tourism operators and 

other businesses, as well as 

national organisations like 

Tourism New Zealand, our 

team plays a key part in the 

success of tourism in the 

Waikato. 

This year we’ve brought 

international travel media to 

the region to help showcase 

the Waikato on the world 

stage through hosting 

international broadcast 

media and influential travel 

sellers, and promoting the 

best the region has to offer 

to Kiwis through campaign 

activations. 

As well as launching a new 

Business Events Strategy 

and hosting leaders from 

New Zealand and Australia 

as part of the Ausae Linc 

Conference and offering 

educational opportunities 

for our tourism operators 

to upskill themselves in 

management and marketing 

practises. 

And it’s paying off. While 

there is no clear data set, 

if we conservatively equate 

our efforts to just one per 

cent of the $757 million 

domestic and $106.4 million 

international visitor spend 

in the 12 months to the end 

of July, that’s a total of $8.6 

million extra we would have 

brought into the region and 

put in the pockets of local 

community businesses, 

as well as accommodation 

providers, tourism operators 

and hospitality businesses. 

But it doesn’t stop there. 

We recognise a thriving 

regional tourism industry 

is good for business 

and a thriving business 

community is good for 

tourism. Opportunities 

for tourism and business 

to continue to grow in the 

Waikato are abundant and 

I, for one, look forward to 

continuing to explore them. 

• Nicole Greenwell is the 

Chief Executive of Hamilton 

and Waikato Tourism 

TALKING ECONOMICS 

Time for another shake-up 

By PETER NICHOLL 

The major state-sector reforms 

of the late 1980s gave the New 

Zealand public sector a huge 

shake-up. Its size was significantly 

reduced and its performance 

significantly improved. 

The impact of these reforms 

has gradually faded over the last 

35 years to the point where it is 

hard to know what the systems 

of performance monitoring and 

accountability are in the New 

Zealand public sector today. There 

are many examples of poor delivery 

of outcomes by government 

agencies, but nobody seems to take 

responsibility, and nobody seems 

to be held accountable. 

What we do know is that the 

public service has got a lot bigger 

again. On June 30, 2017, the public 

sector employed 348,000 people 

or 13.8 per cent of the work force. 

By the end of 2022, that number 

had risen to 448,000 or 18.7 per 

cent of the work force. 

On top of this, most Government 

Departments make significant use 

of outside consultants for many 

of their projects. The spending on 

consultants in 2022-23 was just 

over $1200 million. The muchvaunted 

‘do-it-yourself’ mentality 

of New Zealanders seems to have 

disappeared from our public 

service. 

While the number of public 

servants has risen strongly, 

satisfaction with the delivery of 

outcomes from the public service 

has fallen. Last year, a survey on 

the “Mood of the Boardroom’ gave 

the public service a score of only 

1.63 out of 5 for the ‘execution 

and delivery of policies’. That’s an 

extremely low score. Examples of 

poor delivery from public sector 

agencies appear in our newspapers 

frequently. The latest one was the 

Electorate Commission failing to 

get easy-vote cards to almost a 

million voters before the recent 

election. 

Another survey done last 

year titled ‘Working in the 

Public Service’ also had some 

worrying conclusions. Many of 

the respondents said that most 

government agencies are riskaverse 

and tell ministers what they 

think they want to hear. That isn’t 

being an advisor. The ministers 

are the decision-makers, but their 

advisors should give them a range 

of options on most issues and if the 

advisor thinks something being 

considered by a minister would 

not be a good policy, they should 

say so – and why. 

Also, public agencies are 

spending more and more on 

communication but most of what 

is being communicated is more 

accurately described as advertising 

than information or accountability. 

I have been told that the Reserve 

Bank of New Zealand now has 

26 people in its Public Relations 

Department. When Don Brash 

was Governor and I was Deputy 

Governor, there were 3 public 

relations staff – and Don made a 

lot of speeches. 

The focus of much of the public 

sector now seems to be on writing 

reports, media campaigns and 

advertising programmes rather 

than implementing policies. 

The new government will have 

to reform the public sector’s 

culture urgently so the emphasis 

goes back on implementation - 

and accountability is based on 

outcomes and not on writing 

long reports or having fancy 

advertisements campaigns. If they 

don’t, they will have a hard job 

implementing their policies too. 

The public service, not the 

cabinet, is the delivery mechanism 

for a government’s policies. 

• Peter Nicholl is a former deputy 

governor of the Reserve Bank of 

New Zealand



How is Artificial Intelligence impacting you? 

ADVERTORIAL 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is 

emerging as the defining 

technology of our age, with 

many industries already 

utilising AI in some form whether you 

know it or not. 

Examples of AI include: 

• ‘Personal assistants’ such as Alexa 

and Siri and customer chatbots 

• Machine learning customer 

analytics to predict and 

recommend actions to prevent 

customer turnover 

• Retailers being able to predict 

customer orders in advance 

• Customised robo-advice for 

consumer investments 

• Intelligent process automation 

(robotic process automation 

combined with AI) 

• Optimising the scheduling and 

rescheduling of healthcare 

appointments, including prediction 

of non-attendance 

• Tesla Autopilot driver assistance 

system. 

The next big thing 

Almost every aspect of our daily lives 

has been digitised. Internet and mobile 

technologies have transformed the way 

that we live and work. A new wave of 

technology is now coming through, and 

it centres on data. 72% of US business 

leaders believe AI will be the business 

advantage of the future. AI will utilise 

data to assist us with the many tasks 

that we currently do ourselves today 

and will be able to do things that we’ve 

never even conceived of before. 

AI at work 

Commercially applied AI has expanded 

in recent years, driven by a combination 

of computing power, the availability of 

huge datasets and advances in machine 

learning techniques. AI enables 

machines to respond on their own to 

signals from the world at large, signals 

that programmers do not directly 

control and therefore can’t anticipate. 

The fastest growing category of AI 

is machine learning, the ability of 

software to improve its own activity, 

based on interaction with the world at 

large. 

The spectrum of AI can be divided into 

three areas: 

• Assisted Intelligence; widely 

available today, improves what 

people and businesses are already 

doing 

• Augmented Intelligence; emerging 

today, enables people to do things 

they couldn’t otherwise do 

• Autonomous Intelligence; 

being developed for the future, 

establishes machines that act on 

their own 

PwC’s Global Artificial Intelligence 

Study 

Highlights from our Global AI Study 

include: 

• AI has a potential contribution of 

$15.7 trillion to the global economy 

by 2030 Up to 10.4% boost in GDP 

for local developed Asia economies 

(including Australia and New 

Zealand) from AI by 2030 

• Labour productivity improvements 

- driving initial GDP gains as firms 

seek to “augment” the productivity 

of their labour force with AI 

technologies and to automate 

some tasks and roles 

• 45% of total economic gains by 

2030 will come from product 

enhancements. AI will drive greater 

product variety, with increased 

3% 

personalisation, attractiveness and 

affordability over time. 

AI is set to be the key source 

of of transformation, jobs at potential disruption risk of automation and 

competitive by early 2020s advantage in today’s fast 

Strategy 

Data & AI Ethics 

Consider the moral 

implications of uses of 

data and AI and codify 

them into your 

organization’s values. 

Policy & Regulation 

Anticipate and 

understand key public 

policy and regulatory 

trends to align 

compliance processes. 

changing economy. 

Impact on jobs 

We analysed over 200,000 jobs in 29 

countries to explore the economic 

benefits and potential challenges posed 

by automation. 

AI will both generate the demand 

for many jobs, but there are also 

concerns that it could displace many 

existing jobs. Job displacement will 

increase over time as AI technologies 

mature and are rolled out across the 

economy. Autonomous vehicles and 

other machines will replace many 

manual tasks and increased automation 

will impact those in clerical and other 

administrative jobs. 

While AI may displace certain jobs, 

it is forecast to create more jobs than it 

displaces. Some business sectors will 

be impacted more than others, with 

increases expected in health and social 

work, education and professional, 

scientific and technical services. 

AI will also increase productivity 

and make jobs more enjoyable by 

automating the more mundane tasks 

within a job role, enabling people to 

focus more on creative and teamwork 

aspects of their job. 

Four steps to making the most out of AI: 

1. Work out what AI means for your 

business 

The starting point for strategic 

evaluation is a scan of the 

technological developments and 

competitive pressures within 

your sector, how quickly they 

will arrive and considering how 

you will respond. You can also 

identify operational pain points or 

opportunities that AI could address 

both with what is available now 

and more importantly, where the 

technology is heading in the future. 

2. Prioritise your response 

In determining your strategic 

evaluation, consider these key 

questions: What is your appetite 

and readiness for change? Do you 

want to be an early adopter, fast 

follower or follower? Your answers 

will assist in determining how the 

different AI options can help you 

deliver your business goals. 

3. Make sure you have the right 

talent and culture, as well as 

technology 

Investment in AI is expensive 

now, but it is anticipated that the 

of jobs costs at potential will decline risk over of automation the next ten 

by mid-2030s years as the software becomes 

more commoditisied. While the 

enabling technology is likely to be 

increasingly commoditisied, the 

supply of data and how it’s used are 

set to become the primary assets. 

4. Build in appropriate governance 

and control 

Trust and transparency are 

critical. For example, in relation 

to autonomous vehicles, AI 

requires people to trust their 

lives to a machine - a huge leap 

of faith for both passengers and 

public policymakers. Anything 

that goes wrong (malfunction or 

crash) is headline news. And this 

reputational risk applies to all 

forms of AI, not just autonomous 

vehicles. Customer engagement 

bots have been known to acquire 

biases through training or 

manipulation. 

Key AI risks 

• Biased, offensive or misleading 

content - AI is only as good as the 

data it was trained on. 

• Novel privacy breaches - AI’s ability 

to connect data from within the 

vast datasets could compromise 

your privacy controls. 

• Unsafe models built on theft - with 

so much data underlying some AI, 

you may not know its source or if 

you have permission to use it. 

• Inadvertently sharing your 

intellectual property - without care, 

you could find your proprietary 

data and insights from the 

information you enter into a 

generative AI model becoming part 

of the database and widely shared. 

• Hallucinations threaten 

performance - Generative AI is 

good at coming up with convincing 

answers, but sometimes its 

answers are flat-out wrong, yet 

presented authoritatively. 

• Cyber Threats - AI can assist 

malicious actors to impersonate 

someone’s writing style, manner 

of speech and facial expressions. 

This could then be used to spread 

misinformation or to attempt to 

convince you to share sensitive 

data or lead to financial loss. 

Responsible AI - some mitigations for 

the risks 

• Equip users for responsible use 

Control ds 

Responsible Practices Core Practices 

Governance 

Enable oversight of 

systems across the 

three lines of defense. 

Compliance 

Comply with regulation, 

organizational policies, 

and industry standards. 

Risk Management 

Expand transitional risk 

detection and mitigation 

practices to address 

risks and harms unique 

to AI. 

30% 

Interpretability & 

Explainability 

Enable transparent 

model decision making. 

Sustainability 

Minimize negative 

environmental impact 

and empower people. 

Robustness 

Enable high performing 

and reliable systems. 

Bias & Fairness 

Define and measure 

fairness and test 

systems against. 

Security 

Enhance the 

cybersecurity of systems. 

Privacy 

Develop systems that 

preserve data privacy. 

Safety 

Design and test systems 

to prevent physical harm. 

44% 

and oversight - teach employees 

of workers who use with AI low the basics education of how at risk it 

of automation works, when by mid-2030s 

and how to use it, and 

Problem 

Formulation 

Identify the concrete 

problem you are 

solving for and whether 

it warrants an AI/ML 

solution 

Standards 

Follow industry 

standards and best 

practices. 

when and how to verify or modify 

outputs 

• Set risk based priorities - based 

upon your use of AI, assess the 

risks and give greatest attention to 

the greatest risks 

• Revamp cyber, data and privacy 

protections - update your policies 

and processes to help mitigate the 

risks from malicious actors 

• Watch the regulatory landscape - 

policymakers around the world are 

issuing more and more guidance 

on AI development and usage 

• Monitor third parties - know which 

of your vendors provide content or 

services that use AI (including the 

software and applications you use - 

e.g. Microsoft Copilot for Office) 

• Oversight - consider emerging 

software tools to identify AIgenerated 

content, verify its 

output, assess it for bias or privacy 

violations and add citations as 

needed 

Right from the start 

It’s better to implement confidence by 

design and ethics by design from the 

start, rather than racing to close gaps 

after systems are up and running. PwC 

has a responsible AI framework that 

can help manage these risks and others 

too. It delivers confidence by design 

through the entire AI lifecycle, with 

frameworks, templates and code-based 

assets and it is relevant at all levels of 

your organisation. 

Validation 

Evaluate model 

performance and 

continue to iterate on 

design and 

development to 

improve metrics. 

Monitoring 

Implement continuous 

monitoring to identify 

drifts and risks. 

• For more information visit www. 

pwc.co.nz/services/risk-services/ 

what-is-responsible-ai.html 

Local Contact: 

Aaron Steele, Director, 

Risk Assurance, PwC



Applauding future leaders 

Waikato’s best young talent was celebrated last month at the annual Young Enterprise Awards at Wintec. Photos: Deearn Strawbridge 

Foster Construction’s Runner Up was Reusaballs from Sacred Heart Girls College. Pictured with Lee 

Patchett were, from left, Ashleigh Smith, Helen De Vries, Abigail Young, Mia Hartstone and Anna 

Miles. 

Waikato Chamber of Commerce’s Excellence in Financial Management Award went to UniquelyMe 

(Sacred Heart Girls College) from left, Ruby Hermann, Isabella Anstis, and Savanna Van Der Lee. 

They were pictured with Liam Rodden (left) and Danielle Quigg and Rob Finlayson. 

The Waikato Business News’ Excellence in 

Promotion and Marketing Award went to Khushi 

Sehgal and Jason Cheng of Cheeky Chocolates at 

Fraser High School. 

CAL Isuzu’s Excellence in Innovation Award went to Tyred Dogz from Hauraki Plains. Alex Boles 

was pictured with students, from left, Anna Hart, Sophie Pepper, Ryan Denize, and Julian Upfold 

The Excellence in Sustainability Award went to 

Sprowt (St Peters Cambridge), represented by 

Maia Williams, pictured with Smart Waikato’s 

Mary Jensen. 

The Excellence in Sales Award was won by Waikato Diocesan School for Girl’s Bubble No Trouble 

- from left, Marina Lyu, Charlotte Bryant and Meg Crawford. 

The Best Annual Review award went to Play Kāri (Waikato Diocesan School for Girls) and was 

presented by Maja Murray. The team comprised Anna Hansen and Emerson Wright. 

Waikato University’s Excellence in Leadership 

Award went to Anna Hart (Hauraki 

Plains College) and was presented by Paula Sutton 

The Waikato Pacific Business Network’s Pasifika Enterprise Award went to Doughnas (Sacred Heart 

Girls College) and was presented by Rachel Afeaki. The team included Ann Kaninteang, Francesca 

Tongol and Raukura Hodges-Macdonald 

EMA’s Excellence in Production Award was 

awarded to Down to Earth, Hamilton Boys 

High School and presented by Kerri Gorrett



“Fosters are a superb 

team with an innate 

ability to manage 

stressful situations 

and deliver solutions...” 

John Daley, Mainstream 

Mainstream’s new 2,400m 2 transit freight facility was 

constructed in just 5 months, creating cost savings for the 

business, and enabling operations to be up and running 4 

weeks ahead of schedule. 

Mainstream Property Manager John Daley says Fosters was 

considered for the job because they were part of the New 

Zealand Construction Alliance, with whom Mainstream had 

worked to build their Palmerston North depot. 

He adds that Fosters won the tender due to their collaborative 

approach from the outset. 

“Fosters were not the cheapest, nor the most expensive” says 

John. “We were simply impressed by how proactive they 

were in establishing a relationship and then working through 

the tender process. From the get-go, Fosters made it clear 

that they would give feedback on the design and areas of 

improvement. We welcomed that engagement.” 

Fosters knowledge of the area was another key strength, 

according to John. “Having an intimate understanding of their 

backyard - where and what they were building - they projected 

a sense of confidence all the way through.” 

The construction agreement was signed in January 2023 and 

key materials procured by the end of March, which is when the 

construction team broke ground. By the end of August, John 

had the keys to the building. 

“That turnaround is simply amazing” says John. “I talk to plenty 

of people about this job and delivery in five months is unheard 

of. 

“Fosters are a superb team with an innate ability to manage 

stressful situations and deliver solutions, which we very much 

appreciated.” 

Specific features in the project included installation of pallet 

racking, 126 solar panels on the roof, high-end EV charging for 

standard and heavy-duty vehicles, rain water collection tanks 

for grey water use, and data cabling and security provisions. 

“Scheduling contractor work and connectivity added extra 

challenges alongside a demanding construction programme, 

but Fosters managed it all exceptionally well. 

“With their collaborative approach and operational efficiency, 

Fosters absolutely exceeded our expectations. We got a highquality 

build, delivered ahead of programme and on budget.” 

Got a build project in mind? 

Get in touch with Fosters today! 

FOSTERS.CO.NZ 

07 849 3849

Waikato Business News | November 1, 2023

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