BB#54-Sep-Oct-2020

N 54 • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2020 • HAWKE’S BAY UP CLOSE, IN DEPTH

BayBiz Special Feature

Farmers’ Market turns twenty

Sep/Oct

Film industry for Bay. E-doctoring & e-learning take root.

Politics of HB water. Arts Festival goes local.

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54 BayBuzz September/October 2020 Recovery. HB health system prepared for Wave 2, while evolving to ‘new normal’. Water still dominates our region’s political agenda. BayBuzz/Now survey charts our online usage. HB aims to host a film industry. Assessing our lockdown online learning experience. Conspiracy & fringe theories dismay. Breakthrough plans for reducing waste. Saving HB’s versatile soils.

Farmers’ Market at 20 years. Spaceship lands in Hastings. Arts Festival to stress local and NZ. Cover photo: Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Market manager, Emma Glover. Photo: Florence Charvin. This page: Patrick Sherratt. Photo: Tom Allan.

Featured contributor Follow us at: baybuzzhb Articles online at: baybuzz.co.nz Editorial enquiries editors@baybuzz.co.nz

Abby Beswick, writer

Advertising enquiries Nick Lewis nick@baybuzz.co.nz

Two years ago, my family and I moved from a busy street in West Auckland to Havelock North, where the loudest sounds come from early morning dog walkers saying hello. We love what the region has to offer and since then have spent plenty of time exploring our incredible new home, especially the beaches and wineries. My career has always revolved around words, including roles as a print journalist, communications advisor, a stint as an English teacher in Italy, and most recently as a freelance copywriter.

Reach BayBuzz by mail BayBuzz, PO Box 8322, Havelock North

BayBuzz Team EDITOR: Tom Belford ASSISTANT EDITORS: Bridget Freeman-Rock; Lizzie Russell SENIOR WRITERS: Kay Bazzard; Tom Belford; Abby Beswick; Bridget Freeman-Rock; Keith Newman COLUMNISTS: Andrew Frame; Mary Kippenberger; Paul Paynter; Dominic Salmon; Jess Soutar Barron; Hazel Thomas; Louise Ward BUSINESS WRITER: Sarah Thornton EDITOR’S RIGHT HAND: Brooks Belford PHOTOGRAPHY: Tom Allan; Florence Charvin ILLUSTRATION: Brett Monteith; Israel Smith DESIGN: Unit Design Max Parkes; Giselle Reid DISTRIBUTION: Nick Lewis ONLINE: Mogul, Liz Nes BUSINESS MANAGER: Charleen Downie PRINTING: Blue Star Group

Read Abby's article on the future of e-learning on page 32.

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ISSN 2253-2625 (Print) ISSN 2253-2633 (Online)

This document is printed on an environmentally responsible paper produced using Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) pulp sourced from Sustainable & Legally Harvested Farmed Trees, and manufactured under the strict ISO14001 Environmental Management System.

Photo: Tom Allan

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Going to the doctor in a post-Covid normal.

Photo:Florence Charvin

Bee in the know 4 From the editor 6 Hero 8 Did you know?

Improving your Hawke’s Bay IQ. 10 Climate update

Features

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Photo: Florence Charvin

14 Going to the doctor in a post-Covid normal Bridget Freeman-Rock Primary care providers embark on ‘new normal’ for patient care.

22 Guarding against a second wave Bridget Freeman-Rock DHB has clear plans and ramped up resources on stand-by.

24 HB thriving online Tom Belford

BayBuzz/NOW survey reveals our online habits.

32 Does e-learning make the grade?

Abby Beswick Teachers and families discuss their lockdown learning experience.

38 HB’s water politics Tom Belford Inside our region’s water policy-making.

BayBiz …

Reporting our recovery 44 Lights, camera … action needed!

Keith Newman Will HB audition successfully for a local film industry?

50 Smile, the worst is still to come Carolyn Neville Is HB’s recovery as good as it appears?

52 HB economic indicators Business HB Latest HB business indicators 54 Watershed moment in NZ’s war on waste Dominic Salmon New government waste policies give hope.

56 Solar slashes RSA bills Keith Newman Business lesson: Napier RSA embraces cost-saving energy option.

Ideas & opinions 58 Save our plains Paul Paynter Simple equation: Less soils = less HB food production.

60 Fickle educational fortunes Andrew Frame

EIT/CottagesNZ partnership teaches homebuilding skills.

62 Urban myths, conspiracy and fringe theories Michael Hawksworth Facts can’t be ignored.

Health & wellbeing 64 Heartburn … put out the fire!

Hazel Thomas

Culture 66 Arts festival goes local Kay Bazzard 72 Deli on the lawn?

Ian Thomas 76 Readers, writers and revelations Louise Ward 78 Spaceship ready to launch Jess Soutar Barron 80 Whooping and gushing Mary Kippenberger

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 3

F R O M T H E ED I TO R TO M BEL FO R D

This edition of BayBuzz continues our focus on our region’s recovery from the coronavirus.

But as I’m writing, the Auckland situation reminds us that as much as we’d like to focus our collective energies on economic recovery and returning to ‘normalcy’ in our schools, cultural and sport activities, health services and everyday enjoyment of life in the Bay, we must maintain a high state of readiness to react swiftly and firmly to any breach of our Covid precautions.

Probably everyone reading this has family or friends overseas who are in far greater jeopardy than we are and about whom we worry. So, as we try to move forward, we should count our blessings and channel our gratitude into our community.

By many accounts, Hawke’s Bay is rebounding strongly. Every few days a new statistic or anecdote (e.g., ‘the last two months were our best ever’) suggests we’re on the move.

Everything’s returning … restaurant bookings, elective surgeries, luxury car sales.

We’re even courting a new industry … the film business, as you’ll read inside.

But before you get too carried away, first read this column – Smile, the worst is yet to come – by Carolyn Neville, CEO of Business Hawke’s Bay. She estimates probably 8,000 in the Bay are receiving some form of unemployment assistance.

And that doesn’t take into account underemployment (those not working their full normal hours) nor those whose jobs might be in jeopardy when government wage supplements expire.

Hopefully the fall-off will be cushioned by the government bounty allocated to pump up Hawke’s Bay – so much from so many different pots it’s hard to calculate a firm total.

Hawke’s Bay now employs a regional recovery manager, stationed at the

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Regional Council but coordinating local government response across all five councils. Her numbers indicate our region’s councils have received $42 million in post-Covid funding.

And this doesn’t include some big recent doses of pre-Covid PGF and other funding, like $20m for a Porangahau road, $12m for a Hastings ‘food hub’, $25m for ‘water security’ (plus many smaller chunks) and the odd bits going to non-council players, like $800k for Hawke’s Bay Tourism, $19.5m (loan) to Te Mata Mushrooms, $32 million to the Hawke’s Bay Community Fitness Centre for a regional aquatic facility.

All in all, that’s a major dose of stimulus that will take considerable lag time to actually get spent, helping to offset likely adverse impacts still to come from our struggling overseas markets.

Our various councils seem to be doing a fair enough job marshalling our collective recovery efforts.

One hopes that this collaboration eventually might extend to the two other ‘mega-issues’ challenging the region – water policy and climate change. I’m not optimistic about that.

I’ve previewed some of the expected contention in my article, Politics muddies the waters, but there will be plenty more coverage to come, including our weekly online reporting via The Buzz.

I’ll close with some thoughts on the elections. Note firstly that I used the plural.

You need no reminder about the national election. Turnout will exceed 80% and the pathways for you are pretty straightforward: 1. Vote to reward the Prime Minister (chiefly) and Labour (secondarily) for admirable leadership and effective response through two crises that have evidenced the mettle and competence of those in charge.

2. Vote instead for one of the parties competing to be the essential ‘handbrake’ on any number of expected woeful excesses of a Labour-only or Labour-Green government.

3. Or vote for the Greens to add some zest to a Labour-led government that might on its own not have the vision or fortitude to address our biggest long-term environmental and social issues.

At the other extreme of election (in)visibility, there’s the paper ballot coming your way for the Hawke’s Bay Power Consumers’ Trust … which represents your ownership of Unison.

I suspect you won’t know most of the candidates on that ballot, but I urge you to watch for your voting papers (which mail on 10 Sep), examine the candidates’ profiles, ask around regarding who’s ‘for real’ if you’re undecided, and get your vote in by the 1 October deadline.

This is your chance to show Donald Trump that mail balloting works!

Meantime, enjoy your BayBuzz.

Tom Belford tom@baybuzz.co.nz

Tom has been a two-term HB Regional Councillor. His past includes the Carter White House, building Ted Turner’s first philanthropic organisation, doing heaps of marketing consulting for major non-profits and corporates.

Thanks to our

BayBuzz Sponsors

They commit Our Foundation Sponsors provide year-long support to our magazine and online service, helping to ensure BayBuzz can deliver quality journalism to Hawke’s Bay readers, connecting and informing our community.

BayBuzz commits With that support, at a time when local journalism has never been more important, we commit to bringing Hawke’s Bay in print and online: • The most in-depth insight into the major environmental, economic and social issues challenging the region.

• The most informed coverage of our recovery from the Covid pandemic.

• The most comprehensive window into our region’s arts and culture and community achievements.

• The most provocative and inspiring views and opinions on where Hawke’s Bay should head and why.

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B E E I N TH E KN OW

Sir Graeme Avery If one wanted to nominate a modern-day ‘patron saint’ of Hawke’s Bay, you’d be hard pressed to do better than Sir Graeme Avery, KNZM, a member of the NZ Business Hall of Fame.

Most recently, Graeme has been the originator and driving force behind the Hawke’s Bay Community Fitness Centre, spearheading the effort that brought this community asset to existence, and recently securing $32m in government funding to add a premier aquatic centre as a vital feature.

Before that, Graeme was a strong champion of the Hawke’s Bay Sports Park itself, which has proven itself against early apprehensions, and gone from strength to strength.

Earlier still, Graeme, founder of Sileni Estate, was part of the team that brought to life our region’s memorable branding as Hawke’s Bay Wine Country. And he helped establish the Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Market some 20 years ago.

For transparency’s sake, we’d be remiss not to mention Sir Graeme’s (a publisher himself of far greater achievement) early and longstanding support for this magazine.

A true champion of Hawke’s Bay, these are his contributions ‘merely’ within our lucky region.

Photo: Florence Charvin

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Did You Know?

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A second dechlorinated water station for Napier is now open for use on Marine Parade (next to the National Aquarium of New Zealand). Napier City Council resolved to provide the community with two stations in June 2018. The first was installed at Anderson Park last year.

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We’ve been spending up! The recent rise in retail card spending was boosted by sales of furniture, hardware, and appliances, Stats NZ says. Spending on durables had the largest retail industry increase, up $259 million (20%) compared with July 2019.

“For a third consecutive month, card spending on the long-lasting goods (durables) remained at higher levels than last year, after falling sharply during April’s Covid-19 lockdown when stores were shut,” retail statistics manager Kathy Hicks said.

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Let’s see if HB can improve on 2017’s general election turnout when we head to the polls in October. Last time around, voter turnout in the Napier electorate was 82.24% of enrolled voters. It was 81.33% in Tukutuki and 82.56% in Wairarapa (which includes much of Central Hawke’s Bay).

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St Andrews Presbyterian Church joins forces this spring with Common Room in Hastings to present a a public theology conversational series. Check out the church online to see the details of the visits from Chester Borrows speaking about prison reform on September 16, Rocio Figueroa on ‘Love in the time of Covid’ on September 30 and then Andrew Shepherd on The Throwaway Society on October 14. blog.standrewshastings.org.nz/dir/

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Hawke’s Bay’s median house price is $545,041. In Napier the most expensive suburb is Poraiti, with a median house price of $840,800, while the most affordable suburb is Maraenui, with a median price of $373,650. In Hastings District the expensive suburb is Eskdale – median price of $879,100 and Flaxmere is the most affordable where the median price is $339,600.

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Our local fringe festival Fringe in the Stings returns – one way or another, depending on how Covid-19 behaves – on October 8 to 10. Details at fringeinthestings.co.nz

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September 14 – 20 is Te Wiki o te reo Māori – Māori Language Week. Māori Language Day is September 14 and commemorates the presentation of the 1972 Māori language petition to parliament.

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Hastings is in the running to be named ‘Most Beautiful Large Town’ in the 2020 Keep New Zealand Beautiful Awards, lining up against Cambridge in the category. Winners will be announced on October 29. Waiheke Island and Arrowtown are fighting it out for Most Beautiful Small Town, and it’s Whānganui vs Hamilton in the Most Beautiful City section.

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Hawke’s Bay Regional Transport has replaced the old goBay card with the new BeeCard for bussing around the Bay. Details of the switch and how to upgrade and transfer your balance at gobay.co.nz/bee-card

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If you’re looking for spring fun without having to travel too far, check out thespringfling.nz for a range of activities in Central HB this September and October. Explore historic homesteads, coastal walks, boutique markets, or the Hatuma Half Marathon for the energetic ones!

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Delayed due to Covid-19, the Hawke’s Bay Art Trail has new dates – Labour Weekend, October 24 and 25. This is a chance to get around and see inside the studios and work spaces of artists throughout Hawke’s Bay, and for a range of special exhibitions too. With Fringe and the Harcourts Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival, October is shaping up pretty nicely!

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One of the musical highlights of the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival will be the local troubadour Stretch in concert at Toitoi as he launches his second album, the much-anticipated follow-up to 2017’s Bury All Horses.

Stretch recorded the new album this winter in Auckland with his musical collaborator, cellist Paula Sugden and a range of NZ talent.

The Heretaunga Women’s Centre will this month present its annual September celebrations. Highlights include • Forum I’m Dancing by Myself: When alone means lonely on September 18 at C3 Church and Conference Centre in Hastings. (Tickets on Eventbrite).

• Suffragette Day Activity Walk on September 21, which sets off from the women’s centre in Memorial Park.

(Free) • Talk and Lunch 27 September 11.30am Mystery Guest at Heretaunga Women’s Centre. (Free) You’ll find all the details at heretaungawomenscentre.nz

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 9

CLIM ATE

The Heat is On! Global Warming Update Going, going…

Greenland

Hydrogen fuelled truck

Fuelling up The government has announced a $69m project working towards getting low-emission trucks on NZ highways.

To start, $20m has been approved for New Plymouth company Hiringa Energy to establish a nationwide network of hydrogen-fuelling stations.

Stations will be in Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Manawatu, Auckland, Taupō, Wellington and Christchurch.

Once the project is complete, they will supply zero emissions fuel to truck and bus fleets and support the decarbonisation of the heavy transport sector. The project is intended to create over 150+ local jobs in multiple industries and professions.

HB greenhouse gases

No going back

The government’s official calculations of the nation’s GHG emissions over the 2007-2018 window show that, as a nation, we basically treaded water, lowering our nation-wide emissions by a mere 1.2%.

Hawke’s Bay, which at 3.1 kilotonnes of CO2e accounts for only 4% of NZ’s total GHG emissions (78.2 kilotonnes CO2e), did better, reducing our emissions by 7.1%. In Hawke’s Bay, agriculture accounted for 65.5% of our GHG emissions, while methane accounted for 61.9% of our total emissions. But we’re all part of the problem: household emissions in HB rose 9.4% over this period.

A new study by researchers at Ohio State University says Greenland’s ice sheet has melted to a point of no return, and efforts to slow global warming will not stop it from disintegrating. Since the year 2000, the ice sheet has been shrinking so quickly that replenishing snowfall has not kept up with the rate of melting, plus ‘calving’, from parts of the glacier newly exposed to warmer ocean water.

Overall, the ice sheet lost an estimated 600 billion tonnes in 2019, representing a sea level rise of about 1.5 millimetres. The Greenland sheet holds enough water to raise sea levels by over 7 metres.

10 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

Closer to home, new research from Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington has been able to finally directly attribute annual ice loss in glaciers to climate change. The study analysed two years in which glaciers in New Zealand melted the most in at least four decades: 2011 and 2018.

Both years were characterised by warmer than average temperatures of the air and the surface of the ocean, especially during summer.

Other recent research shows New Zealand glaciers will lose about 80% of area and volume between 2015 and the end of the century if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at current rates.

Sockeye salmon

Go fish A new study published in the journal Science has announced that warming of the world’s oceans and rivers could pose a grave threat to the fish populations the world depends on by the end of this century. The German study analysed nearly 700 species of marine and freshwater fish from climate zones around the world and found that among the species at risk are household staples like Atlantic cod, Alaska pollock and sockeye salmon, and sport fishing favorites like swordfish, barracuda and brown trout.

Polar bears In a new study published in Nature Climate Change, researcher Peter K. Molnar at the University of Toronto Scarborough concludes: “There is very

China and India are forging ahead with coal plants

little chance that polar bears would persist anywhere in the world, except perhaps in the very high Arctic in one small subpopulation” if greenhousegas emissions continue at so-called business-as-usual levels.

The rapid decline for all of the 19 subpopulations of polar bears, from the Beaufort Sea off Alaska to the Siberian Arctic, would result from the loss of sea ice forcing the bears to move to land and away from their food supplies for longer periods. This would lead to prolonged fasting and reduced nursing of cubs by mothers.

Peak coal?

Retirements of coal plants – mostly in Europe – and a pause on new developments due to Covid-19 have seen global coal-fired power capacity edged down for the first time on record. The net decline of 2.9 gigawatts may be small, at just over 0.1% of the world’s coal generation capacity, but marks an important turning point.

NZ had 18 operating coal mines at the end of 2018, the two biggest (by far) being the Stockton mine (Buller) producing 1,076,257 tonnes and Awaroa (Rotowaro) at 800,818 tonnes.

The Warehouse recently stopped selling coal (who knew!?), while Kiwibank black-listed coal in its new Responsible Business Banking policy.

Coal giant Peabody Energy is writing down the value of its huge North Antelope Rochelle Mine in Wyoming by $1.42 billion. The write-down of reportedly the world’s largest coal mine is a stark sign of the coal sector’s

wider struggles.

But unfortunately, the coal biggies – China and India – are forging ahead with coal plants.

2019 – what a year Some of the awful key findings from the recently-released State of the Climate in 2019 report from the American Meteorological Society: • The six warmest years on record have all occurred in the past six years, since 2014.

• 2019 was among the three hottest years since records began in the mid-1800s, and 2020 is on track to join the top-five rankings.

• Average sea surface temperatures in 2019 was the second highest on record, surpassed only by 2016.

• Sea levels rose to a new record high for the eighth consecutive year.

• Surface air temperatures for the Arctic were the second highest in 120 years of records, trailing only 2016. In the Antarctic, 2019 was the second warmest year for the continent since 1979.

• Glaciers continue to melt at a concerning rate for the 32nd straight year.

But what can I do?

Individual efforts aren’t going to fix it, but we still have a part to play.

Recently The Guardian asked leaders in the field of climate what they were doing to personally combat the global heating. A few reminders for all of us: Adrienne Hollis, climate justice and health scientist: I am being mindful about the water shortage. I like to plant

around my deck, and I use my rain barrel to water my plants. It’s a small thing, and it’s a big thing. I get up at about 6 to water my plants. It makes me feel like I am making a difference.

And feeling like you’re making a difference is important.

Sonia Aggarwal, energy policy expert: I recently found a great deal on a gently-used electric car, and I have been loving it for those essential trips when I can’t walk, bike or use public transit. One thing I didn’t expect: this electric car is the most fun to drive!

It’s peppy and quiet and it just feels so good to breeze right past the gas station without a second thought.

Michael Mann, climatologist: I speak out about the climate crisis, and the importance of taking action, using every medium, vehicle, forum or platform that is available to me.

Catherine Flowers, environmental justice leader: Use less plastic or no plastic, recycle, eat less meat, reduce our own carbon footprint, build better – there are lots of things we can do.

Don’t buy unsustainable products, choose something else. The quickest way to get people to change is to make another choice, then of course the market will adjust.

Listen up Gimlet Media has released a new podcast How to Save a Planet. And it’s good listening! American presenters Alex Blumberg and Dr Ayana Elizabeth Johnson ask the big questions, interview key players and offer solutions, and bring a little humour to the often-overwhelming subject.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 11

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Recovery

Jump Starters

There’s nothing like the whole world shutting down to refocus us on the benefits of buying and supporting local.

BayBuzz talks to three Hawke’s Bay businesses who have moved swiftly to turn a crisis into a positive, and found strength in community spirit along the way. Story

by Giselle Reid and Lizzie Russell.

Ultrella From small beginnings selling jars of natural deodorant at the Piecemakers Pop-up and Hereworth

Ultrella founder, Mel

Lewis. Photo: Florence

Charvin

entirely on online sales.

Fortunately, Ultrella already had an online store, built

by Aimee Stewart’s team at Connect Plus.

Christmas markets, Mel “When it looked like we were going into lockdown, Lewis soon realised she had I made a dash up to our to take her business to the next level if she was warehouse in Napier, and going loaded up my car with to compete with a growing as many boxes of products number of competitors in as I could fit in so we the personal care space. could dispatch from home if required. It was such The new business was a lucky move.” over a year in the planning. “My customers There were a couple of had told me the products nervous weeks as Mel they wanted to be using, but waited to find out if Ultrella I didn’t have the techniwas included on the cal skills to create them.”

MBIE’s register for Essential Through the Hawke’s Goods. Once that was Bay Business Hub, she applied established, Ultrella was good to go. for, and won, a Callaghan Innovation R&D grant “Having the population at home, at the start of 2019. That spending a lot financial support enabled of time online, actually her to work with a leading worked in our favour during product formulator to bring those first few weeks.

It gave us a chance to her ideas to fruition. connect with potential customers Ultrella Natural Deodorant and educate people about is the first deodorant in NZ and Australia (“and the our ethos and our products.” whole world, as far as we know”) to be able to reduce sweating The groundswell of ‘buy New Zealand’ made sennaturally. The hero ingreditiment on social media, ent is a natural Botox alternative and in particular the called IBR-Snowflake® now , 500,000 strong New Zealand a plant extract made from Summer Snowflake Made Products Facebook bulbs. page, provided a huge This ingredient has been kick-start for Ultrella. clinically proven to reduce The response to one unsponsored sweating by 36% ... up until now you’ve had post on that Facebook to use an page was “mental”, says antiperspirant to get results like this.

Mel, “I had over 1,000 comments and questions Ultrella was launched to respond to. It took the Friday before lockdown. me days to “It go back to everyone. was a completely surreal I posted on the Saturday day,” says Mel. “I very nearly night.

By Sunday lunchtime didn’t go ahead, but then it was obvious we were I kept thinking, ‘If I don’t going to do run out of courier supplies. it now, when will I do it? There’s never a perfect time to launch a business, so I It was really stressful just leapt in and went trying to get more down for it.” from Auckland. The support Prior to lockdown, she had been in negotiations from other local businesses was incredible.” with four major NZ retailers, Mel put out a call for but those conversahelp and Steve Christie from Blackroll tions halted immediately.

In this instance, being NZ, Tom Ormond from Hawthorne Coffee, Nathan small worked in her favour, from Blackbird Goods quickly pivoting to focus and Shaz and Garon from Ecokiosk were among the

JULY/AUGUST 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 23

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The way children learn has changed forever. As Covid-19 surged around the world, schools closed, forcing our children out of their classrooms. Globally, more than 1.2 billion students have been affected by school closures due to the pandemic.

‘ Going to the doctor’ in the post-Covid normal While most of us in Hawke’s Bay could pretend life was (almost) back to normal during the short, sweet months of June and July post-lockdown, those working in primary healthcare were ever conscious things were different.

Story by Bridget Freeman-Rock. Photos by Florence Charvin.

General practice had changed overnight on 22 March, and for many there could be no return to the pre-Covid status quo.

On Saturday 21 March, Royal NZ College of General Practitioners urged its members to move to a telehealth model, effective from 8am Monday 23 March, and all Hawke’s Bay general practices made that shift as Jacinda Ardern made history.

With only a small number of HB practices routinely using phone and video consultations, this meant most had to completely reinvent their services, from infrastructure (securing additional phone lines and tele-tech resources), to new models of care and infection control.

In the immediate, hectic days of lockdown there was very little national guidance, so each health organisation was effectively re-inventing the

wheel, coming up with a safe system that worked for its purposes, and then making constant adjustments, with an agility not typically associated with general practice.

Rachel Monk, GP and clinical lead at Totara Health, for instance, took on the coordination of her centre’s Covid response, which saw her researching bleach ratios for sanitising benches, writing protocol, working with her team to devise a 6-day on, 14-day off rotation for in-clinic staff to avoid potential virus-spread, while adapting to a new way of practice and reassuring anxious patients.

In the first week, phone calls to the Totara Health reception desks quadrupled – from the usual 700 per day to

2,800; they had to triple their number of phone lines.

While the company had already invested in tele-tech for its Hastings and Flaxmere clinics, within 48 hours its entire 73-person team were capable of working remotely from home (and many did for the duration), including nurses whose routine, hands-on work had been halted.

Telehealth “is a bit of a Rubik’s Cube for general practice,” says Totara Health’s general manager Shane Gorst, “but Covid has forced our hand to make it work … From 99% face-toface consultations, we went to 80-90% phone consults – overnight.”

Hawke’s Bay pulls through

People embraced telehealth because it felt the safe option. Or the only option.

Or sometimes, because the prospect of being treated by a healthcare worker in full PPE was unappealing and they didn’t feel welcome, or didn’t want to be a nuisance.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 15

“Not only were patients surprised by what doctors could do over the phone, but we were surprised by how effective it was. Which is why telehealth is now part of the toolkit, another service we offer.”

SHANE GORST, GENERAL MANAGER FOR TOTARA HEALTH

But along with the shift to telehealth (with limited ability for GPs to recover co-payments), during Level 4 there was a sharp drop in consultations all round. ACC “disappeared”.

Subsequently, overall revenue dropped by 30-50% – half of HB general practices applied for the Covid-19 wage subsidy; most reduced their opening hours, some their service.

But although there were reports nationally of general practices folding, it appears in Hawke’s Bay, so far, all made it through. Totara Health is justifiably proud to have managed to navigate the situation without a single staff member losing their job or an hour of pay.

While there has been concern that telehealth would further entrench the inequities in access to healthcare, a survey conducted by the PHO (Health Hawke’s Bay) during lockdown, found that Māori and Pasifika consultation rates in the region did not drop as much as for the non-Māori/Pasifika population, indeed, one practice commented that Māori and Pasifika were amongst the best adopters of virtual consultation modalities.

Gorst says, for some of Totara’s enrolled patients (especially mums with young kids), telehealth has meant “a sudden and significant improvement” in access to healthcare services.

Level 1 normality

Initially, during alert levels 4 and 3, booking in-person appointments was at the doctor’s discretion (and contrary, to public perception, in-person consults when clinically required were on offer across all practices, according to the PHO), but as alert levels went down, people became more vocal about wanting more choice.

Practices are now trying to find the balance that works best for their cohort of consumers, while adjusting systems to meet both health safety measures and the practicalities and

16 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

idiosyncrasies of their particular service models. From what I can tell, this varies enormously between practices.

Two months into Level 1, and offering patients the option between in-person or phone consults, Totara Health (the largest provider of GP services to Māori and Pasifika in Hawke’s Bay) reported a consistent 50-50 split between the two – half of their consults are, by patients’ choice, via telehealth.

At Hastings Health Centre, on the other hand, while the practice continued to offer virtual/phone consults as an option, the overwhelming pattern (during Level 1) was a return to face-toface appointments. When I spoke with Dr Alan Wright on 13 August, he said, very few GPs at HHC had been doing phone consults the week before.

Dr Cormac Fitzgerald says Taradale Medical Centre (which offers three options for consults: phone, virtual and in-person – the preference for 85%) has been busier than before Covid, “Once we went down the levels it was full steam ahead, because people sat on their symptoms, essentially.

They’re now coming in with a shopping list of problems.”

Busyness across the board is corroborated by every receptionist I speak to, often belied by the sparsely-peopled quiet of waiting rooms.

In many cases, patients at TMC are directly emailing their GPs. It’s not something most practices encourage, and some of Fitzgerald’s colleagues feel swamped, but he finds it useful. “In the past we were doing things through a filtered-down process via reception staff. There’s maybe more paperwork now but less appointment time, it’s cutting down work in the long run.”

Positive outcomes

From the conversations I’ve had with GPs in Hawke’s Bay, there are a number of positive outcomes to emerge from the Covid response, the most oft-quoted being: increased collegiality and collaboration across primary and tertiary healthcare, and both within and across districts; the move to e-prescribing; better management of patients through a telehealth triage system; and a culture change around illness.

There was a profound sense of collegiality during lockdown as medical professionals rallied together, with a different ease and transparency of communication between primary and tertiary care.

For example, a Facebook group was set up for GPs and specialists, senior hospital consultants, nurses, where regular broadcasts were shared and specialists were able to directly answer generic questions about problems, cases. “We felt like we were on the same team,” says Dr FitzGerald, “and even now it feels like we’re more on the same page than before”.

Dr Wright reflects: “From a primary care point of view, one of the key learnings was how much was achieved when we worked together. The CBACs [community-based assessment centres] were very much a cooperative effort across the board, and between Hastings and Napier there were daily communications, cooperative planning and implementation, in a way that hadn’t been done before. Out of this response it was clear, we can work seamlessly together when we want to.”

Electronic prescribing was “an amazing thing that happened out of Covid,” says Dr Monk, while Wright affirms, “nobody would ever want to go back to paper-prescribing again.” It saves a huge amount of time, not only the labour of handwriting in instances where handwritten prescriptions were previously required, but by emailing prescriptions directly to chemists, it bypasses reception staff, freeing them up too. “E-prescribing was always in the pipeline,” Monk explains, “it just happened to get a hurry along.”

The success of drive-through flu vaccine clinics during lockdown is also mentioned as the “way of the future”.

The implementation of a telehealth triage system in those practices (like Totara and TMC) that have transitioned to the Health Care Home model (a patient-centred approach for doing more with less) has been especially effective for fast-tracking acute cases and for managing patients – GPs are

“We’re much more prepared this time round. We know how to quickly upscale, to move towards virtual consultations and ‘cold’ and ‘hot’ streams, with minimal interruption.

We’ve shown we’re rapidly adaptable to anything.”

DR ALAN WRIGHT, HASTINGS HEALTH CENTRE

enjoying more control over this.

While it varies from practice to practice in set up, basically patients are put on a call-back list, and in those initial calls the doctor assesses the situation, and either resolves clear-cut issues then and there (such as prescription renewals) or plans for consultations that are tailored accordingly (whether that’s phone, video or in person). It’s only the consults themselves that are charged.

For Dr FitzGerald it means he can work out ahead if someone requires

a longer appointment and slot them in before a break, for example, or if they’re going to need blood tests there’s latitude to pre-plan. “There are a little less surprises now.”

He also speaks of a culture change in practice – “It’s now inappropriate for staff to come in with a cough or cold”; they’re taking sick days and feeling able to do so, whereas in the past they would have soldiered on. Many practices also continue to run separate respiratory clinics. At Totara, Shane Gorst says segregating patients with flu symptoms is now the new normal – “that won’t go back”.

Downstream effects

Not all general practices have managed the situation well, however. One GP I speak with in early August on condition of anonymity has just resigned from her job – “Covid was certainly one of the straws that broke the camel’s back,” she says, “It’s been chaotic and messy and very stressful.”

She cites poor communication, and feeling disconnected from her colleagues and the workplace itself both during the period of remote-working and in the scrambled, uncertain aftermath of lockdown. Stress around job security has been an issue (the practice asked staff during Level 4 to consider reducing hours as a way to recoup costs) and shorter opening hours means she doesn’t have the time she usually would at the end of the day to catch up on paperwork.

The wider issue though, “is dysfunction within a dysfunctional healthcare system,” and she worries about the downstream consequences of lockdown, the effect on mental health, the already long waitlists for surgeries, for treatments, the way patients are often “mucked around” – “that weighs on you”.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 17

“While there were already a lot of people struggling with mental illness before Covid, there does seem to be an upsurge … We’re definitely seeing the impact of Covid on people’s wellbeing.”

DR RACHEL MONK, GP AND CLINICAL LEAD AT TOTARA HEALTH,

Dr Monk says she’s not surprised to hear of resignations – “burn-out rates for doctors are high”. Not only is there big, unmet need in the community, hospital issues (often due to lack of funding, staff and services) fall back on GPs too, necessitating repeat referrals and increasing workloads, which coronavirus has only compounded.

She says when she first started out 16 years ago, her daily caseload was more of a mix between the simple stuff (like coughs and colds) that might take 5 minutes to resolve, and the more complicated – accordingly there was some time flexibility to juggle it all.

But increasingly, nurse practitioners, paramedics and other health clinicians are dealing with the easier-to-resolve issues, and with Covid she’s not seeing respiratory patients at all because they’re being separated off. “Now it’s just back-to-back, complex cases” that

18 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

she struggles to fit into the 15-minute consultation blocks the government funding system provides for.

Monk has observed an increase in mental health issues since March.

“While there were already a lot of people struggling with mental illness before Covid, there does seem to be an upsurge … We’re definitely seeing the impact of Covid on people’s wellbeing.” [This is something BayBuzz will be looking closely at in our November/ December issue.]

For her personally, working on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic has been “emotionally exhausting”.

She describes herself as naturally change-adverse, and yet Covid saw general practice capitulate to rapid, ongoing change, which six months on is still unfolding.

Things can change overnight

When I interview Monk on day 102 of zero community transmission in New Zealand, with more prescience than she can possibly anticipate, she notes that a Covid outbreak could happen any time, although with all systems in place for such eventuality, hopefully with less disruption. “The situation could change tomorrow, but I don’t lose sleep over that now.”

That very evening the government’s emergency Covid alarm bawls from our phones to announce the new outbreak in Auckland and swift level 2 and 3 restrictions.

As it happens, at noon on the day we step up the alert ladder again, I have a booked, in-person consultation with my own doctor in Greenmeadows. My temperature is taken at the door, the usual scripted questions, Perspex screens at the counter. The waiting room here is fairly full, and a few wear masks, but the atmosphere feels almost convivial.

Quite different from the wary, on-edge vibe I experienced back in March.

This time we all know the rules of the game and how to play them. It seems we’re adapting to some kind of Covid normal. A certain philosophical acceptance of uncertainty, heroic participation in what, initially, are some pretty weird rituals, the ability to turn on a dime. What this new normal looks like in the fullness of time, however, is yet to be written, as well as the ongoing implications, both positive and negative, of a still evolving pandemic.

Colin and Diana Crombie

MAJOR BOOST FOR HAWKE’S BAY FOUNDATION Sons and daughters of hard-working families will continue to benefit from a charitable trust worth over $500,000 that has been transferred to Hawke’s Bay Foundation.

Named after its founders, Napier philanthropists Diana and Colin Crombie, the new fund is the former Penzance Charitable Trust, which has provided local secondary-school students with scholarships for the past 15 years.

The couple made the decision to transfer their long-standing charitable trust to Hawke’s Bay Foundation for convenience and the guarantee of safekeeping.

“Transferring our trust to the Foundation takes a lot of pressure off us, especially as we’re getting older,” Diana says.

“The income from the fund will remain in Hawke’s Bay and continue to be distributed according to our wishes for perpetuity, which is most important to us. It is comforting for us to know the fund will continue to be well-managed and get a better return than our term deposits, which means more for the community.”

The Crombie name is familiar to most, not only in Hawke’s Bay but throughout New Zealand, due to the well-known insurance business, Crombie Lockwood, which Colin established in Napier in the 1970s.

Since then Colin has supported many Hawke’s Bay community projects, such as the redevelopment

“We decided to focus our giving on education as we believe it is the most important thing you can give young people.”

COLIN CROMBIE of the Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery, which saw him honoured with a Queen Service Medal in 2014.

“We started the business from a tiny acorn, and it grew to be a successful national company thanks to the support of the local community,” Colin says.

“As a result, we are in a position to be able to give back. We decided to focus our giving on education as we believe it is the most important thing you can give young people.”

The Diana and Colin Crombie Scholarship Fund provides scholarships to students from Napier Boys’ High School, Napier Girls’ High School and Iona College who are going on to any kind of tertiary education. The three successful applicants will receive a total of $9,000 each over three years.

Established in 2012, Hawke’s Bay Foundation receives donations and bequests and invests them in order to provide a long-term sustainable source of funding for the Hawke’s Bay community. The original donation is never touched – rather it is preserved forever, with the income that is generated used to provide grants to local charities.

Diana and Colin agree the transfer of their trust to the Foundation was straight forward, with all involved working for the common good and

they look forward to seeing the outcome and impact it has under the new succession plan.

“The Hawke’s Bay Foundation is a wonderful organisation to be involved with. You can choose where you want your money to go, even while it is managed by the Foundation. It guarantees continuity,” Colin says.

“There are great people on the board which was a drawcard for us.

They know their stuff and have the same vision for a better Hawke’s Bay.” Applications for the scholarship will be opened later in the year.

For more information on funds, giving or applying for a grant please see our website www. hawkesbayfoundation.org.nz

HAWKE’S BAY FOUNDATION: A better and more lasting way to give Hawke’s Bay Foundation provides a simple way to support your local community for generations to come.

We receive gifts and bequests from individuals, families and businesses – these are pooled and invested forever, with the income being used to support local charities like Napier Family Centre, making a positive difference in our community.

Visit hawkesbayfoundation.org.nz to find out more, or follow us on Facebook @HawkesBayFoundation

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 19

adequacy of the medium; it doesn’t suit everyone.

• There’s more uncertainty for doctors in making over-the-phone diagnoses; and it’s no substitute for instances where a visual, physical exam is preferable.

• It’s difficult to manage some things, like chronic illness and mental health issues, over the phone – here video consults would be better, but as yet are not always viable.

• Available video consultation platforms, such as Doc See Me, are ‘clunky’ and not easy to use, and they rely on technology and data that not everyone has access to.

• The current funding model for general practice – premised on 4x standard 15-minute in-person appointments per hour – doesn’t cater to modern tech modalities or service demands.

Telehealth Telehealth encompasses the gamut of phone and virtual communications, and it was already being used to some degree by general practice in Hawke’s Bay (i.e. secure messaging via patient portals), with government incentives to engage in teleconsultations. But Covid fast-tracked the process for all.

“We know that overseas, teleconsultations are working well,” says Dr Rachel Monk, “but this is very new for most NZ doctors, and we were thrown into it very quickly.”

Consequently, there’s still a lot to learn and work through, for health practitioners and consumers alike.

What’s apparent is that telehealth is here to stay. We won’t be going back, I’m told, to face-to-face appointments only, though it won’t supplant these entirely either.

• It significantly improves access for those who face barriers for going to a GP for an in-person consult (such as difficulties with transport, childcare or work arrangements).

• Some people are more comfortable using modern technology than meeting with their GP face-to-face, for some it’s just less of a hassle.

• GPs have more control over their day and how they manage their patients – it allows for a more planned approach to consultations.

• A practice can ‘see’ more patients in a day than they could otherwise in the traditional in-person service model.

• Reduced wait-times for booked, inperson appointments.

• More flexibility – both in time and approach.

Here are some of the pros and cons, as experienced in Hawke’s Bay:

Cons

Pros • It’s quicker than coming in to see a doctor (factoring in travel and waittimes, a 15-minute appointment takes up, on average, an hour of your day), and you’ll ‘see’ your GP within 48 hours.

20 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

• It tends to work best when there’s an established in-person relationship first (knowing the patient) – it’s trickier with new or casual patients.

• Not everyone’s enrolled, or even knows their GP (in some bigger practices, staff turn-over is high), which precludes the above.

• Some patients feel cynical about the

Going forward, the government is investing a further $20 million to improve telehealth capacity within general practice and community health providers (i.e. more tech resourcing).

Health Hawke’s Bay says it’s identified some barriers to, and consumer concerns with, telehealth locally, and is working with the Consumer Council to develop best practice guidelines. The Ministry of Health recently announced a sponsored data partnership with Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees, meaning consumers using these mobile networks can access essential health information, resources, and online health services, such as patient portal Manage My Health, for free (no data charge).

But ultimately, the way general practice itself is funded – based on a historic service model that pre-dates digital and mobile communications – is going to have to be addressed. “The vulnerability of this funding model was exposed during Covid-19,” says Health Hawke’s Bay CEO Wayne Woolrich, “and this has reinforced our position that the funding model for primary care requires a significant rethink.”

Royston Hospital is pleased to sponsor robust examination of health issues in Hawke’s Bay. This reporting is prepared

by BayBuzz. Any editorial views expressed are those of the BayBuzz team.

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Guarding against a second wave In July, as coronavirus took off again in Melbourne and the prime minister began speaking of plans for a Covid resurgence, BayBuzz met up with Dr Nick Jones, clinical leader of population health at Hawke’s Bay’s DHB, and Karyn Cardno, the Covid coordinator within the Public Health Unit (PHU), to discuss preparations at the local level.

It was clear to both, long before the Auckland August outbreak, that Hawke’s Bay needed to be prepared for a cluster or outbreak here. “And we have been preparing for that,” said Jones at the time.

This included increasing our testing, investigation and contact tracing capacity, taking a more sophisticated approach in monitoring outbreaks, and providing training opportunities and employing additional ‘dual-purpose’ staff – nurses who have had specialist training to step into ICU roles if necessary, for instance, or growing the number of team members (from 50 to 70) who can be co-opted to the local Covid case investigation and tracing teams – these then contribute to the National Close Contact Service (NCCS).

More testing and tracing

During the first wave, Hawke’s Bay took some 16,000 swabs, which were processed in out-of-region

22 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

laboratories, resulting in a lag time of 2-5 days. The game-changer has been that Hawke’s Bay has since purchased its own Covid lab-testing machines, with capacity to process over 600 tests per day, it turns out (the DHB’s initial figures were more modest). Results can be returned within 24-48 hours, while a rapid tester machine for clinically important cases can process a swab within the hour.

Improved timeliness is vital as it directly impacts hospital flow (any patient tested for Covid is treated as positive until test results prove otherwise), while shorter turnaround times also means the PHU can identify and isolate contacts more quickly, reducing the risk of further spread.

In the first week of our step back to Alert Level 2 in August, over 3,000 swabs were sent in from the region’s community testing centres (zero positive). There’s capacity to ramp this up further, and with a national system

now in place for targeted, needs-based distribution, Hawke’s Bay can always send swabs away to any lab in the country for testing should it need to.

In the event of an actual outbreak here, “there will be a very large increase in testing”, as many as 8,000 tests a week. “There is likely to be more people to test and follow up than during lockdown when we were all in isolation,” explained Jones.

“Everything will be more complex.”

We’ve seen this, first hand, in Auckland.

A major advance, is that New Zealand now has the capacity to work across all 12 PHUs, with one national database under a delegation model, meaning contact tracing work can be picked up elsewhere in the country if the system locally is overwhelmed.

Based on government modelling, the DHB has planned for, and is confident it could manage, up to 12 new cases per day in Hawke’s Bay, with an estimated

20-30 contacts to follow up per case. To put this in perspective, our busiest week during the first wave had 17 new cases, whereas our upsurge capacity now can accommodate 80 new cases, and 4-5 potential hospitalisations, per week.

The Covid hospital within the hospital, which was set up during lockdown with ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ areas to keep suspected Covid patients isolated at all times and an additional 11 ICU beds, is able to be quickly brought back into effect if and when needed.

As for a Hawke’s Bay-specific Covid plan, the global pandemic is such a fluid, mercurial situation, anything written down is soon out-of-date. Instead healthcare workers use the likes of the Āwhina app, which provides the latest government healthcare advice – “it’s what we are governed by,” says Karyn Cardno.

Napier Port

Our borders (no surprise) are the weakest link, and while Hawke’s Bay is a long way from an international airport and quarantine hotels, we do have the Port.

The government issued a Maritime Quarantine Order on 30 June with the purpose of restricting vessels coming into NZ (extending as well the ban on cruise ships), and to put in place strict isolation or quarantine requirements for those arriving at the maritime border. It’s a very different environment now to the one we saw back in early March when the Ruby Princess cruise ship came to town.

In brief, maritime crew cannot leave their vessel unless they have been at least 29 days at sea since the last port and have had no other contact with people since leaving port, or have completed 14 days of isolation either on board (from the point the ship arrives in New Zealand waters) or in managed isolation in New Zealand.

The DHB says it’s working in collaboration with Napier Port on preventative work there, which is being coordinated by the Ministry of Health Border Protection team. Between 16-18 August, more than 250 port workers underwent surveillance testing for Covid – none of whom returned a positive result.

Where to go if you have symptoms of flu You can call one of the community testing stations below (no walk-ins) or your own GP to book a Covid test, which is free: • Napier: 06 650 4000 open 9am-5pm Mon-Sun

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Check out online reviews. Ask about guarantees for dental work.

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For a start, check out websites; are they up-to-date and easy to engage with?

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You never know when you might need your dentist.

• Hastings: 06 281 2644 open 8am-8pm Mon-Sun • Wairoa: 06 838 8333 open 8.30am-5pm Mon-Fri • Central Hawke’s Bay: residents need to be referred from their doctor or Healthline: 0800 358 5453

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 23

Story by Tom Belford

Hawke’s Bay Thrives Online The coronavirus has brought into sharp relief how desirous and dependent we are for communication, connection … and consumption. And when we can’t do these things in person, we go online.

BayBuzz teamed up with NOW in July to undertake a survey of how Hawke’s Bay residents are using the Internet – what services and activities, what devices, what concerns or issues?

Over 700 individuals responded, giving us a robust picture of online usage in the Bay.

With this caveat: Fully 88% of our respondents enjoy a home-based broadband connection, while other data indicates that 21% of households in NZ do not have such access. Our survey, conducted online, obviously reflects the habits of those who can afford broadband connections as their primary means of accessing the online world.

How do we access the Internet?

Desktop computer

The coronavirus has brought into sharp relief how desirous and dependent we are for communication, connection … and consumption.

Laptop computer

Smart phone

Smart TV

Tablet

Voice activated

We are not shy about using the Internet – 61% report going online once every hour, another 18% connect at least once every 15 minutes. Over the past six months (our effort to capture the effect of Covid), 38% report using the Internet ‘slightly more’ and another 15% ‘significantly more’. And we use a variety of devices to do so.

Smart / fitness watch Home security system Home automation

Mobile devices – smartphones, laptops, tablets – collectively are leaving ‘old-fashioned’ desktop computers in the dust!

So, how are we using all this online time and hardware?

Other

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 25

What we do online The bedrock activities centre on connecting – 97% use email (still the granddaddy function), trailed by online messaging services, 81% (e.g., What’s App, Facebook Messenger), Facebook itself (74%) and video meeting services, 62% (e.g., Zoom, Skype, Facetime).

Further down the scale, 33% report using Instagram, 26% LinkedIn, 19% video messaging services (e.g., Snapchat, TikTok), and 10% Twitter.

And then there’s real connection … online dating, at 4%!

That’s a heap of connecting! But as important as interacting with our friends, rellies and business colleagues is, there’s obviously a lot more that fuels our Internet habit.

The chart below shows the twelve activities done by more than 50% of respondents on the Internet over the past 30 days.

Email Online banking / paid bills Checked the weather

Followed the news Researched possible purchases, retailers, service providers Used navigation (e.g. Google Maps) Social networking (viewing or posting) Downloading or watching movies, TV shows, or other videos Purchase items: clothing, books, household goods Stored photos or documents online Downloading or listening to music, podcasts, internet radio Used video calling for socialising with family, friends

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Do you see any ‘disruptors’ here? Well, 81% go online for the news. What ‘news’ if not instant? Did you find out about Auckland’s return to Level 3 – and ours to Level 2 – by TV or by your phone squawking at you?!

Not surprising that TV news programmes are losing audience and revenue, if not authority.

Downloading movies and TV, at 61%, is certainly a disruptor. Downloading has totally exploded the old TV advertising model, and increasingly threatens movie theatres (protected only by the big screen, the socialising aspect of movie-going, and in the best cases … good popcorn).

26 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

For more disruption, there’s retailing, with 75% doing their shopping research online and 61% actually purchasing online (with ‘bricks & mortar’ protected only by the socialising aspect of shopping and the occasional ‘need’ to actually ‘touch & feel’).

Perhaps less socially significant … just shy of 70% use online navigation. When will you next purchase a paper map? And 54% download music … buy a CD lately?

The next ‘middling’ group of online activities are engaged in by at least a third of respondents.

I suspect activities here like researching DIY, pondering bookings, browsing property and game-playing rack up some very substantial online hours!

Online banking / paid bills Checked the weather

Followed the news Researched possible purchases, retailers, service providers Used navigation (e.g. Google Maps)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

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The lowest tier activities – still with most capturing 3 of 10 respondents – might be characterised as ‘high involvement’, with most requiring a certain amount of mind share, like managing investments, expressing your views (whether a restaurant review or on issues), of course formal education … and certainly online dating!

Read or posted reviews - restaurants, movies, performances Purchased food Used video calling / meetings for work Managed investments Expressed your views on issues Formal education, training Changed bank, broadband, energy or insurance provider Online dating

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

BayBuzz readers It’s worth watching how the online working that’s reported here develops – 38% say they worked from home and 30% participated in online video calling or meetings for work.

The other activity encouraged by lockdown would have been purchasing food online, reported by 31%, as compared to the 61% who reported other kinds of online purchases. It will be interesting to see if this gap closes. About 18% say they expect to do more online food shopping in the future.

Survey responses also indicate that 61% have purchased goods from overseas (e.g., Amazon), while 71% use person-to-person trading (e.g., TradeMe). One-half of online shoppers purchase online at least once per month. But nearly 40% have yet to shop online.

Our survey asked whether certain online activities might change after Covid-19. Across most activities, 55% to 70% responded ‘about the same’.

By far the biggest upward bump is expected for video calling, where 42% said they would do more (including 10% who say ‘much more’). Other gainers are streaming TV/Movies (up 24%), working from home (up 23%) and shopping online for local goods/services (up 22%).

28 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

BayBuzz readers might be curious to know whether their activities differed from the broader public in the survey. Across most of these activities, the answer is ‘No’. But one set of activities does set BayBuzz readers apart … they track the news more, they have views and opinions … and share them. This is the classic definition of influencers.

Activity

Broad BayBuzz public readers

Follow news online 76% 89% Read/post reviews 26% 42% Express views on issues 25% 36%

BayBuzz readers also report more working from home (BayBuzz 49%, other 31%) and more workrelated use of video meetings/calls (BayBuzz 40%, other 24%).

So, connect with others, research/inform ourselves, enjoy entertainment, purchase stuff, and manage our lives – these are the online activities we enjoy and have come to expect instantly at our digital doorstep. So much so that in some circles Internet access is now deemed a ‘human right’.

Strongly Disagree

Any downside?

Our respondents are staunchly upbeat about the role of the Internet. And we definitely gave them a chance to grumble!

For example, we asked if they agreed with these statements:

Clearly, although a third might flirt with the idea of ‘living without it’, for some 75%, the Internet has become life’s management tool. And 65% credit the Internet with helping ‘to connect and strengthen our community’.

Which isn’t to say our respondents had no concerns.

Internet worries The concerns we found amongst our respondents mirror those generally found in other surveys.

Disagree

Neither Agree or Disagree

Agree

Strongly Agree

12% 27% 26% 28% 5%

The Internet is a necessary evil, I’d love to live without it, but can’t

2% 5% 16% 54% 21%

The Internet has made life easier to manage

11% 37% 36% 14% 2%

I’ve recently found myself trying to use the Internet less

2% 6% 26% 53% 12%

The Internet helps to connect and strengthen our community

Slightly Extremely Not Concerned Highly Concerned Concerned Concerned Concerned at all

4% 26% 29% 26% 14%

Organisations collecting personal data about me

2% 8% 23% 31% 35%

Content that is inappropriate for children / young people

5% 22% 31% 25% 16%

Trustworthiness of the news and information provided on the internet

21% 30% 30% 12% 6%

The cost of a broadband connection

44% 28% 18% 7% 2%

The amount of time I spend on the Internet

2% 10% 21% 28% 37%

The unlawful use of the Internet: hacking / spam

2% 14% 27% 29% 26%

The impact social media is having on society

Cath Healey, Master of Professional Practice Graduate (with Distinction)

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“ Concern about inappropriate content for children and young people tops the list, with 67% either ‘highly’ or ‘extremely’ concerned. A hair behind, at 66%, is concern about internet hacking and spam.”

Concern about inappropriate content for children and young people tops the list, with 67% either ‘highly’ or ‘extremely’ concerned. NOW comments on this issue in sidebar. A hair behind, at 66%, is concern about internet hacking and spam.

The role of social media is disturbing to many, and probably increasing. On the one hand, ‘citizen media’, often disseminated via social channels, can record terrible abuses – as in police violence – and incite and organise justifiable political protest. On the other hand, the same tools can be used negatively for everything from schoolkid bullying to anonymous character assassination to distorting elections.

It’s not surprising to see 41% highly or extremely concerned about the trustworthiness of the news and information provided on the Internet, much – but not all – of what’s questionable transmitted via social media. With no shortage of examples, from Covid and myriad other conspiracy theories, to fake or unproven remedies, to photoshopped images, to specious data, to blatant unchecked lies … all coursing through the Internet with negligible opportunity for correction or effective response.

And it will probably get worse, as the tools can be mastered by just about anyone.

On this topic, our survey did ask what ‘publications or websites’ respondents used to keep up to date with news and information.

Stuff.co.nz was the far and away winner, cited by 83%. Rounding

30 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

out the top five were: Hawke’s Bay Today (55%), NZ Herald online (43%), international news sites (32%) and, happy to make the list, BayBuzz online (31%).

Online upcomers focused on national news – The Spinoff and Newsroom – were cited by 17% and 16% respectively.

Regrettably in hindsight, we failed to ask about Facebook as a news source. Probably because we unconsciously feared the result!

There will be more insights to report from our survey results, including usage differences by gender, age, education and income.

Watch for these in future BayBuzz magazine and online articles.

The ‘have nots’ As noted at the outset, this is a report of internet usage by those in Hawke’s Bay with efficient broadband access.

But there are, per the botched 2018 census, an estimated 21% of New Zealanders – at least 211,722 households, 600,000 people – who have no internet access, including an estimated 80,000 school-aged children.

BayBuzz’s Keith Newman writes of these ‘digital refugees’ and what they are missing: “Internet access is no longer an optional extra; it’s almost a human right.

Everything’s online, from banking and bill payments to travel and concert tickets, education, public health information, social support resources and information essential to an inclusive democracy.”

For more on this issue, read Keith Newman’s Facing NZ’s digital divide (www.baybuzz. co.nz/2020/04/09/facing-nzsdigital-divide/)

“ NOW has experienced a noticeable increase in demand for family internet filtering devices in the last 12 months.”

Kids and the Internet Kiwis are concerned about staying safe online and the survey results speak to this strongly.

We’ve seen parents’ concerns growing for how to keep their kids safe online – this has been acknowledge by the Government in their launch of the “Keep it Real Online” website and marketing campaign, promoting the awareness and need to have conversations with children about common internet issues.

NOW has experienced a noticeable increase in demand for family internet filtering devices in the last 12 months; these devices help to filter online content to make it kid-friendly.

While these devices go a long way to help parents keep their families safe, NOW believes they aren’t a one-stop shop and need to be supported by regular, open conversations with kids about what they’re experiencing online.

Netsafe has a great toolkit for creating an online safety plan, which we recommend to parents and caregivers who have kids accessing the Internet.

NOW sponsors the BayBuzz Technology Series to enhance public understanding of our region’s technology achievements and opportunities. Analyses and views presented are those of BayBuzz and its editorial team.

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Does e-learning make the grade?

The way children learn has changed forever. As Covid-19 surged around the world, schools closed, forcing our children out of their classrooms. Globally, more than 1.2 billion students have been affected by school closures due to the pandemic.

Story by Abby Beswick. Photos: Florence Charvin.

The resulting lockdown forced a dramatic change to our education system, with the move to e-learning, where teaching is carried out remotely on digital platforms. This sudden shift away from the classroom raises questions about whether online learning has a place in post-pandemic education, and whether such a move could impact academic achievement.

We speak to local educators, students and families about their experience of remote learning and if it should have a permanent place in our education system.

Mobilising the forces

In the week before lockdown, teaching staff knew they were about to enter extraordinary territory. While most

32 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

institutions had been using education technology to support classroom learning for many years, moving completely to e-learning, in just a few days, was something new entirely.

At education facilities around the country, staff had to find solutions rapidly in preparation to deliver their programmes remotely. Under lockdown, parents had two weeks of holidays before what would be for most, their first foray into homeschooling families.

As students “returned” to school via virtual classrooms, a new era of education began.

Some classes translated well into an online format, while others were more challenging. At high school and tertiary levels, practical courses such as the arts and trades relied on teaching staff

finding meaningful ways for students to study them in online platforms. At the start this meant focusing on theory components of these subjects, but as time went on, educators had to keep finding new ways to study the practical aspects of programmes online, with often limited resources available.

Then there was the issue of access to devices and the Internet, highlighting the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Where students didn’t have their own device or access to the Internet, education providers stepped in as much as possible, to ensure these were made available so students could continue their studies.

At EIT alone, around 250 laptops were sent to students and staff also organised access to modems and data

for a number of students. Staff also set up a working group to address student hardship issues related to Covid-19. As part of this students could apply for a one-off grant to help them continue their studies from home.

A new education

Scheduling, assessment and academic expectations differed dramatically between institutions, often based on students’ ages. Hasting’s Flaxmere Primary took a flexible learning approach, so students could fit schoolwork around their home life, and where possible lessons were integrated into everyday tasks such as cooking and exercise.

“We decided we weren’t going to lock families into having to do something at

9 o’clock or 10 o’clock because everybody’s situation was quite different,” says principal Robyn Isaacson. “We were really aware of the emotional and mental wellbeing of families because it wasn’t an easy time for anybody.”

The school sent out home packs which included art equipment, books and activities to support what students were doing at home. Two weeks’ worth of food for lunches was also sent to homes in place of the usual Lunch in Schools programme. The reaction from families showed how much it meant to them, says Isaacson.

At the beginning of lockdown, Havelock North High School (HNHS) ran their usual daily timetable, starting at 8.45am, to provide students with structure and routine. Staff

constantly reviewed how students were coping and later decided to remove afternoon classes when focus levels dropped, to allow more time for other activities, such as exercise and being with their families.

Engagement varied during different stages of lockdown and between students, depending on how well they responded to the new way of learning. Some, who typically struggled in a classroom situation, excelled at e-learning, while others who thrived on the interaction and dynamics of a classroom found it more difficult.

A number of EIT’s international students travelled home, adding distance to the list of complications, but if they wanted to continue their studies, staff worked to make it happen. An

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 33

This sudden shift away from the classroom raises questions about whether online learning has a place in post-pandemic education, and whether such a move could impact academic achievement.

Academic Business Continuity group was established at EIT to support students through the temporary adjustments and ensure delivery of programmes and assessment.

During and post lockdown the focus has been on flexibility through an evolving situation, including offering students the option to withdraw or defer their studies, says executive dean for the Faculty of Education, Humanities and Health Science, Professor Natalie Waran. “We didn’t want them to feel stressed by thinking they would have to end their studies or pay anything or not be able to re-engage when the time was right for them.”

Lessons learnt

Throughout every stage of lockdown, teaching staff remained in constant contact with students and their families to provide support. Several schools said a positive outcome of lockdown had been the opening of a clear line of communication between teachers and families – one which has stayed open and continued to gain momentum.

Teachers also reported a real sense of community and eagerness to learn within virtual classrooms. “The children were motivated when they were doing things because they had a lot more agency in it,” says Isaacson.

As the weeks wore on however, the initial enthusiasm turned into ‘lockdown lethargy’ for many. By the end, “students and staff had had enough”, says HNHS principal Greg Fenton.

Exhausted and fed up with the limitations of distance learning, it was obvious how much everyone was looking forward to reconnecting at school, he says.

While the lockdown learning experience taught flexibility, it also took away the richness of being with other people. “As soon as we were able to come back onto campus, you did see students delighting in the fact that they were together again,” says Waran.

Fenton agrees. For him, there’s no substitute for the classroom, particularly when it comes to the social

34 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

aspects of engaging, sharing and collaborating. “The best environment for that is a face-to-face environment.

Conference of course gives hints of it, but it doesn’t go far enough in terms of generating the energy that happens in a classroom.”

What about the future?

Like it or not, lockdown forced staff and students to embrace e-learning in a way never explored before and demonstrated the potential to incorporate online learning into our classrooms. While some believe online learning results in a poor learning experience and a drop in academic achievement, others believe a new blended model of education will emerge, with significant benefits.

Flaxmere Primary School has changed its whole daily programme as a result of the lockdown experience. Every morning students can now choose from a wide range of activities that support their emotional and creative wellbeing, such as eating breakfast with classmates, going for a bike ride, walking, doing yoga, dancing, and art. Traditional subjects like maths, reading and writing are integrated into this time. After lunch all children take part in discovery learning, which focuses on science, technology and the arts.

The experience of remote learning at home has unlocked new interests in their children and through this new programme they now have the freedom to pursue these, says Isaacson. The school has also kept its online learning grids in place to support the learning independence children have gained.

EIT will continue to offer an online format to students who want to stay at home or are unable to return to the classroom. A project is underway to look at the future of e-learning, and how resources and technology can be best used to support this. Waran, who has been an international researcher and educator for many years, teaches several online programmes and believes with the right approach,

remote learning can be as effective as traditional methods. It’s about creating a high-quality learning experience online, as well as giving people access to learning if they’re not able to attend classes on campus, she says.

“If you’re going to teach in a very engaged way online, you just have to keep developing yourself so you understand how to do group work effectively and how to give students the same sort of experience as being in a classroom, even though they’re sitting in their own living room, looking at a computer.”

Waran sees a future where students can move between multiple institutes and programmes via e-learning, allowing them to create their own learning experience. Online platforms could also offer students the option of learning specific skills or knowledge, instead of a full qualification.

Is online learning as successful?

It’s still early days in terms of assessing student achievement for online learning, but the signs are good. EIT found in some cases student results were better from online learning. A wellbeing survey about students’ learning experience during lockdown was also largely positive.

At Flaxmere, the experience has been overwhelmingly positive, including academically. Sampling of students’ reading, done two weeks before lockdown and when they returned showed 85% of children had improved or stayed the same. Reading will be re-tested this term, along with maths.

Children’s creative expression has also taken huge leaps, says Isaacson. In fact, the creativity expressed by students through their artwork during and post lockdown has been so impressive the school is planning a public art auction.

The pandemic has not only disrupted the academic system, it has been a catalyst for change. It’s not yet known what role e-learning will have in our classrooms and beyond, but it’s clear that it has the potential to offer significant benefit to learners of all ages, which deserves to be explored.

EIT is pleased to sponsor robust examination of education issues in Hawke’s Bay. This reporting is prepared

by BayBuzz. Any editorial views expressed are those of the BayBuzz team and do not reflect the views of EIT.

“Students learn best when they’re helping each other, when they’re working as a group. They get better understanding of concepts through talking and communicating with each other, and that’s just not possible online, so it’s definitely not a permanent thing.”

Case study: Teacher Deborah Taylor Deborah Taylor spent much of lockdown in her downstairs office at home, hoping her two children didn’t break things upstairs while she was teaching science online.

The Havelock North High School teacher juggled fulltime work and parenting to her four and six year-old children during lockdown, while her husband continued his job as an essential worker.

It made for a challenging time of personal and professional growth for all of them. “It was stressful at times because the children would come in regularly when I was teaching, doing conference calls, asking for food, or having a tantrum or having a fight but my students found that entertaining.”

Pre-Covid, the online resource programme Schoology was a regular feature of Taylor’s lessons. In the days leading up to lockdown, however, she and her colleagues needed to rapidly upskill and expand their use of technology in preparation to transition to online-only classes.

As a science and biology teacher, that meant looking for innovative ways to adapt practical work into a format compatible with online learning. Often this meant finding simulation videos students could watch or small experiments they could do at home with the resources available.

Smarter Thinking Online.

Going into it, Taylor admits having high expectations of her bright, capable students but as she, her students and families adapted to their new reality, it became clear she needed to make some adjustments.

“I got feedback from parents that it was too much and some students were getting quite stressed about it, so I definitely toned it down.”

There were other issues, not usually encountered in the classroom. Many children weren’t comfortable being seen on video during conference calls so turned their cameras off; others turned their audio off, instead emailing questions; and some didn’t ask questions at all. In spite of this, Taylor had almost 100% attendance for her online classes. Students wanted to learn, even if they weren’t on board with the format.

While a few kids thrived in the online environment and enjoyed the flexibility it allowed, for most it was a poor second to their usual classroom, leaving many feeling stressed, confused and isolated, she says.

As a teacher, online lessons required a lot more time and planning compared to usual lessons, which was also challenging.

After eight weeks in lockdown, it was clear most students and teachers were “just so happy to be back” in the classroom environment.

The lockdown experience, and her 18-year teaching career have left Taylor in no doubt about the value of face-to-face learning, which she says offers significant social and educational benefits.

While technology has its place as a valuable tool for teachers and students, Taylor doesn’t predict a shift to online-only learning.

“Students learn best when they’re helping each other, when they’re working as a group. They get better understanding of concepts through talking and communicating with each other, and that’s just not possible online, so it’s definitely not a permanent thing.”

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Case study: The Berryman Household Covid-19 hit the Berryman family hard. While Anna ventured into a new world – remote teaching her year 2 class from Peterhead Primary – her husband Arron was forced to stop work completely. His new business – heavy vehicle inspection company COF’s Hawke’s Bay – had been due to open in a few weeks, but instead the gates remained locked while they stalled in limbo. “That’s when the pressure hit - the bills were coming in and we were not open,” says Anna.

Their two children Piper, 17 and Harry, 15, who both attend Taradale High School, also faced challenges as they navigated online study amid a backdrop of global and family pressures.

Teachers sent each of the kids daily tasks and deadlines for each subject, and remained in regular contact via Zoom and email. While Piper and Harry missed their friends and usual school routines, the dedicated students put their heads down and worked hard.

At first, things seemed to go quite well, but the dramatically different workloads and expectations between teachers started to take a toll. There was also frustration if they needed help while studying. Often they would resort to Google to find an answer – something that could have easily been dealt with by asking the teacher if they were at school.

Improving her technology skills was a positive for Piper, but as a visual learner, she missed reading from the whiteboard and the face-to-face interactions of school. “I really did miss my friends and felt isolated,” she says.

From Anna’s perspective, there were too many

36 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

demands on her children, who were working long hours to complete their daily tasks within an already stressful lockdown context. “By the fourth week, both of my children had just had enough; they were mentally and physically drained. They were beside themselves. There was too much work and they couldn’t even keep up with it.” Anna contacted the teachers explaining her children needed a break to spend some time with family and relax and found them extremely understanding and supportive in response.

When Piper and Harry returned to school it was frustrating to discover a huge disparity between the work done by their classmates. “They (teachers) did put a lot of work onto us. I was rushing around to finish it before we went back to school but then when we had got back to school, no one had done the work anyway, so I was kind of just sitting there doing nothing so that was kind of painful,” says Piper.

The Berrymans are relieved to be out of lockdown. Their business has opened, the children have returned to school and life has largely returned to normal. For them, remote learning brought few benefits and can’t replace face-to-face interactions with friends and teachers.

The experience did offer a few positive takeaways though, says Anna. Namely a growth in personal resilience for all of them, and a changed outlook on life in general. “We took a lot for granted before, whereas now it’s the small things we value – time with our family, and not spending so much time at work. You’ve got to count your blessings.”

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Politics muddies the waters Apart from national and local body candidate elections, the most intense local politicking in Hawke’s Bay occurs around water.

Political update by Tom Belford The issues are quite complex, despite the fact that all the controversy boils down to two simple questions from the public’s point of view: Who gets it – how is it allocated?

What is its quality – how safe and well-protected environmentally?

While most folks are distracted by the pandemic and its immediate economic and social impacts, these two water questions are being fiercely debated today by HB decision-makers.

Who gets it?

Hawke’s Bay generally has ample water, except when the environment and human users most need it.

So it’s in times of scarcity – and preparing for times of scarcity – when pistols are drawn. Ecosystems and the life they support suffer, irrigators face bans on their takes, many (not all) pastoral farmers lack natural feed, residents – who are most protected and suffer least – are politely urged to conserve.

With only so much to go around, the allocation regime becomes pretty important, as do schemes to harvest water when it is more plentiful.

Heretaunga Plains

On the Heretaunga Plains, future allocation will be determined by the TANK Plan, years in germination.

Submissions on the plan have just ended, but with counter-submissions,

staff responses and revisions considered, it won’t be until next March that a hearings panel makes its final determinations and passes these to the Regional Planning Committee of the HBRC, that all parties will see the result. And then they have the right to appeal to the Environment Court.

With respect to allocation, effectively a ‘sinking lid’ is proposed.

During the TANK process, it was determined that the Heretaunga aquifer was at the tipping point, where if more water was used, natural replenishment of the aquifer would be insufficient … we’d be ‘mining’ the aquifer. And so a ‘cap’ was placed, no new water allocation, with the plan calling for a downward ratcheting of existing water consents as they came up for renewal.

But even at that, the plains were acknowledged to face a water deficit because streams were obviously already suffering and irrigators faced occasional summer bans. The size of this ‘deficit’ has been estimated at 5-10 million cubes per year, but that’s only a crude estimate. The $2m study to more accurately size the gap, taking into account projected growth in commercial, residential and environmental water demand won’t be completed until this time next year!

Anticipating a gap of some significance, the Regional Council is using $11.2 million from the PGF to pursue

potential water storage schemes to fill it. If the ‘gap’ remains as estimated, one or two modest scale storage or augmentation projects would seem to meet the need, without environmental collateral damage.

However, many Māori prefer a more direct approach – cut water use to what nature provides, giving first priority to protecting our ecosystems. And might go to the Environment Court to press that view.

And still others argue that much more rigorous water conservation measures must be implemented before storage schemes are considered, alongside adoption of farming practices proven to better retain and use existing water.

CHB

Even more contentious is the allocation situation in Central Hawke’s Bay. Water there is deemed over-allocated, as indicated by unhealthy low-flows during summers in the Tukituki catchment and questionable aquifer levels and recharge, as residents of Ongaonga and Tikokino have charged.

The issues are obscured by both an inadequate understanding of the Ruataniwha aquifer and the absence of any analysis of long-term water demand in the region under plausible future land-use scenarios.

But the major ‘elephant in the room’ is the fact that a very small number

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 39

of water users – each a major dairying operation – have been awarded the preponderance of the CHB water allocation. Here is the picture as compiled from HBRC-provided allocation stats: Total Dairy = 20,728,183 cubes Epic (Bel Group) 8,329,665 Ingleton/Franklin 6,118,883 Plantation 3,700,832 Ruataniwha Holdings 994,613 Cesped 800,380 Tuki Tuki Awa 783,810 Given the total allocation for the aquifer and upper Tuki surface water takes is 49.5 million cubes, Dairy accounts for 42% of that (counting only the six dairy operations identified above). The top 20 irrigators in the two areas hold 31.9 million cubes, or 64% of the total.

By comparison, the entire CHBDC municipal allocation is 3,202,655 cubes.

It’s up to the residents and politicians of CHB to decide whether this is an allocation scheme that is either fair or future-facing.

On its face, it would seem that calls for significant damming of CHB rivers and streams simply amount to subsidising the water use of these few dairy businesses. Something ratepayers elsewhere in the region have indicated during the Ruataniwha dam debate they have no desire to do.

Dam-supplied water might help a few irrigators, but water storage is not the ‘silver bullet’ to improve overall farm resilience in dry periods. Far more ‘bang for the buck’ would be achieved by modifying current pastoral farming practices, on the one hand, and shifting away from unsustainable land uses on the other.

As with the Heretaunga Plains, the HBRC has a significant pot of money ($14.7m) to explore ‘water security’ options in CHB. Unfortunately, in its haste to grab PGF funding, the Regional Council has put the cart before the horse … looking for storage solutions before any real examination of a long-term water future for CHB or at measures that might yield better, more efficient use of existing water.

‘Water security’ is not simply a matter of ‘water storage’.

The designated venue for addressing such matters has been the Tukituki Leaders Forum (TTLF), consisting of about a dozen commercial water users and two environmentalists. However the environmental members have recently resigned, writing to convenors

40 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

To some, thanks to the Havelock North campylobacter outbreak, ‘water quality’ is firstly about drinking water and its safety. To others, the issue is the enduring health of our waterways and the ecosystems and recreational opportunities they support.

CHB mayor Alex Walker and HBRC chair Rex Graham in part: “Given recent events, the membership of the TTLF gives the distinct impression that it was formed with a predetermined outcome in mind. It certainly cannot be considered as representative of the wider CHB community.

“Procedural concerns also arise.

Meetings of the TTLF have been held in private, with no minutes kept, or public statements released. The decision-making process is presented as being a commercial secret. This lack of transparency, once it becomes apparent to the CHB ratepayer community, will undermine public confidence in any outcomes from the TTLF.” It’s clear that some in CHB, with Tim Gilbertson’s Water Holdings Hawke’s Bay in the vanguard, continue to lust for major dam-building. The CHB District Council recently kept this group afloat, awarding it $58,000 to keep its fifteen Ruataniwha dam consents alive.

Resuscitating the Ruataniwha scheme is a non-starter. It was killed by the Supreme Court. It falls well outside the modest scale of water storage that the PGF will fund. And the HBRC’s latest study conducted

by Tonkin + Taylor confirms previous analysis that concluded a smaller dam at the Makaroro site (to which the consents actually apply) is not viable for a number of physical and financial reasons.

Any significant new dam proposal would entail in the neighbourhood of $2-3 million to substantiate and progress the relevant consents, a cost to be borne by the applicant (HBRIC would have spent around $5m in its quest).

Yet the Gilbertson group pleaded poverty and inability to pony up $58,000, securing a corporate welfare cheque from CHBDC instead.

For transparency sake, and for any hope of avoiding a renewed pitched battle that simply delays fashioning

reasonable water options for CHB, it would be useful for leaders, formal and informal, in this journey to take unequivocal public positions ruling out the Ruataniwha dam scheme once and for all – folks like Rex Graham, Martin Williams, Craig Foss, Alex Walker, Sam Robinson, Hugh Ritchey need to confirm they’ve moved on.

Then the current and expected future demand for and expected use of water in CHB needs to be freshly and openly examined.

What about water quality?

To some, thanks to the Havelock North campylobacter outbreak, ‘water quality’ is firstly about drinking water and its safety. To others, the issue is the enduring health of our waterways and the ecosystems and recreational opportunities they support.

The water plans for both the Tukituki catchment (in force) and the Heretaunga Plains (in development) address both kinds of water quality concerns.

Tukituki catchment

In the case of the Tukituki plan, the focus has been more on ecosystem health, with rules in place that should ratchet down the amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus leaching and eroding off of farms and into our waterways.

All Tukituki catchment farmers have submitted ‘Farm Environmental Management Plans’ (FEMPs). These require farmers to identify contaminant loss from their activities and present plans for mitigating those, eventually collectively meeting in-stream nutrient targets set by the plan. We have yet to see what traction and environmental benefit FEMPs will actually achieve – for example, certain stock exclusion and N limits must be met in 2020. FEMPs are ‘living’ and must be updated and re-submitted before 31 May 2021.

Meantime, the so-called ‘DIN’ limit (a limit on in-stream nitrates) in the Tukituki Plan places tougher requirements on farmers operating in catchments now exceeding the limit. Each of these farmers must apply for consents to continue their operations, with about 300 due in 2020. It is yet to be seen what conditions the HBRC will impose on these applicants such that nitrogen leaching is sufficiently reduced.

Put alongside the need discussed above to re-address overall water allocation, the DIN limit may well operate to force significant land use changes in CHB.

TANK plan

From an environmental perspective, the water quality issues on the plains have focused on the slower moving streams like the Karamū and on soil erosion from upper reaches of main rivers, the Ngaruroro and Tutaekurī.

The Regional Council is presently implementing a $30 million programme involving riparian planting and afforestation to combat erosion, which results in sediment clogging our streams and critical estuaries … and eventually unloading millions of tonnes of sediment annually into our marine environment.

More contentious is the issue of lowflows, which damage river and stream ecology. What ‘low-flow limits’ should be set (which can trigger bans on irrigation) and whether schemes can be developed that effectively ‘augment’ water flow (either from storage or by pumping from the aquifer) are the matters of controversy.

The TANK Plan as notified addresses both of these issues, reflecting consensus developed during the six-year TANK stakeholder collaboration, but it is not yet clear the extent to which the plan will be further challenged through the consultation and appeal process.

Possibly of greater perceived urgency to many Hastings District and Napier residents are the TANK provisions dealing with drinking water safety.

While drinking water standards are set nationally, the TANK plan must address practices that could lead to endangering drinking water supplies – e.g., the kind of contamination that caused the Havelock North catastrophe.

The plan proposes ‘source protection zones’ in which special steps must be taken to safeguard against agricultural and industrial discharges that could conceivably infiltrate drinking water bores. This scheme has been ‘negotiated’ amongst the Hastings and Napier Councils, the DHB and the Regional Council. Controversy ensues because the plan assumes rather detailed knowledge of underground water flows, and conceivably could seriously constrain economic activities in the zones thought to pose potential risk to drinking water supplies.

Overlay this issue on the non-TANK matter of whether drinking water should be chemically treated (i.e., chlorinated) and you have fertile ground for contention.

And finally, to make it even more complicated, we then face the question

of how to pay millions of dollars for the delivery system that will distribute all this safe and protected water to your household. Enter central government.

Three Waters

The Government has proffered $50 million to HB’s four territorial authorities to upgrade their drinking water (and wastewater and stormwater) systems (our region had sought $314m for such improvements).

The funds would be allocated as follows: • Wairoa District Council $11.04m • Napier City Council $12.51m • Hastings District Council $15.36m • Central Hawke’s Bay District Council $11.09m However the offer comes with a fishhook that introduces political tension.

To access the full funding, our councils will need to opt into the Government’s Three Waters ‘service delivery reform programme’. The intent behind this is to promote a consolidation of service delivery across councils, including potentially, new governance arrangements for this service, its future

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 41

Karamū Stream. Photo: Tim Whittaker

planning and financing arrangements – i.e. in one form or another, an independent water authority.

The Government believes local bodies have shirked their responsibilities for maintaining water infrastructure in the past, which in part is what has led to woefully inadequate water infrastructure around the country. As they see it, and not without evidence, local politicians would rather build high profile museums, sports facilities and other amenities, and perhaps should not be entrusted with the dirty work of underground pipes and waste treatment plants.

As the Government explained in its announcement: “The financial investment from the Government is contingent on local councils opting in to the Government’s wider water reform programme. The cumulative effect of increasing capital costs, infrastructure maintenance and upgrades, enhanced standards and environmental challenges mean that the current operational and governance arrangements for water are not sustainable and consolidation is required.”

[Italics added here and below] Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta made plain the big ‘If”: “There are massive looming costs across the Three Waters networks and the current service delivery arrangements, particularly for the smaller rural and provincial councils, are not 42 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

The Government believes local bodies have shirked their responsibilities for maintaining water infrastructure in the past, which in part is what has led to the woefully inadequate situation around the country. well-placed to meet these.”

“Today’s announcement will lend the reform programme’s initial stages very real impetus and Councils will need to sign up to the wider reform agenda in order to access the Government’s funding.

“We want to see new arrangements made that provide scale in the form of public multi-regional water entities – and take account of catchment-related and communities-of-interest considerations.”

The willingness of our local councils to go down this route – requiring each to yield some independence – is yet to be determined. They have been examining options since early 2019, and the review report was making the rounds privately in August. It is due to be made public in September.

The carrot of government subsidy aside, under alternative governance arrangements that ‘de-politicised’ water infrastructure investment

decisions, the new water entities would have substantially more borrowing capability to finance the huge costs involved, and moving such borrowing off the councils’ balance sheets would allow them to deploy their resources and more limited borrowing capacity to other community needs.

It would be highly surprising if the local politicking around ‘3 Waters’ goes smoothly. And it will be interesting to hear who ultimately gets to decide matters like whether the Napier City Council continues its quixotic quest for a chlorine-free future.

Just as CHB needs to bite the bullet on its massive allocation of water to dairying, NCC’s political leadership needs to face up to the reality that Napier’s roughly 65,000 citizens cannot afford the same kind of pristine, chlorine-free drinking water system funded by nearly 6 million Danish citizens who pay every day for their water.

Hopefully this tour of Hawke’s Bay’s ‘waterfront’ provides some insight into the difficult political choices ahead for the region. Massive commercial interests, huge environmental implications, massive monies, value trade-offs and serious control issues are at stake.

We’ve entrusted our elected representatives to make these decisions.

The least our councillors can do is treat us ratepayers as adults, entitled to full transparency and timely engagement as the debates unfold.

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“A big budget screen production can employ anywhere from 300-500 people which is huge in terms of job creation.”

PATRICK SHERRATT, EASTERN SCREEN ALLIANCE

Business Hawke’s Bay is proud to sponsor BayBuzz regional economy coverage.

Patrick Sherrat. Photo: Tom Allan

BayBiz / KEI TH NEW M A N

Lights, camera ... action needed Imagine a Hawke’s Bay screen industry!

A rural Hawke’s Bay screen production ‘village’ could help put the regional economy in the limelight, capitalising on the urgent need for Covid-free film-ready locations and the burgeoning global demand for entertainment content.

Hastings mayor Sandra Hazlehurst confirms there’s international interest from film makers and a government ‘shovel ready’ funding application has been made for local film infrastructure, which her council is supporting.

Hastings District Council planners and economic development team are evaluating at least two sites on the outskirts of the city on behalf of an undisclosed film company.

She says an independent planning consultant who helped write the Hastings District Plan is working with the council, the film company and local industry advocate, the Eastern Screen Alliance (ESA), to identify land with poor soil “suitable to set up film studios”.

The proactive approach, says Hazlehurst, is much preferable to the film company “going down the resource consent process and finding they are not able to achieve their goals”.

International screen production companies are desperately looking at Covid-free countries to meet the massive surge in demand for movies and streaming entertainment after their own studio closures during lockdown.

Shovels before camera

Many New Zealand studios are booked up for the next two years. Amazon’s

Lord of the Rings TV shows and the Avatar sequels have taken significant space and the new South Auckland X3 mega studio with four flexible stages (11,725 sqm) was booked up before building was complete.

So, with some $3 billion in ‘shovel ready’ recovery funding still up for grabs, at least five regions are in the running to secure some for new film infrastructure in the hope we might become the next movie mecca.

The creation of film-ready infrastructure is caught in a kind of twilight zone between funding, consenting, the fact most construction is unlikely to start until 2021, and immigration issues for film makers.

Avatar producer James Cameron and 50 crew were granted exemptions in May to resume work on the billion dollar Avatar 2 and another 50 essential film workers for other high-end movies have been allowed in since June.

However, advocates for big screen productions are frustrated at the slow response of Government and local authorities. Around four international film investors have allegedly gone elsewhere, including Ireland, following difficulties with our immigration, our bureaucracy and offshore investment rules.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 45

“Screen is not just about cameras and directors it’s about all those other elements together.”

ABOVE: First year screen production students using a green screen at EIT. Photo coutesy EIT.

TESSA TYLEE, EIT

Film, fruit and wine

A big selling point to attract production companies will be the ability to prove Hawke’s Bay has anticipated some of these challenges and is filmready in other ways.

The ESA has been on the case with the region’s mayors and economic development people since early 2019 in a bid to add film to our fruit and wine brands.

The not-for-profit trust – one of 17 regional film offices (RFOs) with links to the New Zealand Film Commission – has put a business plan to the five local councils to support its pitch for Hawke’s Bay as a film hub.

Manager Patrick Sherratt reckons around 57% of production budgets filter into the local economy – accommodation, restaurants, pubs, supermarkets, hiring cars and cranes, purchasing equipment and electrical and carpentry supplies for building sets.

46 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

“A big budget screen production can employ anywhere from 300-500 people which is huge in terms of job creation,” he says.

“When a film production company contacts us, which might be a referral from the commission, it can happen fast and you need to be able to respond to their queries.”

Crew action ready

Hastings City Council has seeded $10,000 for a website to feature a high-quality image library of locations and a database of resources including actors, stunt people, camera operators and crew who are available to work on productions.

The ESA has so far boosted its directory of film professionals from 12 crew who can work behind and in front of the camera to over a hundred.

Material gathered over the previous decade needs a complete update; older location photos may now have houses, roads or power poles or cellphone

towers in the vicinity.

Hawke’s Bay’s natural assets include beaches, swamps, lakes, mountains, hills, wineries and art deco and Spanish mission architecture and wilderness areas that could with the right script and imagination pass for scenery anywhere in the world.

“That website has to be top notch, that’s our shop front,” says Sherratt.

“I’m getting inquiries every week from people who have worked in the film industry locally or in London or LA or elsewhere and are coming back to HB or looking to New Zealand for a change of lifestyle,” says Sherratt.

The alliance needs a manager and an office assistant to take the calls and keep things moving, with Sherratt suggesting the FOMO factor (fear of missing out), should be the region’s big driver.

And if the councils and other support isn’t forthcoming? “We’ll just carry on in an ad hoc manner like the past decade

“Now is the time for Hawke’s Bay to become a film production destination”.

SANDRA HAZLEHURST, HASTINGS MAYOR

or so,” and the big opportunities will go to other regions, he says.

EIT screen training

In the creative mix is a concerted effort to get behind local storytellers and film makers to create their own content and sell it to the world; a local screenwriters group was established in August.

Sandra Hazlehurst sees the film project as a huge opportunity to diversify the local economy and train young people to be crew members in the film industry.

She’s asked the East Coast regional commissioner of the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) for support in those training opportunities.

Meanwhile, the ESA has begun discussions with the Eastern institute of Technology (EIT) in Taradale, which already has a Diploma in Screen Production, 15 students currently and a lot more inquiries post-Covid.

However, it still encourages graduates to leave the region because the current industry is little more than a small screen niche player.

Local production companies including Grundy Productions, Indelible, Engage and Top Blokes are typically into corporate marketing, events, recruitment, advertising and promotion, music videos, streaming services or social media video productions.

While they might take on one of two EIT trainees for work experience, the real opportunities lie outside the region.

Tessa Tylee, lecturer and programme coordinator in screen production since 2014, has helped rewrite the EIT course to better align with industry needs.

Students start off learning to be film making technicians (grips). Then learn to use a range of cameras, trolleys and cranes, the specifics of shot sizes and construction, editing, storyboarding, script writing, sound, lighting and making a documentary.

Expanding from two to three years means students have greater technical awareness and are more confident in pitching themselves for work. By

August, at least two third-year students had been offered jobs in Auckland.

In association with the EIT creative arts IdeaSchool, Tylee is hoping to see greater collaboration across art, design, music and fashion as part of a Bachelor of Creative Practice, a leading-edge approach.

“Screen is not just about cameras and directors it’s about all those other elements together,” she says.

Tylee, director, researcher and producer of several award-winning TV documentaries, returned to Hawke’s Bay from Auckland in 2007 and with Gilly Lawrence and Mirabelle Brooke set up Film Hawke’s Bay to support the growth of a local industry.

The hardest part of the volunteer work was getting buy-in from councils who fully funded RFOs in other regions. Only Hastings got on board.

She was getting “burned out” and greatly relieved when newcomer Patrick Sherratt and his wife Leigh Kiddle took over the reins in early 2019, rebranded as the Eastern Screen Alliance, and brought in new trustees.

ESA trustees include original Film HB trustee Gilly Lawrence, son of the late Bruno Lawrence who works fulltime in production lighting; local resident Derek Slade who’s general manager of Auckland-based GripHQ, Daniel Betty a manager, actor and comms person for Toitoi and former Maori TV producer Michelle Lee. Hastings mayor Hazlehurst admits the region has “never seriously been proactive in supporting the film industry” but “now is the time for Hawke’s Bay to become a film production destination”.

She concedes previous efforts at having a regional film office (RFO) haven’t been properly funded by multiple parties, including councils, and is hopeful that will change.

Money and jobs

Currently the New Zealand film industry, including local and global projects, generates $3.3 billion annually, employing up to 16,000 people in prime seasons.

With the right film making infrastructure, the Film Commission believes we could double the $400 million from global projects that were in production in 2020.

The Government included $140 million in the 2020 budget to incentivise international productions, then added a rescue package of $73 million to cushion dozens of films from the full

impact of the pandemic and boost five new movies and TV series.

Tessa Tylee, the ESA team and a growing number of Hawke’s Bay creatives are convinced the area has huge potential as a film location but it needs investment.

The cost of bringing production gear and people to the region is a major obstacle, and while we’re addressing the need for more skilled people, local infrastructure will be essential.

A region serious about film as an economic booster would need to rapidly ramp up way beyond retro-fitting old warehouses or cool stores for studio space.

The big players play big. They need moving stages large enough for massive sets to be built; computer-controlled lighting, backdrops and green screens, camera tracking and ... close proximity to open spaces.

They would need post-production facilities, rehearsal spaces and outbuildings for admin, possibly accommodation and gigabyte speed networks for processing and sharing massive files across the country and the world to collaborate on special effects and animations.

Can we do this?

So, does imagining Hawke’s Bay as a film hub with a rural production ‘village’ have enough traction to create more than a blip on an international filmmaker’s radar? And can it get beyond shovel-ready to consenting in time to catch the wave of pent-up Covid demand?

Although Hastings is pulling out all the stops for suitable land, studio construction could present its own drama or possibly even horror scenarios, given concerns about protecting productive soils.

Patrick Sherratt says most New Zealand film studios are repurposed buildings and there’s no precedent for creating a hi-tech production studio from the ground up.

Attempts at new builds in Auckland and Christchurch became such a planning nightmare that investors walked away.

Perhaps a more coordinated local and central government effort is needed to adapt, allow and even encourage environmentally-sustainable industries like big film or serious hi-tech campuses to Hawke’s Bay? We talk about diversification, but how far are we really prepared to go to change the game?

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 47

Writers craft local screen scripts A number of scripts based around Hawke’s Bay books and original ideas from local writers are destined to become films or TV series or are in development to pitch to local or international production companies.

A quick once-over of what’s happening suggests there’s no shortage of creative and technical people who would be an asset to a scaled-up content creation hub building on the region’s pioneering history of film-making.

This Town, filmed in Central Hawke’s Bay, was the first New Zealand movie released post-Covid and features local boy David White, who wrote and produced it.

Stepping back in time, Blerta, a 1970s troupe of travelling film makers, photographers, lighting technicians, musicians, actors and hangers, often based at Waimarama, had a huge impact on the nation’s film, television and music industries.

Key members Geoff Murphy and musician, actor Bruno Lawrence, based at the Snoring Waters community, sparked a handful of Kiwi films they were involved in, including Uenuku (1974),

48 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

Wild Man (1977), Goodbye Pork Pie and Smash Palace (1981), Utu (1983) and Quiet Earth (1985).

Members of the Lawrence and Murphy family continue the tradition; Bruno’s son Gilly Lawrence is full-time on film productions and a trustee of local film advocacy group Eastern Screen Alliance (ESA). Murphy’s son Matt, and Hepi Mita, his offspring with trailblazing Māori film maker Merata Mita, are both highly active in the industry.

Lust in the Dust Maybe Waimarama will again be a catalyst for a creative outpouring if the screen play currently being written around local author Barbara Anderson’s book Long Hot Summer becomes a TV series.

Anderson spent all her summers at Waimarama and the book is set in 1930s Hawke’s Bay around a community that gathers to film an amateur cowboy movie called Lust in the Dust.

One of the scriptwriters is Hastings councillor and author Sophie Siers, along with her husband, Andy, and ESA manager Patrick Sherratt and his wife Leigh Kiddle, who have had their own movie Taniwha accepted for filming in the Bay of Islands.

Siers says the team have completed the first of eight parts in the Long Hot Summer series, including checking in with some local families as the book is based on a number of real-life

characters.

She’s hopeful production might be able to stay in the Bay. “With the right infrastructure all kinds of opportunities might open up for small and local productions and quality international films.”

Bridget Sutherland, lecturer in art at EIT, is scriptwriter for a psychological drama under development called Taking Possession, with plans to film around Havelock North and Napier once all the pieces fall into place.

The story includes reference to the Whare Ra temple in Havelock North and the mysterious workings of the Golden Dawn cult. It’s to be produced

by Angela Littlejohn who has Hawke’s Bay connections.

Hero bomber pilot The Eastern Screen Alliance has also fielded an inquiry from researcher Glenys Scott who worked with Porangahau writer Hillary Pederson on I Would Not Step Back, the life story of Dannevirke bomber pilot Phil Lamason.

Scott, a long-time friend of the hero pilot who died aged 95 in 2012, envisions a TV series and is working with an assistant director from the movie 1917 who arrived from London when that industry shut down.

Kate Powis recently returned to Napier after being stranded as a cruise ship worker in England and is now working on her third screenplay.

Opposite: This Town (2020).This page: Utu (1983)

It’s an historical drama based around the 1931 Hawke’s Bay earthquake that will time shift, with the present day referencing stories of those caught in the deadly shake.

And producer Victor Carson, a veteran of 24 films, is writing the screenplay to Mark Sweet’s 1960s family drama, The History Speech.

He’s liaising with ESA to involve as many local professionals as possible.

“It is a genuine Hawke’s Bay story ... during one of my frequent visits to Napier a friend recommended the book. I read it in one sitting and loved it and could visualise the film possibilities.”

Carson is hopeful filming will begin late in 2021 or 2022. His company, Film Buff Productions, was based at Fox Studios in Sydney for many years.

So what do we need to be a film

hub, BayBuzz asked Carson? His unequivocal response, “...you need a studio”.

A natural history Inquiries to ESA from film professionals, scriptwriters, editors and grip crew hardly touch on the freelance talent available who have gear and will travel.

Take Christopher Tegg, former Havelock High student, back in the Bay after 14 years behind the editing desk at Natural History New Zealand in Dunedin (formerly the NZ Film unit).

He worked on “dozens of documentaries for Discovery Channel, Travel Channel, National Geographic, Animal Planet ...” but balked at the increasingly tightened production schedules.

After 27 years studying most aspects of the craft, he’s enjoying the

freedom of working in Hawke’s Bay orchards while slowly returning to his original dream of being a film maker.

His first local outing was the mockumentary showcasing Hastings mayoral hopeful Jonathan Busby (Tegg as actor) gadding about in Havelock North with outrageous ideas, including turning the village into a gated community.

Since then he’s produced mini documentaries that are available free online (Hawke’s Bay - Above and Beyond).

Tegg believes Hawke’s Bay is a prime spot for film making. “It’s like LA; it’s flat, the landscape isn’t overwhelming, it’s got good weather and consistent sun which is important for film making and Napier feels like Hollywood, particularly during Art Deco week.”

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 49

BayBiz / CA R O LY N N E V I L L E

Smile, the worst is yet to come Covid-19. A seemingly innocuous phrase. It didn’t have a lot of meaning or relevance to New Zealand until Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern went hard and early, imposing Level Four lockdown restrictions, unprecedented in our lifetime.

The impact on our way of life and business communities was immediate. Non-essential businesses closed, parents tried to juggle home schooling with remote working (a challenge!) and preserving our bubbles became all important. Economists up and down the country issued dire predictions about Covid-19’s long term impact.

And we prepared for the worst.

Our Government responded with a range of support measures to keep business from going under, such as the wage subsidy, mortgage holidays and preferential loans for businesses, and increased funding for business and export support services and the like.

Our Hawke’s Bay economy, which was going gangbusters in the lead up to lockdown, was now in freefall. We said goodbye to international tourists and students. No-one really knew how long the fall would be, or how hard the landing. Would the recovery curve be v-shaped, u-shaped or even w-shaped with a double dip?

Early predictions for Covid’s impact on the local economy were grim, with Hawke’s Bay staring down the barrel of an estimated 7,000 job losses, as well as business failures, a large decline in regional GDP and a $320 million hole in our economy. Storm clouds aplenty, but tempered by a silver lining; our strength in primary production, a strong healthcare sector, and relatively less reliance on international visitors and students, insulating us from the worst impacts of Covid-19.

50 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

Storm clouds aplenty, but tempered by a silver lining; our strength in primary production, a strong healthcare sector, and relatively less reliance on international visitors and students, insulating us from the worst impacts of Covid-19.

Still, the next 18-24 months are going to be tough.

With the curve flattened, lockdown restrictions eased down to Level One in early June, much earlier than anticipated. More than two months later, with borders closed and Covid-19 all but eliminated from our shores, we find ourselves in some kind of parallel universe. Offshore we see a variety of responses to the global pandemic ranging from aspirational to the downright alarming. At home, Kiwis seem to have adapted quite well to the ‘new normal’, and the national mood seems positive, if spending and confidence measures are anything to go by.

In the Bay, we have seen some encouraging data. Near record sales of luxury cars in June. A vibrant hospitality scene. Tradies reporting a surge in home renovation projects, and pleasing consumer spending patterns, with Hastings District Council confidently reporting that its economy is bouncing back.

Is this surge of activity just pent-up demand that couldn’t be met during lockdown, or spending of money allocated to an overseas trip that now can’t happen? Is it a bounce, or is it the beginning of a real and sustained recovery?

Like many things related to this novel coronavirus, we just don’t know.

What our expert economic advisors are saying as recently as July, is that our economic outlook remains bleak.

There are substantial concerns about the global economic outlook. As a small trading nation our fortunes rise and fall with the global economy.

Gareth Keirnan, chief economist at Infometrics warns that the world faces the worst mix of outcomes – short term economic pain caused by lockdown and longer term problems stemming from a mix of official incompetence in containment measures and ongoing fear of the virus. Global growth projections continue to be revised down, and that’s bad news for New Zealand.

If Covid-19 problems hang around and global optimism about 2021 begins to fade, so will our export growth potential. A strengthening Kiwi dollar is not helping our export returns.

What happens over the next few months will be crucial. Currently there are more than half a million jobs nationwide supported by the wage subsidy. What will happen when the second round of the subsidy rolls off?

Infometrics predicts that job losses will mount further and a likely continuing stream of redundancies throughout much of 2021 as businesses struggle with persistently weaker demand.

Locally, there has already been a

As Infometrics so tellingly puts it: “We are at the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end.”

sharp increase in numbers receiving the Jobseeker Support benefit from 5,000 in March to 7,500 at the end of July, but that doesn’t paint a full picture. If one spouse is still working, it’s unlikely a job seeker benefit can be claimed by the other. These figures also exclude people who are claiming the Covid-19 Income Relief Payment (CIRP), people who would otherwise be claiming Jobseeker Support, which could bring the number of people on an unemployment benefit closer to 8,000.

There has also been an increase in underemployment, where people can’t work the hours they would like,

from 4.5% in the June 2019 quarter to 5.7% in the June 2020 quarter*, and an increase in the under-utilisation rate, a broader measure of untapped capacity in the labour market, from 11.8% in the June 2019 quarter to 13.5% in the June 2020 quarter*.

These negative changes in the labour market will force consumer caution; people won’t want to spend big or unnecessarily if they’re not confident about future pay cheques. The threat of a second Covid-19 wave and Auckland’s lockdown only adds to the stress on business and community uncertainty.

There’s been a lot of talk about whether the recovery will be v-shaped (a steep downturn, followed by an equally steep upturn) or u-shaped, where economic activity remains lower for longer, or even a w-shaped (potential double-dip). The smart money is on a longer, slower recovery.

What’s stopping the economy from recovering and gaining genuine momentum? Infometrics says that too much uncertainty about the international economic outlook, a lack of clarity on when and how border restrictions might ease, continuing job losses

and lack of investment are things that stand between where we are now and a recovering economy.

Although recent data has been encouraging, as support measures roll off we are going to see the true economic outcomes of the pandemic. As Infometrics so tellingly puts it: “We are at the end of the beginning, not the beginning of the end.”

Sure, let’s celebrate the minimilestones of consumer spending, the success of the Baycation campaign and more than 100% growth in advertised jobs.

But let’s also not get too Pollyannaish. Going local can only get you so far. We must look to the horizon and beyond, and not get too comfortable with where Hawke’s Bay and New Zealand is at. We can hope for the best, but we should prepare for the worst, for it is likely yet to come. (*Hawke’s Bay/Gisborne combined) Carolyn Neville is CEO of Business Hawke’s Bay, the region’s economic development agency, delivering tangible outcomes for business growth and attraction.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 51

BayBiz / ECO NO M I C I N D I CATO R S

Hawke’s Bay economy Hawke’s Bay economy: leading indicators

and measures of economic performance Leading indicators and measures of economic performance Hawke’s Bay Airport

Unemployment

Monthly passenger count Jobseeker support recipient growth

+20.7%

June ‘20

18,798 56,143

June ‘19

An extra 1033 people

For 12 months to 30 June ’20 compared to year prior

Napier Port trade volumes

Electricity demand Electricity demand 7 day moving average currently at

Container volumes down

17.4

%

96

%

Bulk cargo down

24.2

%

of March ’20 level

For June 2020 quarter compared to 12 months ago

3Measured at 30 June '20

Heavy traffic flow

Hawke’s Bay GDP by industry Heavy traffic flows currently at

68

%

of pre-lockdown

Compared to pre-lockdown high measured Sunday 15 March 2020

52 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

13.2% 28% 12% 7.7%

5.2% 5.7% 6.2%

Measured 2019

7.7% 7%

7.3%

Manufacturing Agricultural, Forestry and Fishing Owner-Occupied Property Operation Unallocated Rental, Hiring, and Real Estate Services Health Care and Social Assistance Construction Retail Trade Professional, Scientific and Technical Services All Others

EC ONOM I C I NDI CATORS /

Predictions for COVID recovery

BayBiz

Tourism spend growth

Still looking like a "U"

NZ GDP forecast comparison, annual running totals, 2009/10 $b 300

-8.2

%

280 260 240 220 16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

Jan '20 Forecast Jul '20 Forecast Apr '20 Forecast

New Zealand economy

For 12 months to 30 June ’20 compared to year prior

Hawke's Bay business units by size

Consumer spending growth

-14

%

For 3 months to 30 June ’20 compared to year before

As at February '19

Building consents growth

Regional GDP

0 employees

12,856

1-5

4,056

6-9

957

10-19

708

20-49

383

50-99

95

100+

76

Total

19,131

Regional GDP for June ’20 quarter down

Residential

44.3%

Non-residential

60.4%

For 12 months to 30 June '20 compared to prior year

9.2

%

NZ GDP down 12.6%

For 3 months to 30 June ’20 compared to year before

For more data and insights visit www.businesshb.nz

For more data and insights visit www.businesshb.nz SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 53

BayBiz / D O MI N I C SA L M O N

Watershed moment in New Zealand’s war on waste How many times have you checked a plastic container for a recycling symbol only to find it can’t be recycled where you live? How often have you thrown an empty biscuit or chocolate packet in the bin and wished there was an alternative?

In my first BayBuzz article back in March I talked about “a world with less waste”. Well, that world is now in sight and not just for everyday plastic packaging, but for a huge range of products ranging from tyres to refrigerant gases, and electronic waste to agricultural chemicals.

On 29 July Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage declared six product categories as ‘priority products’ under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008.

These are: plastic packaging, e-waste, refrigerants, tyres, agrichemicals and their containers, and farm plastics.

What this means is the way New Zealand deals with a large number of common and problematic types of waste is going to change for the better.

On 29 July Associate Minister for the Environment Eugenie Sage declared six product categories as ‘priority products’ under the Waste Minimisation Act 2008.

These are: plastic packaging, e-waste, refrigerants, tyres, agrichemicals and their containers, and farm plastics.

Regulated stewardship is nothing new, with many OECD countries using it for decades, but it’s new for New Zealand.

Legislation allowing the Government to declare priority products in New Zealand has been around since the act was passed in 2008. However, no government has used regulated product stewardship before now.

It’s a big move and a big win for the country, both environmentally and socially.

Voluntary vs regulated Let’s get technical, just briefly

When a product is declared a ‘priority product’ it means a regulated product stewardship scheme must be created for it. This scheme ensures the product is managed throughout its lifecycle and, crucially, makes sure there is a system to collect and then reuse, recycle or properly dispose of it at the end of its life.

The caveat, of course, is if people choose not to use that system, the product will end up in landfill or worse, as litter. But this change will give consumers options to do the right thing.

Consider just how many products this announcement encompasses – everything from the packaging around a child’s toy to the tyres on your car, the refrigerant gases in your heat pump and the cellphone in your pocket, plus many more.

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New Zealand has some voluntary stewardship schemes, but these suffer from the effects of free riders – those whose products get stewarded but do not contribute to a stewardship scheme.

Regulated stewardship fixes this.

The major difference between the two is regulated stewardship compels the businesses which import, make, distribute and sell a product to contribute to its stewardship. The cost of stewarding the product invariable gets built into its price, which shifts the burden away from ratepayers, councils and the environment and towards those who make, distribute and use it.

A good example is the Resene PaintwiseTM government-accredited voluntary stewardship scheme for paint and its packaging, which we at 3R manage. When you buy Resene paint a PaintWise fee is built into the price

(it’s listed separately on your receipt), so when you are finished with it you can take it back to a Resene store to be recycled, for free.

Since PaintWise started, enough paint has been donated to councils and community groups to cover 3 million square metres of graffiti, while the containers are recycled into new ones. It’s the circular economy at work, where resources are kept in use rather than being thrown away.

Wattyl and Dulux also have options but these are not ‘accredited’. The three brands account for about 90% of the market. All voluntary product stewardship schemes are subject to free riders who benefit from the schemes existence, without contributing to design or costs.

Paint is just one example of how a product can be stewarded – there are many other methods, depending on what it is, what it’s made of, how easily it can be reused or recycled, or what current systems are in place to steward it.

So, what does this mean for consumers and businesses?

The next step is work between Government and industry to co-design stewardship schemes which are bestsuited for New Zealand.

In some cases, this means the reaccreditation of existing voluntary schemes under new regulated guidelines, and in others it means the

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3R Group chief executive Adele Rose was one of the guest speakers at the Ministry for the Environment announcement of six priority products.

development of schemes from scratch, within the same guidelines.

The act allows three years for the development of new schemes and one year for reaccreditation of existing schemes. Some industries, like tyres and refrigerants, have already done considerable work on scheme development.

For businesses, it will mean being part of the conversation as the schemes are developed and then contributing towards them when they are functioning. This isn’t just about paying to make sure products don’t become litter; but pushing thinking up the supply chain, so products are designed to be easier to reuse, repair or recycle.

For consumers, although it might mean a small increase in the cost of these products, it will provide options for them at the end of their life beyond the rubbish bin. For example, you might be able to take your electronics back to the store you bought them from, and plastic packaging could have its own recycling bin or drop off point in store.

This will mean less waste going to into your rubbish bin destined for landfill. Carting old TVs, fridges, and all manner of appliances to the dump will be a thing of the past. Tyre piles scattered around the countryside will also be no more.

It’s important to remember that well-designed stewardship schemes aren’t simply about ‘bottom of the cliff’ waste disposal or low-grade recycling.

They aim to maximise resources, create efficiencies, resulting in products which last longer and are easier to repurpose or recycle, and ultimately shift us to a circular economy.

This is the beginning of a new era in waste minimisation in New Zealand.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 55

Bay Biz / K EI T H N E W M A N

Solar slashes RSA bills The Napier RSA hopes to halve its enormous power bill by leveraging the energy generated from 180 solar panels that now take up all the real estate on its roof.

It took around nine months to decide on solar after looking at wind power and diesel generation; while the latter offered savings, it wasn’t in keeping with the club’s environmentally sustainable ethic.

“We’ve been here for 100 years and we want to be here for another hundred and do it in a way that is affordable and good for the environment,” says CEO Dorothy Paki.

“We’re a massive user of electricity and even with 180 panels we still won’t be able to charge a battery and will need to use the grid,” she says.

Over time the monthly power bill has gone from $5,000 to $9,000 forcing the RSA to look at better power management, including converting half the building to LED lighting, to get back under $6,000.

The $100,000 panel investment will deliver 67kW of power generating 91,000 kWh per year, allegedly saving around 50 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

“We knew we had to do something so we made this investment to save half our power costs. I’m optimistic we can recover that over six years,” says Paki.

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Photo: Tom Allan

Open to future options

The RSA views its effort as a first step in protecting against further power company price spikes and is open to future options as technology evolves, including another solar DC to AC power inverter and batteries.

The Napier RSA chose Freenergy Solar Solutions after talking to schools and clubs who used their technology and getting quotes from several companies.

Freenergy managing director Aaron Duncan says the RSA has about 16 heat pumps, a number of TVs, a massive electric commercial kitchen that runs from 5am until 11pm at night and “shed loads of refrigeration including inefficient bar fridges using up a ridiculous 440,000kW/h a year.”

Freenergy has included monitoring technology so Napier RSA can see what they’re using versus what they’re generating to assist with smarter use of appliances and electricity use.

Duncan says there’s been a steady increase in residential and commercial inquiries and installations post-Covid.

He puts that down to people using more power during lockdown and having the time to take stock of the cost of living.

He says prices have also come down, making a better return on investment over 6-10-years. Battery storage is becoming more common and is now included in about 30% of installations, even though it adds significant cost to standard grid sizes.

Duncan says battery technology has definitely improved in the past 12 months and growth in the Australian market where battery technology has taken off is having a snowball effect here.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s Heat Smart programme, allowing home owners to borrow up to $20,000 and add it to their targeted rate, has also made a difference.

Unison is pleased to sponsor robust examination of energy issues in Hawke’s Bay. This reporting is prepared by BayBuzz. Any editorial views expressed are those of the BayBuzz team and do not reflect the views of Unison.

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IDEAS + OPINION PAUL PAYNTER

Save our plains Everyone knows that Hawke’s Bay has an exceptional climate and an incredible aquifer.

The regional resource that is least understood and appreciated are the soils of the Heretaunga Plains. While we might enjoy the sun on our faces or a cool glass of water, we’re less likely to think kindly of the brown stuff beneath our feet. Indeed much of society stays off it and lives on the concrete and bitumen ‘enhancements’.

It’s at mealtime we should think of the soil because almost everything you eat is produced by it. The Hastings District Plan talks often about the ‘life supporting capacity’ of the soils and those three words say it perfectly.

Covid-19 lockdowns have seen a renewed discussion about national food security. Here in Hawke’s Bay, unlike Mumbai or Shanghai, mostly likely there will be enough food within walking distance to sustain us for generations. We must not squander our ‘life supporting capacity’.

The Heretaunga Plains were formed by our three great rivers, the Tutaekurī in the north, the Ngaruroro in the middle and the Tukituki in the south. Over thousands of years and thousands of floods layer after layer of rich alluvial soils were laid down.

The high quality soils are quite extensive because the rivers changed course over time. The best soils came from the untameable Ngaruroro. Prior to 1897 the path of the Ngaruroro swept south of Roy’s Hill. It followed the path of what is now the Karamū Stream, curling around the west and south of Hastings, then past Whakatu and Clive to the ocean.

During the 1897 cyclone part of the plains received 533mm of rain in 30 hours – 70% of our average annual rainfall. During this event the Ngaruroro forced its way through a historic path north of Roy’s Hill and there it

58 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

has remained. In those days the Heretaunga Plains was so flood prone that farming in many areas was impossible. The flood protection schemes built in the 1920s and 30s secured the current path of the rivers and modern drainage technology made increasing areas available for food production.

If these soils are well managed there is no end to their productive capacity. While floods lay down the raw material for high quality soils, they take perhaps 80 years without floods to develop the soil structure and biological activity that unleashes their true potential.

In the early colonial years, settlements were sensibly located on poor soils in Napier and Havelock North.

When the railway went through in 1874, some bloke decided a straight line across the plains would be most efficient. Francis Hicks donated land for a small railway station and set aside 100 acres of land for settlement. The area was described as a ‘duck-shooting swamp’ and by 1884 only had a population of 617. Planners still saw Havelock North as the future city, but the lure of the railway proved powerful.

Land in NZ is categorised under Land Use Capacity (LUC) and graded from 1 to 8 along traffic light colour codes; from dark green (LUC1) to dark orange (LUC8). This is a low resolution system that is a good general guide to the potential of land. We take our fertile plains for granted, but New Zealand has nowhere else quite like this. LUC1 soils are claimed to have ‘virtually unlimited potential use’ and make up only 0.7% of NZ. But we’ve plonked Hawke’s Bay’s largest city right on top of LUC1 soils.

I don’t think we can be too critical of decisions made 150 years ago, but it’s fair to hold current councils to a much higher standard. Councillors love de-

velopment, the ribbon cutting and the photo op’s that new projects provide. If they do stymie a project or two, all the developer has to do is wait a few years for a new set of councillors and have another crack. Over time, piece by piece, the plains are being eaten up.

The great myth of the Heretaunga Plains is that the soils are all the same – they are not. The HBRC Soil Map is a complex beast, but the two best classes soils are represented by bright yellow and bright green. These are the Twyford and Hastings soils, which sweep around Hastings, following the path of the Ngaruroro past and present. The best of these are to the north and east of the Hastings, which is warmer and less frost prone that land to the south.

Since WWII approximately 3,400 hectares of land has been given up to urban development. Of particular note is the madness of Tomoana and Whakatu industrial zones, both on exceptional soils. In the bad old days Whakatu made sense as you could just dump all the waste into the river and it would quickly thereafter disappear into the Pacific. In more enlightened times the HDC favours Irongate, which is on much poorer soils. Sadly the cluster effect is strong and Irongate has lesser appeal.

Now an inland port is mooted for Whakatu; it is sure to create more pressure to expand the industrial zone there.

In my time, the worst I’ve seen was the Lyndhurst subdivision, which is on the best soils in the world. If you really want a standout vege garden, buy in Lyndhurst. Many smaller area have been a frustration too, such as the ‘Food Hub’ down Ellwood Rd; again on superb soils. There was much fanfare about the innovative, value-added cluster of business that would seize the opportunity but all

Hawke's Bay Regional Council soil map.

that seemed to pop up was ‘Miracle Water’ that sought to bottle up our water and ship it off to China. I’m similarly apoplectic whenever I drive past the Delegats winery on the Expressway – a cellar door and maybe a modest restaurant might be okay, but industrial-sized projects should be on poor soils in industrial areas.

The developers in any of these cases were smart and added another nought to their land value – good on them. What irks me is the short-sighted politicians and bureaucrats who should be the revered guardians of the plains, but have fallen well short.

One of the latest ideas mooted is the Karamu Masterplan, which seeks to unlock the potential of the eastern side of Hastings. The Masterplan seems to be in Covid lockdown for now, but watch this space.

The key planning document that comes around every six years is the Heretaunga Plain Urban Development Strategy (HPUDS). The 2017 version has provided plenty of land for future development. Between the two city councils they’ve identified more than 1,000 hectares that may be required before 2045 … the vast majority of which is on the plains.

Getting the HPUDS document right is the key to our planning future, but we may have a tailwind in the form of

In my time, the worst I’ve seen was the Lyndhurst subdivision, which is on the best soils in the world. If you really want a standout vege garden, buy in Lyndhurst. a National Policy Statement on Highly Productive Soils. For central government to develop a National Policy Statement is a powerful signal to councils everywhere that we need decisions that are right for the next 1,000 years, not just the next election cycle.

‘If not on the plains, then where?’ I hear the developers cry.

A good starting point is that Hastings should get no bigger. The older settlements of Napier and Havelock North have much poorer soils. Napier has many post-earthquake soils that are saline and on lagoon sediment. Their only good soils are towards their southern boundary, close to the Tutaekurī.

In Havelock North there is room for expansion southwest. At the base of these hills, along Middle Road the light pink on the map are Class 32 soils with a clay pan and terrible drainage. Next door there is a large pale green area which is Class 9 – clay loam on Taupō pumice. I grow trees

on some of this and both the water holding capacity and drainage are poor. There is enough land in this area to build 25,000 new houses.

When you drive south from Hastings there is a point where the orchards stop and grazing/cropping starts. This area had little flooding and is dominated by the remnants of the Taupō eruption – ash on Taupō pumice. I feel sorry for the sheep.

The development solutions are more expensive and less convenient than building north and east of the city, but spread that cost over 1,000 years and it’s the right call.

A small group of growers, of which I am one, has started a ‘Save Our Plains’ campaign in order to protect the priceless resource that is under our feet.

Some may say ‘greedy growers just wanting it for themselves’. Not so. My family own several blocks of land close to the city. If they were rezoned and concreted over, I’d be greatly enriched.

But as growers we’re just passing through. One day I’ll be buried in this earth and I’d rest easier if I know the plains are there to nourish future generations. Please bury me in the worst soil you can find.

Paul Paynter is our resident iconoclast and cider maker. Sometimes he grows stuff at Yummyfruit.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 59

IDEAS + OPINION ANDREW FRAME

Fickle educational fortunes New Zealand’s job market can be a fickle place.

Those with brand new qualifications are often somehow expected to have years of experience when applying for some jobs. Paradoxically, those with years of experience are often overlooked for positions simply because they don’t have the ‘appropriate’ qualification.

‘Book learning’ and hands-on practical training have often appeared poles apart.

After high school in the 90s many of my classmates went to university because it was just ‘what you did’. There was even a bit of a stigma associated with those who took up trades – often having dropped out of school before seventh form (year 13).

Those who trained in the trades did so locally, while those who went off to main centre universities left their regional hometowns, some never to return. Many regional areas, like Hawke’s Bay, suffered demographically and economically as a result.

Fees-free fortuity Fast-forward 25 years and many with degrees still struggle under onerous student debt to get the job they want and are facing the prospect of retraining yet again, while those who took up a trade years ago are reaping the rewards.

Meanwhile, in the midst of a nationwide housing shortage there aren’t enough carpenters, plumbers and electricians and the likes to go around.

Waiting times for building and renovation work can stretch to months.

The New Zealand government announced in its 2020 budget a plan to try and tackle both issues.

The Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF) will aid those taking on vocational training without fees.

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The TTAF will cover course fees from 1 July 2020 to 31 December 2022 and is paid directly to tertiary education organisations running training in targeted areas such as primary industries (including agriculture, horticulture and viticulture, fisheries and forestry); construction (including building, plumbing, and civil engineering) and manufacturing, mechanical and electrical engineering and technology.

Fortunately for Hawke’s Bay our Eastern Institute of Technology caters to many of those categories!

This will hopefully see a boom in the number of local qualified tradespeople, greater housing availability and affordability in the region, and the condition and quality of civil infrastructure that has been badly neglected over the years improving much sooner.

This will hopefully see a boom in the number of local qualified tradespeople, greater housing availability and affordability in the region, and the condition and quality of civil infrastructure that has been badly neglected over the years improving much sooner.

Building a better Hawke’s Bay Long before the TTAF was introduced, Hawke’s Bay’s Eastern Institute of Technology was already looking for new and creative ways to provide a hands-on experience with construction for their trades students.

In 2010 EIT approached Cottages NZ in Hastings who were, at the time, designing and constructing prefabricated buildings for a wide range of customers in the residential and commercial sector. They asked

manager John Roil if it was OK for the tertiary institution to construct prefabricated buildings.

Roil thought it was a great idea and offered Cottages NZ to assist EIT with the project in the form of design, assistance with inspections during construction and marketing the buildings once they were completed.

Ten years and hundreds of students getting hands-on training and experience later, EIT students completed their 50th house in May! How have HB Homes and EIT been able to consistently put out around five houses a year, while simultaneously teaching those constructing them? “The secret to these projects is to get scale and suitable designs which allow for the multiple constructions,” John says.

There is no chance of these builds being cold and damp like many older New Zealand homes, with all construction meeting current Building Code requirements that include double glazing, insulation, etc.

Construction of the prefab houses takes place at a variety of sites.

“Some building projects are completed at NZ Cottages/Hawke’s Bay Homes’ site on Maraekakaho Road in Hastings, but most builds are occurring at the EIT campus in Taradale.

Wairoa, Waipukurau, Dannevirke and Tairawhiti (Gisborne) have all been the locations of completed building projects in the past as well,” says Roil.

“A wide range of building designs from 10m2 up to 80m2 residential buildings have been constructed by the EIT students. These range from 1 bedroom up to 3 bedroom homes. In the past some of the projects including the construction of commercial classrooms.”

Once completed some of the prefab houses are listed on HB Homes’ website (https://hbhomes.nz/cottages-range/ eit-buildings/) for sale.

Builder John Roil of Cottages NZ gives EIT trade students the opportunity for real-life industry experience.

Photo: Tom Allan

There are currently eight listed, with four sold. Roil says recent sales have become holiday homes in northern and central Hawke’s Bay, one has been converted into an office (showing their adaptability), while others have been moved onto existing properties as homes for elderly parents to be closer to family.

“There is a lot of interest from various groups looking for an opportunity to move into the prefabricated housing market, particularly since there is a shortage of homes across Hawke’s Bay” Roil says.

“Papakāinga housing is a classic

example where the land is already available. Similarly with Kāinga Ora (formerly Housing New Zealand) and the need for social housing.”

He continues, “There is a definite need for training, and constructing homes in a factory environment provides an ideal learning and working situation. When you consider all the jobs that are created with construction such as design, construction builders, plumbers, drainlayers, electricians, decorators, kitchen designers, roofers, surveyors, engineers, the list goes on, EIT has provided a vital role with providing students an intro-

duction to the construction industry.”

This really seems to be the perfect collaboration of Hawke’s Bay people and businesses working together for the betterment of the region.

EIT trades students learn practical construction skills and methods, earning qualifications, while building much needed homes in Hawke’s Bay, housing locals!

Andrew Frame is a life-long Napier resident. He writes the www.napierinframe.co.nz website and promotes all things HB on social media.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 61

IDEAS + OPINION MICHAEL HAWKSWORTH

Urban myths, conspiracy and fringe theories “A lot of people think the Loch Ness monster exists, don’t they? Now, I don’t know anything about zoology, biology, geology, geography, marine biology, cryptozoology, evolutionary theory, evolutionary biology, meteorology, limnology, history, herpetology, palaeontology or archaeology, but I think what if a dinosaur had got in the lake?”

COMEDIAN, STEWART LEE

I love urban myths because they are fictions that exist on the edge of believability.

Conspiracy and fringe theories are beautiful in the way they connect disparate things and create cohesive narratives out of them.

The way they mutate and spread is amazing. A simple notion can be transmitted to five different people and each will carry away a subtly different version of it depending on their biases and preferences and how they mix it with other notions they’ve already been carrying inside themselves for a while, or with worldviews they hold dear, or even with biographical anecdotes/material of their own.

In this way, Joseph Uscinski, author of American Conspiracy Theories (2014, O.U.P) likens them to fan fictions.

You can see how conspiracy and fringe theories are a lot like folk tales, not only in the way they spread, but in how they are structured around archetypal content. There is always: • a shadowy agent whose motives must be distrusted, • a journey toward knowledge about

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the world of a revelatory kind, • the discovery that there are forces of enchantment at work in the world (some benevolent, some malign), • an identifiable purpose and perceivable pattern in the events of the world, • a clear-sighted hero/heroine/heroic enclave capable of raising the alarm and awakening the sleepers.

So yes, of course the libidinal/ emotional drives bringing conspiracy and fringe theories into existence are exactly the same as those that shape religious and artistic thinking and their forms, and they all deal with responses to the following commonly-held existential concerns: The mundane, ugly, heartless world I am obliged to live in, so obsessed with money, so petty, so rule-bound, so imprisoning, so lacking in enchantment, so stubbornly random and frustratingly meaningless, so mechanistic in its daily functioning. How will I recast it as the world I would have wished to be born into? How will I re-integrate myself with the wonders of the cosmos? How will I meaningfully rejoin nature? How will I inhabit a character with beautiful agency in a meaningful narrative?

What you can be reasonably sure of is that the theorist (like the adherent or believer or artist) will have a subjective, personal stake in their theory. And it is this personally invested position that creates friction when it comes into contact with the world of facts.

The critical difference between a folktale and a fringe theory is that the folktale stakes no claims to being factual: it is, to quote Ursula K. Le Guin, not a “what happened” but a “like what happened”. Additionally, it often has a whimsical or jaunty or otherwise moralizing or elegiac ‘voice’ to it making it clear that this is a ‘styling’ of events, a narrative that knows that it is

Conspiracy and fringe theories are beautiful in the way they connect disparate things and create cohesive narratives out of them.

a narrative. It carries a truth, but has no concerns about factual reliability.

The fringe theory, on the other hand is intent on being received not as a “like what happened” (or even as a “might have been” or a “could be”) but as a factually reliable “what happened” or “what is”. It stakes it’s claims on both truth and factual reliability. The sound of its voice and the structure of its language, therefore, it is obliged to borrow from the world of facts, which is to say that of science, history and reporting.

Because it is subconsciously aware of the contestability and short-comings of its factual basis, the fringe theory shades its use of authoritative tone with the voice it borrows from the world of advertising – the voice of persuasion.

Conspiracy and fringe theories want the facts of good science without the rigorous and transparent processes of independent verification and review.

They want the authority of good reporting without the impartiality and objectivity. They want the compelling narratives of good history without the difficult complexities and ongoing revisions. They want the cherry-picked truths and persuasiveness of effective modern advertising without having to admit its foundations in propaganda and rampant capitalism.

Of course, there is bad science out there, as well as bad reporting, bad history and, well, good old truth-bending, fact-omitting, emotionexploiting advertising.

I despise them all for the damage they’ve done.

Well I’m sorry, you can’t have it both ways. You have to earn your rights to these languages. Of course, there is bad science out there, as well as bad reporting, bad history and, well, good old truth-bending, fact-omitting, emotion-exploiting advertising. I despise them all for the damage they’ve done.

Conspiracy and fringe theories can be beautiful and exciting constructions and often unintentionally funny.

I appreciate them in the same way I might appreciate a good story or a well composed picture. The fact that they adopt the language of fact and desire to be received as factually tenable is part of their aesthetic texture, their narrative appeal. I’ve always loved a well-turned fake.

I find myself thrilled by the speculative leaps of fringe theories and strangely satisfied by their neat internal logics, but I am also repulsed by their dishonesty and evangelism.

Utilizing the voices of authority and persuasion, knowing how potent they are and how irresistible to the gullible, in order to broadcast as an actual unironic fact an idea you like because you are politically or ideologically or personally invested in it, is bad practice. It is bad practice when religious groups do it and it is bad practice when advertisers do it. It can and does lead to the manipulation of the emotionally and intellectually vulnerable.

If you are aware of factual

short-comings, inconsistencies, hear-say, speculation and so on in the theory you are broadcasting, you had better come clean about it, no matter if you feel that you are undermining your own private assumptions and worldview in the process, because that is what good science, good history and good reporting would do.

Facts can be ugly, heartless, boring, inconvenient etc. but you can’t just ignore them because they are unexciting or counter-intuitive, or outside of your technical understanding.

That is your responsibility as the public conveyor of a theory in a time when, due to the democratization of broadcast media, a small voice may reach many ears. And that is also our responsibility to the ongoing integrity and health of both facts and fictions.

Michael Hawksworth is an artist, DJ, and EIT arts educator. He lives in Hastings with his family.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 63

HEALTH + WELLBING HAZEL THOMAS

Heartburn … put out the fire!

We forget how amazing human physiology is.

Our bodies give us signs and symptoms that something isn’t working how it should be. Often, we don’t listen and ignore these signs. When things get too loud to ignore, we may visit our doctor or drop into the pharmacy to get some pills to quash these unwanted symptoms.

As a nutritionist, I see many clients that suffer from indigestion and heartburn.

In fact, between 15 to 20% of adults experience heartburn at least once a week. Around one adult in three will have heartburn every few days and one adult in ten will have it every day.

That’s pretty high numbers! For some, it may be an inconvenience, for others it can affect their quality of life.

I have a confession, before I started on my quest to sort out my health, I used to reach for the tums pretty regularly because of indigestion. It was pretty convenient to take an antacid. I wasn’t tuned into the message that my body was trying to tell me. Eventually things got worse and I realized I needed to make some changes.

If you are suffering from indigestion or acid reflux, the questions you should be asking are “What is the root cause and how do I correct it”.

The focus of this article is acid reflux. Heartburn is a symptom of acid reflux. If you suffer from this regularly you may be told that you have gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), which is chronic acid reflux.

When you have reflux, it means that your stomach acid travels up your food pipe (oesophagus) from your stomach. The oesophagus isn’t geared to deal with acidity like the stomach is, and that’s why many people experience a burning sensation when the acid travels up into the oesophagus.

When heartburn occurs, it is a sign

64 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

that the ‘valve’ called the lower oesophageal sphincter (LES) at the top of the stomach isn’t functioning properly. The role of this muscular ‘valve’ is to stop food travelling back up into the oesophagus.

One of the overlooked causes of reflux is chronic stress. And boy, have some of us been stressed since the advent of Covid-19.

Financial worry, loneliness, fear of the unknown, fear of dying, fear of getting sick, fear of losing family.

It has been a tough time for the world.

How does the valve become weak?

When we overeat or are overweight, the stomach swells and puts pressure on the LES. Overtime the LES loses its shape and strength, allowing acid to flow up, damaging the LES further.

Smoking exposes the oesophagus to lots of nasty toxins and chemicals, which can damage the membranes in the LES, causing it to weaken.

Alcohol is another trigger for reflux since it reduces the LES’s ability to close. Alcohol also relaxes the muscles of the LES, allowing the acid to flow upwards into the oesophagus, further damaging the LES. Medications such as blood pressure medication, sleeping pills, sedatives, antibiotics, antidepressants and proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) can all cause damage to the LES. Ironically, PPIs are commonly used to treat acid reflux. It’s interesting that the very medication that is given to help with this condition by decreasing acidity in the stomach (where it is needed) can weaken the LES and actually worsen acid reflux. More on this later!

Foods are also known triggers for GERD. High fat foods tend to relax the LES, allowing acid to enter your oesophagus and cause the burning sensation. Other foods that are problematic for some are spicy foods, citrus, tomato-based foods, processed foods and caffeine.

Other factors that can play a role are eating before bed. Eating when you are already full. Having intolerances or sensitivities to some foods.

One of the overlooked causes of reflux is chronic stress. And boy, have some of us been stressed since the advent of Covid-19. Financial worry, loneliness, fear of the unknown, fear of dying, fear of getting sick, fear of losing family. It has been a tough time for the world.

Stress affects the nerves in our stomach, which results in poor digestion and food gets pushed back up into the oesophagus instead of into the small intestine. Magnesium levels drop when we get stress and magnesium is needed to relax the ‘valve’ going from the stomach into the small intestine. A magnesium deficiency will cause food to travel back up the oesophagus.

Is reflux caused by too much acid or too little acid?

According to Dr Wright of the Tahoma Clinic in Washington State, “When stomach acid is measured in people suffering from heartburn and GERD it is almost always low, not high”. He found very few people with excessive stomach acid and says that it is only found in a few rare conditions.

The problem with GERD is that there is not too much acid, but it’s in the oesophagus rather that in the stomach. Antacids and PPIs block the secretion of acid, thus eliminating symptoms, but they do not address the root cause of regurgitation into the oesophagus. In other words, PPIs only treat the symptoms but not the cause.

protein digestion and B12 release. PPIs increase a hormone called gastrin, which can cause osteoporosis.

PPIs are also associated with other vitamin and mineral deficiencies such as vitamin C, calcium, iron, folic acid, magnesium and zinc. Low acid levels may also promote bacterial overgrowth in the stomach and small intestine.

Since PPIs lower acid levels, the body will also respond to the suppression by trying to make more acid. This can lead to worsening of symptoms.

This is known as rebound acid hypersecretion.

If you don’t get to the root cause of what’s causing your heartburn in the first place, once you stop taking the antacids, your symptoms will return.

Symptoms are usually worse than before you started.

Heartburn is definitely a sign that something isn’t working as it should.

Look at what the possible triggers are.

Don’t overlook stress, we often do. If you need help, find a nutritionist that can support you in finding out the root cause so that you can improve your quality of life and overall health.

They are helpful in the short term but can be problematic long term. PPIs should generally on be used for two to twelve weeks.

What are the long terms risks of

taking PPIs? In the stomach, gastric enzymes breakdown proteins, which release vitamin B12. PPIs reduces the amount of acid in the stomach, which decreases

Hazel Thomas is a registered clinical nutritionist with a special interest in gut health, food sensitivities and children’s health.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 65

Arts Festival Goes Local

Hastings District Council is proud to sponsor BayBuzz culture and lifestyle coverage.

The cast of Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi .

Photo: Florence Charvin

Culture The Harcourt’s Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival (October 12 to 26) is seeing some necessary and fascinating changes this year.

Story by Kay Bazzard

Tami Neilson brings her show, The F Word: Songs of Feminism in Country Music.

New Zealand’s border closure has necessitated a shift of focus from the national and international performer mix of earlier years, onto local and national shows. And that new focus (or re-focus) has fitted well with the festival’s original intention to bring the community together.

At the time of writing uncertainty hangs over the country again with a Covid-19 outbreak in South Auckland placing that region into Level 3 and other regions into Level 2. Hopefully this will be brought under control and the festival will be able to run its course.

The Covid pandemic’s emergence in New Zealand in March closely followed the February reopening of the Hawke’s Bay Opera House, now known as Toitoi Arts and Events Centre. Toitoi will be the heart of the festival, while other events and performances are presented around the region (Covid restrictions allowing) reflecting the festival’s widened reach during its first five years.

The Harcourt’s Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival was Hastings District Council’s response to the sudden closure of the Hawke’s Bay Opera House in 2015.

With it, we were introduced to the mysterious Spiegeltent and the cluster of tented bars and food stalls on the Havelock North Domain – the festival’s ground-zero.

The closure of the Opera House due to earthquake safety standards created a void in the cultural life of Hastings and the region and this coincided with plans for its 100-year anniversary. What added to the sense of disappointment was that this had happened just eight years after the earlier closure for major refurbishments and strengthening in 2007.

Frustratingly, Covid-19 lockdown again required it be closed after the Toitoi reopening February, so, now, at last it is open again.

Perversely, perhaps, there will be some regrets at losing the Spiegeltent.

She served us well, especially for those of us living in Havelock North, and we came to love her, this transient and initially unfamiliar structure with all the eccentricity of the 1920s era and its quirky European flavour. The raising of the Spiegeltent signalled that the festival fun was about to begin, and with its dismantling, that it was over for another year.

It was, however, always a stopgap until the Opera House was reopened.

This year the arts festival has a fresh

focus as it heralds a widening in its ambitions to celebrate Heretaunga, with a greater diversity of performances and audiences, sourced locally and from within New Zealand. It also celebrates the revitalization of central Hastings and the upgraded surrounds adjacent to Toitoi – Eat Street and the new Tribune development with its funky retail, specialist gin and beer bars, new cafes and restaurants that are gearing up for the festival audiences with quick turnaround meal service.

Festival programme preview

When the festival started in 2015, the intention was to bring our diverse communities together through the arts, to widen audiences and to challenge ideas. This is reflected in the overarching kaupapa and theme of the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival 2020, based on the Māori waiata ‘Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi’, that signifies ‘standing together shoulder-to-shoulder, united’, composed in the 1950s by Canon Wiremu Te Tau Huata, Ngāti Kahungunu.

“The festival presents us with an opportunity and an obligation to talk about issues, challenges and opportunities in our community and to explore the divide between the haves and have-nots,” says festival director, Pitsch Leiser. “There are different and opposing forces in our society, some of which overlap and we have an obligation to talk about that.”

The opening ceremony is possibly the highlight of the festival.

Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi, Transfigured Night is inspired by Huata’s waiata and staged by Lemi Ponifasio in a collaboration with his company MAU Wahine and the Hawke’s Bay Orchestra, the Kahurangi Dance Theatre with the local community performing kapa haka. It draws on Schoernberg’s ‘Transfigured Night’ brought to a wider audience of Hawke’s Bay citizens and is designed to be an intense experience.

Judging by video footage of Ponifasio’s earlier work, this is an understatement.

Samoan-New Zealander, Lemi Ponifasio’s radical stage work defies conventional definitions and he has worked all around the world as a choreographer, dancer, stage director, designer and artist. His work includes fully-staged operas, theatre, dance, exhibitions, festivals and community forums and he has been invited to the Venice Biennale three times - for visual

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Black Lover by the Auckland Theatre Company – the story of Sir Garfield Todd’s life in the former Southern Rhodesia.

arts, dance and theatre. He collaborates with people in all walks of life, working in schools, universities, on Pacific islands, in factories, villages, opera houses, castles, galleries, and stadiums.

Lemi Ponifasio also curates Talanoa MAU - What Now? This is a free event held outdoors at the Eastern Institute of Technology and brings together a diverse group of culture-makers, innovators, artists, thinkers, policymakers and youth, to discuss their practice and share ideas with the community on the key cultural, spiritual, social, environmental and political issues of our time.

There will be other free events and performances that celebrate music and art. Nuit Blanche Art After Dark in Napier; free lunchtime concerts with students from Project Prima Volta; street performances on The Metamorphosis Trail by Java dance trio; UKU ceramics awards exhibition in Hastings; the Waiohiki Arts Village Fire and Clay Night; Threads of Touch, an exhibition of featured work by artist Delicia Sampero dotted in various

70 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

venues in Napier and Hastings; and the inaugural Hawke’s Bay Arts Trail for which studios of selected artists will open to visitors.

Always popular is the Readers and Writers festival; a poetry showcase Floating Islands with Witi Ihimaera; events for children and families – Billy Lids Keirunga kids festival at Keirunga Gardens; and The Perfect Gift with Jandel J & the Funky Friends.

Dance: Ecology in Fifth by Sam Trubridge – a celebration of Guthrie Smith, the environmentalist-farming pioneer of Tūtira.

Theatre: As the Day Draws In is a Heretaunga-based theatre piece developed by Teresa Woodham and Puti Lancaster; there is the true story of two strays in A Traveller’s Guide to Turkish Dogs; Black Lover by the Auckland Theatre Company - the story of Sir Garfield Todd’s life in the former Southern Rhodesia. Comedy with Laura Daniel and Joseph Moore in Two Hearts Hawke’s Bay World Tour, and a morality play featuring HB Youth Theatre, HaBYT’s performancee of Everyman.

The amazing Tami Neilson is in concert, The F Word: Songs of Feminism in Country Music ; New Zealand Opera’s The New Zealand Voice; Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Tell Me on a Sunday by the Real Theatre Company. Plus performances by Stretch of his new album; Bic Runga, Manawa Wera; A Conversation Piece; a performance of songs by Ria Hall from her new album,The Perfect Gift, and Thomas Oliver The Brightest Light.

The closing festival event is a night of song celebrating the richness of our song heritage in a concert produced

by Charles Ropetini and featuring 10 Hawke’s Bay and 10 New Zealand artists.

Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi is twenty familiar waiata sung by Don McGlashan, Hollie Smith, Lisa Tomlins, Louis Baker, Tama Waipara and Whirimako Black.

This is not a comprehensive list; details of all festival events and performances are available on the online and printed programme. From early September, check out Pitsch Leiser’s picks for the festival on the The Buzz, our weekly e-newsletter.

Pakihiwi Ki Te Pakihiwi, Shoulder To Shoulder.

Harcourts Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival is excited to move to the reopened Toitoi - Hawke’s Bay Arts & Events Centre, where our community has gathered shoulder to shoulder to share stories and experience the arts for generations.

Our 2020 line-up is diverse and celebrates the incredible talent Aotearoa New Zealand has on offer.

See you there!

Clockwise from left: Ria Hall, Tami Neilson, Thomas Oliver, Bic Runga, Tom Steinmann, Lemi Ponifasio, Teresa Woodham.

Readers + Writers: Witi Ihimaera

Readers + Writers Weekend 16 - 19 October

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12-26 October For info & tickets: hbaf.co.nz

Photo: Florence Charvin 72 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

Culture FO O D / I A N T H O M AS

Deli on the lawn or serious food movement?

The Vintage Farmers’ Market in 2005

The Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Market has been here twenty years now.What if we’d stuck to the original ideas?

Twenty years ago the buzz was about food miles and getting to know your local grower. The burning questions ran something like, “How far has this cauliflower travelled to reach the supermarket? Has it been to Auckland and back again? Who grew the cauli?

How should I store it? Was it harvested this morning? How should I cook it?”

I’ve contemporised the story with today’s sexy cauli. Of course we all remember that cavolo nero was the darling of the brassica family in the year 2000.

The Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Market launched at the end of October 2000.

Passion and urgency to act were in plentiful supply. Graeme Avery gathered a group of likely growers and makers together in July and we grabbed the cauli by the leaves and set about creating an opportunity for local growers and artisans to sell their wares in a place where all walks of local

The vision was of a hustling, bustling market rather than a brunch spot. Vendors spruiking their wares, yelling out the deals. We pictured wooden bins full of produce being eagerly stuffed into hessian bags by anyone and everyone. consumers could come and buy the freshest and finest local produce direct from earth-covered hands.

A trading environment that generated a social hub was the vision.

Our ideals were lofty. Stallholders could only sell what they grew themselves or goods that they made themselves from Hawke’s Bay primary produce. Exceptions for coffee, bread, and chocolate were made; well you can’t live on cavolo nero alone! Importantly, the grower would ‘person’ the stall themselves, sharing knowledge and expertise. Authenticity would reign.

The big picture we drew was of growers diversifying to fill opportunities, gaps in the market. Biodiversity would develop as growers increased their range of produce to meet the market needs. Tastier, heirloom varieties would be cultivated. The focus would be on big flavour rather than long shelf-life. Local chefs would come and shop. Stallholders could sell funny shaped rejects. Produce would change hands at somewhere between wholesale and retail – a win/win. The low barrier to becoming a stallholder would allow small scale growers to find a profitable outlet.

Something for everyone! Cheap seconds for preserving, big bags of staple veg; spuds, carrots, and cabbages that had been plucked from the earth and rushed, still moist and muddy, to the market. Consumers would have easier access to local food. They would buy less ‘imported’ produce. Relationships with the growers and makers would be forged thus compelling return trips to buy weekly.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 73

Photos: Florence Charvin

Ready-to-eat food was deemed a distraction from the main purpose of shopping. We ran a bacon and egg roll stall from which profits were put back into the market. No other hot food was allowed. Not too many chairs! “If they’re sitting they’re not shopping.”

The vision was of a hustling, bustling market rather than a brunch spot.

Vendors spruiking their wares, yelling out the deals. We pictured wooden bins full of produce being eagerly stuffed into hessian bags by anyone and everyone.

Like a failed leadership coup, however, we didn’t have the numbers.

The vision relied on creating a backbone of staple produce. We failed to enlist sufficient veggie growers. The market was never abundant or cheap enough to attract large numbers of locals. Sure there was a spike in sales of wicker baskets and repurposed hessian

74 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

coffee sacks, but more for show than purpose. I mean how much of your weekly food shop can you fit into a small wicker basket? A certain sartorial style was adopted by our customers.

We had created the social event but not the win/win weekly trading event.

The market quickly became a seasonal tourist attraction. A place for locals to bring out-of-town family and visitors.

We grabbed the vacant Sunday morning slot which was largely uncontested in 2000 and became a big part of the wine and food tourism drive of the time.

I’ve always viewed the market with farmer’s eyes (my own) and lamented the deli-on-the-lawn style the market has developed, in part, over the years.

I have curmudgeonly snarled at certain stalls of baked goods, hot food, and at the perfectly uniform onions, carrots, etc, “sold by the grower”. Surely it’s

impossible to grow perfectly uniform vegetables?

So what if we’d stuck to our knitting?

That’s a big discussion to be had. My favourite answer is a collection of forty stalls. Biodiversity would be greater.

Produce sales would be higher. No brunchers allowed. My other guess is that the strict format would have led to the failure of the market.

Today’s manifestation is a star of the food, wine, and tourism sector of Hawke’s Bay. It gives shoppers what they want rather than just what the movement prescribes. The market has contributed substantially, over the last twenty years, to the social fabric, food culture, tourism sector, employment, and business incubation in Hawke’s Bay. It’s a grass-carpeted deli and important business and social hub to be proud of.

Here’s to the next twenty years.

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Clockwise from top left: Nalini Singh, Cynric Temple-Camp, Catherine Robertson, Mark Sweet, Witi Ihimaera, Annabel Langbein, Mary-anne Scott 76 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

Culture B O O KS / LO UI S E WA R D

Readers, Writers and Revelations The Harcourts Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival machine is roaring full steam ahead for a stellar line up in October.

Nestled quietly but proudly within its embrace is the independent organisation known as Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Trust. This is a group of (currently) six people, including me, who wrangle publishers and writers and hustle sponsorship from unsuspecting literary art lovers and community groups.

The result is a varied and fascinating programme of writers intended to appeal to all readers and entice self-identifying non-readers to pick up a book.

The full festival programme goes live on 1 September and until then it’s a closely guarded secret. If you’re reading this before then, what follows may or may not be relevant to the programme and you never heard it from me.

Let’s begin with … brace yourself …

Witi Ihimaera! The first Māori writer to publish both a book of short stories and a novel: writer, journalist, postman, Distinguished Companion in the New Zealand Order of Merit, honoured by the French as a Cavalier Des Artes et Lettres.

All this and a brand new book coming – the book he says he has been writing since he was a boy on the marae listening to myths and legends of how the sky was made and the coming of the canoes to Aotearoa. Navigating the Stars is set to be like nothing we’ve seen before, and you might just get to see it in Hawke’s Bay first, because we are the centre of the universe.

One of the most popular genres in literature is, of course, the highly entertaining and often disturbing crime/thriller/ murder mystery. So what goes on in the minds of those who write this stuff?

Cynric Temple-Camp is the author of Cause of Death and The Quick and the Dead. He’s a pathologist, a fact finder, and these tales are of the real-life plethora of ways in which we might meet our end. If we pair up this renowned expert in his field with two authors who make stuff up, what will happen?

Nalini Singh, hitherto known for bodice-ripping vampire stories, has turned to crime in her latest novel, A Madness of Sunshine, in which a small West Coast community is rocked by the disappearance of a young woman.

Golden Cove reacts how Havelock North might react: whispers behind doors, deadly secrets desperate to come out, neighbours and friends turning on one another.

Beloved Hawke’s Bay frequenter Charity Norman recently released The Secrets of Strangers in which the murderer is not really the bad guy. Ooooh we love it; if these three got to have a conversation it would tick all our hitherto closely-guarded necromantic boxes. Shivers.

The Bay is full of people running up and down Te Mata Peak and nicely turned calves pedalling furiously along our roads and limestone paths. What motivates (some of) us to push that bit harder, climb that mountain, ford every stream?

Steve Gurney, nine times winner of the Coast to Coast, has written not only of near-death by bat dung and shaving the bristles from your toothbrush to cut down the weight of your pack, but is a frank sharer of the massive lows that can come from being a record-breaking human. Matt Calman’s book, The Longest Day: Standing up to Depression and Tackling the Coast to Coast, also tells of debilitating mental distress and the challenge of fighting your way out of it. Extreme sports, life lived to the absolute max, extreme highs and crippling lows.

Aotearoa is home to more than half a million registered dogs and during lockdown I think I met most of them (at a distance). Mark Vette is the person to turn to if your pup needs a bit of direction. His books Dog Zen and Puppy Zen provide guidance in a gentle way that will ensure a harmonious relationship between person and pup.

They are also full of colour photos of irresistibly cute floofs.

Another dog-related book that had me laughing and crying was How To Walk a Dog by Wellington journalist Mike White. Whilst walking the windy wilds of the city he (and rescue dog Cooper) have made many lasting friendships, hidden many top-quality sticks for the next day’s use and sorted out the odd emergency.

What if these two writers were to get together for a chat, and there was

maybe even a demonstration of how to turn your pupper into the best animal in living history? I’d go and see that.

Any provincial festival should honour its local talent and Hawke’s Bay has a large contingent of top-shelf writers (and I don’t mean their surname begins with A). Mark Sweet, Cristina Sanders, Catherine Robertson (she sometimes stays on the HB coast so I’m claiming her), Adele Broadbent, Mary-anne Scott, Gareth Ward, Sarah Myles. Hearing Sarah Myles speak at the launch of her book, Towards the Mountain: a Story of Grief and Hope Forty Years on from Erebus, was one of the most moving literary experiences I’ve ever had. Her grandfather was on that plane and her book is the painstakingly researched story of what happened to him from the moment he set off to after the family got to say their goodbye. Incredible.

Cookbooks sell like hot cakes and when a new Annabel Langbein comes out there’s pretty much a stampede from the faithful. This year, Annabel is changing it up a bit with a memoir entitled Bella: My Life in Food. The book is out in October, but I’ve had a bit of a bookseller’s sneak peek and gosh she’s had an interesting life. There are 60 recipes in the book which Annabel says she lives by; she’s looking pretty good on it too.

When we’re not selling cookbooks we sell many copies of The Dragon Defenders series by children’s author James Russell. These stories have got many a reluctant reader hooked by their scaly claws. The characters have no internet, no cell phones, no TV and are pretty much self-sufficient on their island (which has dragons!). Clearly, that’s what the digital natives really want. I mention James as he visits the Bay quite a bit and it’s possible he’ll swing by in the school holidays.

Wouldn’t it be marvellous if we could entice such quality to our humble but fabulous wee festival? We’ll have to wait and see the full programme when it launches on 1 September, then hurry to purchase tickets for the finest Readers and Writers programme ever run by six dedicated volunteers. www.hbreadersandwriters.co.nz www.hbaf.co.nz

78 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

Culture H O S PI TA L I T Y / J ES S S O UTA R B A RRON

Spaceship ready to launch Careful who you drink with. Especially when you have a pen and a clean napkin in front of you.

Drinking might lead to thinking, then ideas, then plans, then projects and the next thing you know you have a fully blown programme-of-works on your hands. Common Room has been central to many such plotting sessions, and many projects have popped out the other end. Some short-lived fizzers, some long lasting and impactful.

Five years ago, a fire-side chat with some bright sparks ignited what became Fringe in the ‘Stings, the little fringe festival centred proudly in Hastings City and opening up its box of wonders again this year on October 9.

Most recently though, conversations started over a beer at Common Room have become Spaceship, currently getting ready for launch in Hastings CBD, one block from the bar on Karamu Road.

The name comes from a Marshall McLuhan quote Gerard and I have carted around with us since the 90s: “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth, we are all crew.”

It’s the nucleus of a way of thinking where we get people involved in projects, often through stealth, with the underlying expectation that we all have a role to play in enriching our communities. Asking “What does the world need from me?” is a far more interesting inquiry than “What do I need from the world?” and leads to a tremendous bounty of spirit and energy, and then the happenings that fall out of it.

That idea, which started on a napkin, is to open a place that offers practising artists (with a healthy balance of established and emerging) a workspace in exchange for ‘hospo hours’. Two or three nights a week Spaceship will then open as a bar using those banked hours with artists serving the drinks, bussing the tables and doing all the adjunct tasks an operating bar needs to run.

It’s a hospo joint, but not as we know it. Artists’ works-in-progress will be

on display. Artists will serve punters.

Visual arts shows will take place. But so too will theatre shows and music as the space will morph into a live performance venue from time to time.

What happens in Spaceship will be diverse, dynamic and pretty different from other places in Hawke’s Bay, arguably in New Zealand.

This is not a hippy co-op. It’s a social enterprise that weaves commercial with community in a concrete and highly-visible way.

What happens in Spaceship will be diverse, dynamic and pretty different from other places in Hawke’s Bay, arguably in New Zealand.

Thrusting an art stake directly into the heart of Hastings makes a statement about what’s important. Our end of the city is booming. Commercial, hospo and retail are growing. The Tribune complex is a bustling hive of construction. Toitoi is steaming ahead getting the Municipal Building reopened. Eastside Eat Street is being seeded with new cobbling and outside dining. Keeping the arts front and centre, and in people’s faces is vital to encouraging and supporting our city as a vibrant creative community.

There are risks. Who in their right mind would leave a bar in the hands of artists?! On ordering a wine you may very well be asked if you would like it in oils or charcoal.

But by trying this idea out we will be creating a new kind of hospo experience, building new skillsets in artists and growing appreciation for the place arts has in our neighbourhoods. We’ll also be creating a place to play for touring artists, and a destination for arts fans and buyers. Rather than being a nice to have, the arts is a valuable and

valid contributor to the economy, and it makes people happy. That’s what’s in it for you. You get all that because some crazy thinkers had a bright idea over a beer. Just think what ideas you might have enjoying a bevvy in the space they created as a result!

It feels like a dream when we think back to March and April and remember we stayed at home for weeks. It was a tough time for many, and for others it was a fairly pleasurable enforced staycation. In that time, we thought a lot about how we live and changes we could make. We promised ourselves we’d set New Age Resolutions for the impending New Normal. Then Level 2 was announced and the majority of us slid into same-old-same-old.

But there were massive lessons to learn from that time. Lessons about how we support each other, where we prioritise ‘kindness’ in our value systems, how we build the community we want to be part of, then sustain it once it’s up and running.

In Spaceship we hope to manifest many of those newly learnt lessons and use them to create a new kind of place to be. And of course, all of you are Spaceship crew too, you are all invited to be part of it.

Watch this Space; visit when it’s open; spread the word; support the arts by buying a beer; refuel your own creativity by talking with an artist about theirs; purchase a painting; come to a gig; pull up a chair, pick up a napkin and jot down an idea. You never know the trajectory it might set you off on.

Jess Soutar Barron is co-owner, with husband Gerard, of Common Room, and now Spaceship, proudly based in Hastings City. Spaceship can be found from late September at 114 Karamu Road North.

OPPOSITE: Spaceship manager Sophie Watkins in the new arts/hospo space currently under construction in Hastings City. Photo: Tom Allan

Culture L ET T E R FR O M T H E C O UN T RY / M A RY KI P P ENB ERGER

Whooping and gushing This Town is a movie written, directed and starred in by Takapau born and bred, David White. It was filmed in Central Hawke’s Bay and Tararua.

The premiere was packed with the myriad of locals who had played their part in the creation of this hilarious, touching production. With our best bib and tucker we all lined the red carpet, past the pop-up pet zoo, past the Seven Sharp cameras and into the Civic Theatre’s foyer. Champers and nibbles in hand, greetings made, hugs executed, selfies snapped, it was time to take our seats.

Te Aute College rangitahi honoured us with their mihi, their waiata and their haka. David spoke his thanks and the lights went down.

No sooner had the first movie credentials appeared on the screen we were whooping. There was David’s name … whoop … there was David’s logo … whoop … cheers and whoops every time anything recognisable appeared on screen. Anything at all, a shop, a street, a person crossing the road. No whoop was left unwhooped.

The packed auditorium stayed till the very last of the credits rolled by, watching for their respective names.

There were a lot of credits! David received his much-deserved thunderous applause with typical humility.

Back into the foyer our whānau gathered for a photo with David and then suddenly, there beside me for the snap, was star of the show, Robyn Malcom.

Robyn Malcom! I rounded on her with such delight. Robyn Malcom! And I had a story to tell whether she wanted to hear it or not!

Twenty-two years earlier our Kate was 12 years old and she and her cousin Kiriana were Shortland Street fans. In that particular year Circa Theatre in Wellington were presenting a Shakespearian play starring …

Shortland Street’s Robyn Malcom. I seized upon the opportunity to introduce my two girls to the Bard with Robyn as the bribe. Better still, what if I could engineer a meeting and a photo opportunity? What a mother I would be!

80 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2020

With our best bib and tucker we all lined the red carpet, past the pop-up pet zoo, past the Seven Sharp cameras and into the Civic Theatre’s foyer.

As it happened, at that time, I had a radio show on Central FM. I contacted Robyn’s agent, put on my most important, professional voice and organised an interview post-performance. What a mother I was!

The day finally came and off we went. The play was of course brilliant, but the icing on the cake was about to happen. Out from backstage came not only Robyn Malcom but a Tim Balme bonus. Girls introduced and photo taken, it was my turn.

Oh how I had pictured and practiced in my mind. Eloquent, probing questions. I would maintain a cultured somewhat refined, perhaps even aloof countenance. They would be impressed. More than impressed. They would marvel at my clarity, my understated wit. She’ll go far they would reminisce later in their dressing rooms.

I had my impressive BBC lookalike microphone at the ready.

They sat down and gazed at me expectantly. I gazed back. My colour heightened, perhaps more accurately, reddened. ‘Oh,’ I gushed,’ Oh, oh, oh that was wonderful, you were wonderful, you were both so wonderful.

Well of course you were wonderful,

because you are wonderful. You are amazing Oh, oh, oh, amazing, that was so amazing.’

A glaze drew quietly down their professional faces. The glaze was duly noted but I seemed powerless to stop the never-ending loop of gush. I think my hands were flapping, I couldn’t sit still in my seat. I was so far down this terrible road that I was about to ask them what their favourite colour was, their amazing, wonderful most favourite colour when they began to ask their own questions and then answer them.

I beamed all the way through with the odd intake of breath and an oh, oh, oh.

Finally the whole debacle finished and the two famous ones glided graciously back from whence they had come and we returned to our motel.

Back in CHB I handed the tape to the station manager and suggested that they might have to cut me out. ‘Oh, no,’ she protested, then she listened to the tape. ‘Oh yes,’ she agreed.

In the retelling of the tale, in my rush to get it all out of my mouth in one go, in my over familiar grip on her arm, I fear her opinion of the old one from CHB may not have shifted too far from the original!

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