BB#66-Sep-Oct-2022

N 66 • SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2022 • HAWKE’S BAY UP CLOSE, IN DEPTH

Ka Pai! Ian Thomas picks the Bay’s best pies

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Behind the HB Arts Festival curtain • Battling cancer from Onekawa • Midwife crisis endangers mums and babies • Business tackles climate change • Monowai wine on the rocks

Sep/Oct

05

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OF HAWKE’S BAY

66 BayBuzz September/October 2022

Midwives are at breaking point. Council CEOs discuss their challenges. Marie Taylor protects our unique landscape. Small businesses can do their bit to cope with climate change. Look to a sustainable future. The curtain goes up on the 8th HB Arts Festival. Imbibe in the joys of wine with Yvonne Lorkin.

Our Mouthy Broad rants about road rage.

Photo: Florence Charvin

46 Small businesses can take climate action too Dominic Salmon Big businesses can deliver large scale shift but that doesn’t mean small businesses can’t contribute.

48 To decolonise David Trubridge The only way we can address the climate crisis is by tackling colonialism.

50 Tuia te muka tangata – Te Aho a Māui EIT strengthening ties with local iwi Māori Patrick Hape The cornerstone to Tiriti excellence is a solid relationship with our Tiriti partners that demonstrates mutual benefit.

Follow us at: baybuzzhb Articles online at: baybuzz.co.nz Editorial enquiries editors@baybuzz.co.nz Advertising enquiries Mandy Wilson 027 593 5575 mandy@baybuzz.co.nz Reach BayBuzz by mail BayBuzz, PO Box 8322, Havelock North

BayBuzz Team EDITOR: Tom Belford C&L EDITOR: Michal McKay SENIOR WRITERS: Kay Bazzard; Tom Belford; Abby Beswick; Rosheen FitzGerald; Bonnie Flaws; Michal McKay; Keith Newman; Tess Redgrave COLUMNISTS: Charles Daugherty; Andrew Frame; Fiona Fraser; Yvonne Lorkin; Kate McLeay; Katie Nimon; Paul Paynter; Dominic Salmon; Jess Soutar Barron; Nick Stewart; Ian Thomas; David Trubridge; Louise Ward BUSINESS WRITER: Brenda Newth VIDEOGRAPHER: Patrick O'Sullivan EDITOR’S RIGHT HAND: Brooks Belford PHOTOGRAPHY: Tom Allan; Florence Charvin ILLUSTRATION: Brett Monteith DESIGN: Unit Design Max Parkes; Giselle Reid ONLINE: Elizabeth-Marie Nes; Lee Tong BUSINESS & DISTRIBUTION MANAGER: Kathleen Botha PRINTING: Blue Star Group 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.

About the cover Ian Thomas has been on a mission to find the nicest pies in the region. Pies that aim for the sky. In other words those worth leaving home for – the Destination Pies of the Bay. Ian pledges his support for the perfect pie people on page 86.

Photograph: Florence Charvin

Bee in the know 4 6

From the editor BayBuzz hero – Marg Norris 7 Bee in the know 14 Climate update

Features 18 Midwives at breaking point Abby Beswick Overworked, unsupported and underpaid; it takes a community to support a midwife.

24 Meet the chiefs who run our councils Bonnie Flaws Two of HB’S most senior executives discuss their challenges.

30 Protecting our unique landscapes Tess Redgrave Marie Taylor: Ecologist, seed collector, businesswoman.

36 REDA or not?

Tom Belford Will a new agency spur HB’s economic development?

Ideas & opinions 44 Attention candidates: Say ‘No!’ Paul Paynter Perhaps the most important thing councils can do is have focus.

2 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

BayBiz …

52 A sustainable future?

Brenda Newth Opportunity lies in businesses going the extra carbon-zero mile.

62 Made to order: Chemo drugs from Onekawa Fiona Fraser Ensuring that Kiwis have immediate access to the best drugs.

66 Blurred lines need to get clearer Nick Stewart Calling all investors – don’t be fooled by flashy claims. Look for the whole story.

Culture & Lifestyle 68 Weaving dreams!

Michal McKay The art of weaving is the Kaupapa for the 8th HB Arts Festival.

74 A cultural feast Rosheen Fitzgerald Delve into some of the more unusual offerings of the HB Arts Festival.

80 Let’s start the conversation Louise Ward Mull over the pleasures of prose at the HB Readers + Writers Festival.

84 Her patient fight Kate McLeay Taking a bow to the endeavors of Mental Health Awareness Week.

86 Pies worth leaving home for Ian Thomas A list of the nicest pies to be found in the Bay. 88 Monowai rocks!

Yvonne Lorkin The task of turning stony ground into a vineyard has reaped a rich reward for Emma Lowe and Marcello Lunez.

94 A way with words Louise Ward Revel in the richness of language and the power of a word well turned.

96 Mouthy Broad Jess Soutar Barron Road rage.

88 Photo: Tom Allan SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 3

F R O M T H E EDI TO R TO M BEL FO R D

This edition of BayBuzz is chocka with stories about people. None of them ‘ordinary’.

Some of them – Nigel Bickle and James Palmer – run our councils (HDC and HBRC respectively), which are big businesses by Hawke’s Bay standards in terms of employment and budgets.

Read our profiles of these two (in our book) exceptional CEOs. Some of them deliver babies and take care of their mums-to-be. Read our feature on midwives. Who could be more important?

Some of them run HB businesses making major commitments to mitigating the effects of climate change. Others lead fast-moving companies. Meet some of our business change agents.

Some of them produce boutique, award-winning wines. Another has searched for Hawke’s Bay’s best pies … and herein announces his top picks!

Some of them are Aotearoa’s master weavers, gathering specially as part of the Arts Festival and giving special meaning to it.

Another devotes her life to protecting our native plant diversity, from collecting the seeds to growing native plants in commercial quantities.

Another, hidden away in Onekawa, mixes for clients across NZ the highly customized chemo doses that too

many warriors must rely on to fight their cancer.

Another aims to ensure that EIT meets its full obligations to our region’s Māori community in a spirit of partnership.

A young woman writes her personal story of coping with mental illness in hopes of inspiring others.

If we were to gather all these folks onto a ‘Team Hawke’s Bay’, there’s nothing we couldn’t excel at!

There’s plenty of stimulating brainfood too … the columns of Paul Paynter, David Trubridge and Jessica Soutar Barron are sure to either challenge, annoy or amuse you.

Plus, deep dives into the offerings of this year’s HB Arts Festival as previewed by our culture mavens Michal McKay, Rosheen FitzGerald and Louise Ward.

And what … nothing on our local elections? Too many candidates and too fluid a process to treat well in this printed magazine, which ‘went to bed’ in late August.

However, be sure to follow our online coverage at www.baybuzz.co.nz. That’s where I’ll be offering my observations as we move into the voting window. If you don’t already receive our weekly Saturday e-newsletter, The BUZZ, in your email, sign-up on our website.

Finally, just a note on the ‘business’

of BayBuzz. We’re working hard to expand the range and depth of information and analysis we’re providing both in the magazine (16 more pages in this edition) and online.

Giving a big boost to our editorial capability (and, I’ll admit, pride), BayBuzz just received a grant from the Public Interest Journalism Fund, which will enable us to put significantly more effort into our reporting and analysis, and deliver some of our content via online video and podcasting. Some new, experienced names you’ll see on our editorial team – Bonnie Flaws, Patrick O’Sullivan and Tess Redgrave.

So, stay tuned. BayBuzz is on the move.

Tom Belford

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.

BayBuzz is subject to the New Zealand Media Council. Complaints to be first directed in writing, within one month of publication, to editors@baybuzz.co.nz.

If unsatisfied, the complaint may be pursued with the Media Council at: info@mediacouncil.org.nz. Further detail and complaints form are available at www.mediacouncil.org.nz.

4 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Your spirit, uniquely captured for you to treasure 6 Havelock Road, Havelock North, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand | +64 6 8779 851

BAY B UZ Z H E R O

Story: Jenny Elliott. Photo: Florence Charvin.

Marg Norris Marg Norris doesn’t consider 50 years in nursing a remarkable feat – several colleagues who trained with her have done the same. But what has been different is that Marg has continually worked in one hospital – the Hawke’s Bay Fallen Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital in Hastings.

It means she has been a front-line observer of the changes happening locally.

And with nursing always on the cutting edge of our social and technological shifts, those changes have been huge. Despite it all though, what makes a good nurse may not have changed at all.

“Technology in medicine is still only as good as the people interpreting it,” says Marg. “It still needs calls for intuition along with expertise when something doesn’t seem right.”

It also needs taking a moment just to stop and pay attention to a patient. “It’s often the little things that make a big difference.”

Pain management is a specialist area for Marg and one she has taught in. She’s seen remarkable developments here but is concerned about its need for more public health funding. “There are pain management teams doing fantastic work in the community, but huge groups of people are missing out.”

Marg’s initial steps into her career of 50 years and counting – with no plans yet to retire – were by chance. She agreed to accompany a friend to an interview, during which both signed up. And no, her friend who initiated the interview didn’t stay in nursing.

Back then trainee nurses had to live in at the nurses’ home, which Marg says was ‘heaps of fun’. She chuckles at some of the memories. “We got very good at negotiating fire escapes and sidling along window ledges.”

Fun is a word used often as Marg reminisces on her 50 years nursing.

“There’s wonderful camaraderie and nurses have a quirky sense of humour.

We’ll discuss anything, which can be quite dismaying for spouses!”

After training she worked fulltime in intensive care and later moved into the recovery area where she is now. Along the way she added a Diploma in Medical and Surgical Nursing and a Bachelor of Nursing to her qualifications.

And yes, despite all the changes, Marg welcomes the current one of restructuring the country’s health boards. “There’s no sense in every area of a small country having different ways of doing things.

This has the potential to be great.”

Mauricio Benega, Ocean Flowers

Celebrating Hawke’s Bay Keirunga Arts Venue – long known as one of ‘the’ places to host anything related to the world of arts and crafts particularly in Havelock North – was generously given to the Havelock North Borough Council by George Nelson, who lived there from 1928 until 1964.

During that time, he supervised the development of the seventeen acres of land which surrounded the home into parkland and gardens.

All that went in a puff of smoke when a devastating fire raged through in 2016. Since then, a massive rebuild has been in action – and to complete the third stage of the project – a State of the Art gallery and workspace – a calendar of fundraisers is planned for the last weekend in October.

One of these – unmissable for art lovers – is a large exhibition of some fifty-two works contributed by well-known artists who either live here or have done so. Such luminaries as Dick Frizzell, Jeff Thompson, Freeman White, Richard Boyd-Dunlop, Jo Blogg, and Richard Brimer will be on display at the Function Centre in Havelock North prior to a Gala Auction on Friday 28th October.

At the same time, an exhibition of post card sized paintings from students all over the region’s secondary schools will be held and available for sale – as a further push to encourage the younger generation to join Keirunga and make use of the outstanding facilities.

For further information go to: www.keirunga.org.nz/Auction-and-Exhibition-Artists

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 7

BE E I N T HE K N OW / MI C H A L MC K AY

Dyed-inthe-wool Many of you may remember a time when wool and just about everything that related to it was synonymous with what the rest of the world called New Zealand (but are manfully learning to call Aotearoa!). Sheep probably topped the list, outdoing the human population by a million or two and wool scouring possibly ran a close second.

Well, the bad news is that the 28 scouring plants which once were scattered throughout the country have been reduced to one. But the good news is that the remaining one is in Hawke’s Bay and, despite

it being the sole survivor of a once highly respected industry, it is also the world’s biggest scourer by volume.

Not surprisingly it is called WoolWorks – with two of its three scours based in Awatoto and Clive.

It has now added another first to its massive contribution towards the sheep and wool industry. In its endeavors to bring it back to bouncing high, WoolWorks has committed $2.4 million to helping New Zealand pave the way in the global wool market. The investment is in new Industry-good organisation Wool Impact Ltd – a company motivated to work with brands and various related industries to get

strong-wool products into markets quickly. And ultimately lift the farmer’s returns. In turn this will help steer the wool industry back onto a more sustainable and profitable path.

The revival of interest in wool is of course based on huge environmental concerns over plastic – the status of biodegradable wool should only go upwards. Even Wimbledon tennis balls use NZ wool for their skins. By establishing wider usage and giving genuine credibility to a friendly fibre which has only good qualities to recommend it, what’s to question?

Not a bad marker from yet another far sighted company in Hawke’s Bay.

WoolWorks. Photo: Tom Allan

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BEE I N T HE K N OW / M I C H A L MC K AY

PPV pulls it off again Yet another of the young students nurtured by the Youth Initiative Project Prima Volta has gained recognition on the music stage. Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono, a 24-year-old tenor from the Bay, has just won the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation $15,000 scholarship for the singer with exceptional potential in the Lexus Song Quest 2022.

Emmanuel comes to music as a natural and has PPV to thank for discovering his talent. He has been an active member of PPV for years; taught by Jose Aparicio before heading off to uni where he is studying for his Honours in BMus at Waikato University. He is also a Dame Malvina Major Foundation Student Artist with the New Zealand Opera.

Emmanuel comes to classical performance with a gene pool pretty well guaranteed for success. His Samoan heritage is a start. Both parents are songwriters and musicians and four Fonoti-Fuimaono brothers – Jordan (20), Faamanu, (22) Alfred (24) plus Emmanuel (two tenors, a baritone, and a bass baritone) – all study at Waikato and are passionate students at the New Zealand Opera School. Watch this space.

10 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Emmanuel Fonoti-Fuimaono, 2022 Lexus Song Quest. Photo: Hagen Hopkins

One smart apple

If visiting the Tribune precinct in Hastings late October you may think you’ve magically walked into a Garden of Eden. Of sorts. The prolific array of brilliantly coloured apples that have formed a trail around the streets, parks and public spaces in Hastings recently and are now gathered in this cluster would certainly tempt any modern day Eve (or her Adam).

Actually they’re a celebration of the local apple industry which is currently facing some big challenges. And it’s a competition called The Big Apple Project which will help shine a light on the contributions the industry makes to our region.

Twenty large-scale fibreglass apples supplied by Onekawa firm Trutech Industries are acting as a blank canvas

for 20 local artists to produce unique artworks (Resene are supplying the paint). Come Arts Festival time in October they’ll be sold at a public auction. The result? Hopefully She’s Apples!!

Photo: Charlotte Anderson

BEE I N T HE K N OW / M I C H A L MC K AY

These are the champions Talking about our fecund ground!The past couple of months have seen Hawke’s Bay locals hit the highlights not only in the field of food but also the creative catchment. So where do we begin?

Well, the 2022 Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards is a strong start!

Dedication to producing the country’s best Angus Beef saw Hawke’s Bay boutique farm Matangi win fan favourite overall as Coast Kiwis’ Favourite Producer, as well as taking home a Gold for their Bone In Ribeye Tomahawk Steak and a Silver Medal for its Flat Iron – all beef produced on their Tukituki Valley Farm.

With more than 300 products entered, competition was stiff, but according to Head Judge Lauraine Jacobs the quality and flavours of New Zealand’s fine grass-fed and raised meat really stood out noting the “rich, golden fat, crisp and flavourful outer crust and its mellow and balanced flavours.” Mouth-watering?

Bostock Brothers Organic FreeRange Chicken was the 2020 Supreme Champion and this year two more awards were added to their shelf – as joint winners of Giesen Paddock Champion and winners of the Sustainability Champion. The judges said, “Bostock Brothers had an impressive circular story of the

12 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

food supply chain and developments in renewable energy, mixed land use and waste.”

Nieuwenhuis Farmstead Cheese.

For those who frequent the Farmers’ Market in Hastings, this lip-smacking goat cheese maker’s stall is one not to be missed. So, no wonder they won Emerson’s Dairy Champion: Nieuwenhuis Farmstead Cheese, Marinated Cloud, Fresh Goat Cheese in Oil. The judges called it ‘perfection’.

It is.

Talking about cheese – over at the NZ Champions of Cheese Awards both Craggy Range and Hohepa flew the flag for the Bay, with Craggy Range Sheep Dairy recognised as one of four supreme champions for its Maraetotara Manchego. It also won the Puhoi Valley Cheese Champion of Champions Cheese Award as a boutique producer, with Master Judge Jason Tarrant highlighting “the quality of cheese from a small-scale producer like Craggy Range Sheep Dairy”.

Their Maraetotara Manchego was recognised earlier this year with two golds from the NZ Specialist Cheesemakers Association – the Wintec New Cheese gold and Dish Sheep Milk Cheese gold.

It’s actually produced at the wellknown Hohepa cheesery, which itself was the first winner of the inaugural Countdown Sustainability Trophy

for outstanding commitment to all elements of sustainability. But that was just the icing. Hohepa also won six medals which included a gold for their Danbo and Vintage, silvers for their Aged Danbo, Herb Quark, Fenugreek and a bronze for their Mozzarella.

Talking about sustainability – at the NZ Energy Excellence Awards Unison Networks’ Windsor substation in Hastings walked away with the Low Carbon Future Award.

There’s no end to the creativity to be found in the Bay as this issue verifies. And it comes in all forms.

At the National Kitchen and Bathroom Association Excellence in Design Awards Trudi Rabbitte of Rabbitte Joinery won three awards for two projects, including both the Kitchen Distinction Awards cost up to $30k for an apartment in the Bay and the cost between $30-$60k … plus the HB Chapter Recognition Award for a Mid-Century Kitchen. And her cohort Sharon Dorman won a Bronze in the DNKBA Kitchen/Bathroom Design for her large family kitchen work.

And at our local Gisborne/ Hawke’s Bay Architecture Awards two stunning houses caught the eye of the NZIA judges – the beautiful Nelson House designed by Clarkson Architects – generous and positioned to embrace stunning views it has numerous outdoor areas that allow for

LEFT TO RIGHT: Matangi Angus Grass Fed Beef bone in ribeye; Nieuwenhuis Farmstead Cheese Marinated Cloud; Craggy Range Sheep Dairy Maraetotara Manchego; Rabbitte Joinery mid-century kitchen; Clarkson Architects Nelson House.

both space and shelter. It also won the Resene Paint Awards for its stunning colour choices.

And a superb low-slung house sitting beneath Te Mata Peak which gently follows the land contours and built by Parsonson Architects won with a design which caters for the client’s love of gardening, environment and family life. It also won a Resene Colour Award for its complex, subtle and successful use of colour inspired by mid-century modernism.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 13

Climate update

A Tyre Extinguisher at work

Cost of pollution will rise “Only the impotent are pure.”

So noted former MP Peter Dunne in commenting on the effort of more ideologically pure Green Party activists to oust pragmatist James Shaw as Green Party co-leader.

Dunne went on to observe: “As Climate Change Minister, Shaw has responsibility for not only the most important long-term issue facing New Zealand, but also the one dearest to the Greens’ hearts.

“He knows that to make sustainable progress he must do much more than keep the Green Party’s activists on-side. Far more importantly, he needs to win over not only the major party of government, Labour, but also enough of the National Party to ensure the policy momentum is maintained when a change of government occurs.

He also knows that he needs at least tacit, if not more active, support from the business community and

14 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

major greenhouse gas producers like industry and agriculturalists.

“To that end, he has skilfully steered New Zealand to a position where, following the passage of the Climate Change Act in 2020 and the establishment of the Climate Change Commission, the future direction of NZ’s climate change has been broadly settled.”

That’s a monumental achievement, for which Shaw deserves huge credit, setting in place a framework that will now set in motion Government decisions that all sectors of NZ society will find painful.

Case in point, some recent pronouncements from the Climate Change Commission (CCC).

The first of these involved policies recently recommended by the CCC regarding agricultural emissions.

As perceived by the ag sector, there was good news and bad. On the one hand, the CCC endorsed the sector’s

preferred two-path approach, which would treat long-lived CO2 and shortlived (but with higher immediate impact) methane emissions differently.

The latter are what the meat and milk producers are most liable for and the biggest source of NZ’s GHG footprint.

They want methane emissions kept out of the emissions trading scheme (ETS), where they would face major price impact.

However, the CCC rejected other key provisions of the sector’s carefully negotiated (within the farming family) He Waka Eke Noa proposals, notably the sector’s demand for farmers to be able to claim carbon sequestration credit for vegetation types that are not presently included in the ETS and provisions for levying costs against fertiliser use.

Affecting all of us more broadly are the CCC’s recommendations regarding the ETS itself and how emissions credits should be priced – in a word,

“High emissions activities will become more expensive and low emissions options more cost effective as the world prices the damaging effects of greenhouse gas emissions.”

Dr Rod Carr, CCC chair

much higher, according to the CCC. Under the ETS, businesses that emit carbon must surrender a carbon credit for every tonne of pollution they emit.

They must buy their credits in regular auctions. What the CCC has done is recommend lowering the number of units available and setting price triggers that would bring these costs to levels more congruent with values now place by the international carbon market – in fact create sufficient economic incentive for businesses of all kinds (and their consumers) to lower their carbon use.

As CCC chair Dr Rod Carr put it: “High emissions activities will become more expensive and low emissions options more cost effective as the world prices the damaging effects of greenhouse gas emissions.”

The CCC doesn’t set a price, but rather defines a range in which, as Shaw puts it, “the price of pollution is discovered.”

Effectively the Government sets a floor price – the auction reserve price below which the Government will not sell units at auction. And the CCC has recommended almost a doubling of that price, as this table indicates. The current price of a NZ unit is $76.

As higher carbon prices are incorporated, mainly via higher energy prices, into the products and services we all consume, every business and household budget will feel the impact.

Feel the pain … that is the price we will all need to pay until and unless we change our habits to squeeze down our carbon usage.

Working with Treasury, the CCC has estimated the economic impact of their recommended carbon pricing, summarising detailed analysis as follows: “Without any behavioural or technological change, increases in the emissions price will increase energy prices, leading to higher energy costs for food producers and retailers. If these are fully passed onto consumers, food prices could increase between

0.11% and 1.08% across our range of modelled emissions prices (relative to the year ending June 2019, when the emissions price was $24.73/tCO2e (nominal)).

“While this provides useful insight about the potential magnitude of financial impacts from a higher emissions price, it does not account for longer term changes to the economy in the transition, or from measures such as improved housing quality, declining total cost of ownership for electric vehicles, and improvements in the energy efficiency of appliances.

As a result, the long-term impact of emissions prices will be less than stated above, as households take up low carbon technologies and change their behaviour.”

It should be noted that the Government has taken in almost $5 billion in carbon credit payments, all of which is earmarked for programmes to incentivise GHG emissions reduction.

Are we ready for the pain?

The international polling firm, Ipsos, in July released results of its annual survey on climate attitudes across 32 countries, including New Zealand.

Of the countries surveyed, NZ respondents showed the highest concern about the impact of climate change. And our concern seems to be rising by the year. Amongst New Zealanders …

86% believe that the government has a great deal/a fair amount of responsibility to reduce carbon emissions, while 65% stated that if the government does not act now to combat climate change, it will be failing the people of New Zealand (from 57% last year); 84% believe that businesses have a great deal/a fair amount of responsibility to reduce carbon emissions, while 70% stated that if businesses do not act now, they will be failing their employees and customers (up from 60% in 2021); 79% believe that individuals have a great deal/a fair amount of responsibility to reduce carbon emissions, while 73% stated that if individuals like me do not act now, we will be failing future generations (up from 62%).

Against those numbers, nearly a third (31%) of New Zealanders don’t think that the country will make significant progress against climate change this decade.

And as individuals, we are not that well-informed about what we can do.

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According to Ipsos: “People’s understanding of what to do as individuals to reduce contribution to carbon emissions also remains low.

Recycling and growing/producing your own food are incorrectly identified

by New Zealanders as the top-2 most impactful carbon-reducing actions (the true rank for reducing emissions has recycling in 60th place, and growing/producing your own food in 23rd place), while living car-free or changing to a vegan diet (which have a far higher impact) are not seen by most as being particularly impactful.”

Cars as culprits In 2021 worldwide car sales grew to about 66.7 million units, led by Toyota at #1 with 9,562,483 units. Today there are about 1.45 billion cars on the road globally, not quite 5 million of those in New Zealand.

Only five countries have more cars per 1000 population than us. Surprisingly, at 897 per 1000, we have more than the much-maligned US, at 868 per 1000.

Australia has 748 per 1000.

It's a ‘Top 10’ list not to be on.

For NZ’s non-farming population, transport is where we have the greatest GHG impact. Around 20% of New Zealand’s emissions come from the transport sector.

For most of us that boils down to what kind of car we drive – petrol or diesel hog, relatively fuel efficient, or more lately, EVs. For most of us, our biggest single consumer purchase, and one we make every 6 to 11 years.

Most of us know that the Government now has a programme in place to incentivise purchase of fuel efficient cars and EVs … and EVs are now selling like hotcakes in NZ. According to Transport Minister Michael Wood, since the Clean Car Discount scheme came into force on 1 July 2021 there has been a 56% increase in the number of light-electric and Non Plug-in Hybrid vehicles registered in New Zealand, compared to the same period last year.”

BayBuzz asked HB Toyota/Lexus CEO Angus Helmore for his take on our local market. His reply: “We are seeing a significant customer shift towards our electrified range. New vehicle orders in July show this with 60% of our Toyota customers and 100% for Lexus choosing BEV or HEV options.

Our used vehicle customers are also moving towards Hybrid options as

16 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

“We are aiming to grow this movement to the point where it becomes impossible to own an SUV in the world’s urban areas. A relatively small number of people can make this happen.”

Tyre Extinguishers spokesperson

we increase supply across a broader range of models and prices.”

So, the trajectory is promising but still not good enough. According to NZ Motor Industry Association, the burst of EV sales in 2021 reduced CO2 emissions by 4.7% for the sector, but a reduction of 10% would be needed to be on course for meeting Clean Car standards set for 2025. The Government has balked at the Climate Commission’s recommendation to ban ICE imports no later than 2035, ideally by 2030; instead the Government’s plan aims to increase zero emissions vehicles to 30% of the light fleet by 2030.

That’s the Government picture, what about the manufacturers?

All of the major manufacturers have announced aggressive plans for downsizing, in come cases entirely phasing out, their internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. They are literally making the EV market.

And fuelling the millions of EVs of the future is driving a new era of global geopolitics. What oil has been in the last century, batteries and their components will be in the future. The scramble is on.

General Motors (GM), ranked #4 in auto sales with 6.3 million units in 2021, recently announced it had lined up suppliers for all battery raw materials, including lithium, nickel, cobalt and cathode active material needed to make 1 million EVs annually by 2026. Sources include Korea, China and Argentina.

Similarly, Ford ranked #8 with 3.9 million units, and the biggest seller of trucks, is aiming for 40% of its sales to be EVs by 2030. It announced deals for components like nickel, lithium and graphite – in countries including Australia, Indonesia, Argentina, China– that will enable enough batteries for an annualized production rate of 600,000 EVs by late 2023 and

70% of what's needed for 2 millionplus annually by 2026.

Of course, not all cars are created equal!

According to the International Energy Agency, petrol SUVs, representing 45% of global car sales, were the second largest contributor to the increase in global carbon emissions from 2010 to 2018 – bigger than either heavy industry or aviation.

If SUVs were a country, they would be the sixth biggest emitter in the world, accounting for more than 900 million metric tons of CO₂

Enter Tyre Extinguishers According to a report in Bloomberg Green, since March, the group has deflated the tyres of nearly 6,500 SUVs in Austria, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK and the US. They are aiming to force attention to gas-guzzling vehicles’ impact on climate change and air pollution.

“We are aiming to grow this movement to the point where it becomes impossible to own a SUV in the world’s urban areas,” a spokesperson told Bloomberg. “A relatively small number of people can make this happen.”

That’s a far cry from composting, recycling and eating fewer steaks.

It turns out the real environmental radicals aren’t futzing around with kicking James Shaw in the shins.

It’s not clear how intense this level of anger with slow-paced and/or weak government action – inaction in many cases – is around the world, or here in New Zealand. Tyre Extinguishers say they currently have 50 groups worldwide.

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The current generation that has brought the planet to this crisis point is more apt to feel some quiet guilt, perhaps inspiring ourselves to recycle.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 17

Midwives at breaking point Known as the backbone of maternity health, midwives play a vital role in the protection and enhanced health of mothers and babies. Many of us have benefitted firsthand from the consistent care, knowledge and emotional support provided by our midwife through a pregnancy, birth and postnatal care of a child.

Story by Abby Beswick Photos by Florence Charvin

In spite of the value they bring to families and society, these frontline workers are suffering from huge workloads, challenging working conditions and low pay. Put simply, our midwives are facing emotional and physical exhaustion from the demands of a job that’s pushing many to breaking point.

Supporting couples through the journey to parenthood is a huge privilege, say midwives. But the relentless demands of the job, exacerbated by Covid-19, have taken a toll on our midwifery workforce, which was already crumbling before the pandemic.

Here in Hawke’s Bay a number of midwives are choosing to leave the industry, which is putting further pressure on those who are left and making it increasingly hard for pregnant women to find care.

Overworked, unsupported and underpaid

The envy of many countries, New Zealand’s midwifery service is considered among the best in the world for the consistent, efficient and effective care they provide. Midwives look after women throughout their pregnancy until about one month after birth.

These highly qualified healthcare workers are on call 24/7 for the women they care for.

Ask any midwife and they’ll tell you they didn’t choose their profession for the money or the lifestyle. The relationship between a midwife and family can be a magical experience for both sides, but it also comes with huge responsibility – during every birth the

“It’s a massive privilege to be there watching a woman become a mother, watching a couple become a family and to be there walking with them.”

ANGELIKA MOLLMAN

midwife is responsible for two lives.

Hastings midwife Angelika Mollman has helped more than 1,500 women birth their babies during her 30 years in the industry. She loves her job and accepts the lifestyle that comes with it, but the demands of the job are challenging, she says.

“It’s a massive privilege to be there watching a woman become a mother, watching a couple become a family and to be there walking with them.” Being on call 24/7 is difficult, especially if you have a young family of your own, she says. By default, your partner is also always on call, and you need to always have back-up options for your childcare and home and family responsibilities, says Mollman. “There is no other job with the same responsibility and with the same accessibility.”

Women presenting with medical complexities has become more common, increasing the risk factors for pregnancy and birth, says Mollman.

For example, women with underlying health conditions, rising levels of obesity and pregnancy through artificial means.

For each woman they care for, community-based midwives work about 40 hours and are paid between $3000

and $4000 (before tax and GST). The fee covers everything involved in the woman’s care from pregnancy until one month after birth, including checkups, home visits, paperwork, on-call responsibilities and expenses such as car and phone. There is no sick leave, bereavement leave or annual leave. A full-time client load for a community midwife is 40 women per year.

Extra responsibilities

On top of the demands of the job while juggling family life, the role of midwives has extended beyond the typical boundaries, adding further pressure, says Julie Kinloch, a community-based midwife in Napier with more than 30 years’ experience. Kinloch is also the regional chairperson for the NZ College of Midwives central region.

In Hawke’s Bay a growing number of families are struggling to make ends meet, leaving midwives to carry out social services to ensure newborns and their families are safe, says Kinloch.

Midwives are often supporting families to source food, blankets, warm clothes and even housing they desperately need. “That’s been one of the burn out issues. There’s more and more poverty, there’s more and more distress and there’s nobody to attend to that,” says Kinloch. “We have deprivation here, which is massive.”

The impact of Covid

The long-time pressure on the industry has been heightened by Covid-19, says Kinloch. As part of this, a fear of hospitals at the beginning of the pandemic

OPPOSITE: Midwife Angelika Mollman with Kamalpreet Singh and her baby Navandeep.

18 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

prompted more women to choose to give birth at home. Hawke’s Bay has around 20 home births a month, which is higher than the national average.

Unlike many jobs that could be practised remotely, midwives were required to work with clients in person throughout the pandemic to carry out routine checks and attend births.

This regularly took place when there were active cases of Covid-19 in the household.

We have 111 midwives in Hawke’s Bay, according to the 2021 Midwifery Council statistics. Due to the vaccine mandate, the region has lost eight of these, which is significant for a small workforce.

On top of this, rolling cases of Covid19 during the pandemic continue to have an impact, placing yet more pressure on available midwives to pick up the slack. Burn out is common, says Kinloch. Recently she covered for five midwives over 10 days while they were off sick with Covid-19, on top of her usual workload. “We don’t want harm to come to women. Someone has to step in because those women are still pregnant and still need the care,” she says. “Historically, we’ve always been well numbered with midwives, but I would say that the last two years have really taken a toll.”

The lack of value placed on midwives is perhaps nowhere more evident than in their Covid-19 payments.

When a midwife puts on full PPE and enters a Covid-positive house to look after a pregnant woman she’s paid $100. The amount is a one-off fee paid per family, regardless of how many visits there are. The payments are

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“Historically, we’ve always been well numbered with midwives, but I would say that the last two years have really taken a toll.”

JULIE KINLOCH

demoralising and illustrate the lack of acknowledgement for their work, say midwives. The fees are paid quarterly by the Ministry of Health via Te Whatu Ora - Health New Zealand - the new entity replacing health boards.

Midwives spoken to for this article said many of their colleagues are still waiting to receive payments.

A privilege like no other

Poor pay, a lack of support, and 24/7 on call responsibilities have created an environment where midwives are mentally, emotionally and physically drained. It’s no wonder then, that many of them are choosing to move overseas for better treatment or are leaving the sector.

So why do this job at all? It’s magical, Kinloch tells me. “I have loved the vast majority of my 35 years. It’s a lifestyle but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world because sharing this time with women and empowering them to get on and have their babies and support them in becoming parents is an honour.”

“We’re not trying to rip anyone off here”

Better pay is part of it, but ultimately, it’s more support that midwives need.

We need to attract more people to the industry and keep them. Graduates should be supported through their studies, like other trade programmes receiving Government funding, says Kinloch.

Midwifery students commit to four years of full-time study and are required to have a huge knowledge base. In addition to the demands of study, exams and assignments, during placements they are on call 24/7, leaving no time for additional work to supplement their student loan. Kinloch describes the job as “arts and science” as their roles range from providing medical expertise to emotional and practical support to families.

Kinloch and NZ College of Midwives midwifery advisor, Jacqui Anderson, point to a system problem when it comes to negotiating improved pay and conditions. “We’re a tiny profession of nearly 4,000 midwives and we just have no voice,” says Kinloch.

When midwives suffer, everyone suffers

Midwives are highly qualified. They provide medical support, emotional support, and in many cases, social support to women and families throughout a life changing experience.

They are always on call, yet they don’t get paid a callout fee like an electrician or plumber does. They’re overworked, under supported and poorly paid. There is no other job in New Zealand like it.

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Cameron, Aria and Melisha Bradley with baby Lincoln.

“It was positive, it was calm and I felt like my husband and I had choices.”

MELISHA BRADLEY

Two countries, two very different midwife experiences Hastings mum Melisha Bradley gave birth to her two children in different countries and her experiences of midwife care couldn’t be more contrasted. After several heartbreaking miscarriages, when Bradley became pregnant with her first child, while living in Australia, she and her husband Cameron decided to get a private obstetrician to provide additional care and peace of mind.

Under the Australian system, GPs provide initial care during the pregnancy before referring women to a hospital midwife for shared care in the later stages. Rather than having one midwife, Bradley saw whoever was on duty each time she had a check-up, so she never got to know the midwives well. However, she felt confident she had all of the right people around her to provide the care she needed.

By her third trimester, Bradley had

developed pre-eclampsia, deeming her a high-risk pregnancy. The couple decided against having their obstetrician at the birth as it would cost an additional $10,000, but they were comfortable they would be well looked after by the hospital staff.

Unfortunately, Bradley’s birth wasn’t the calm, straightforward experience she’d hoped for. After being induced, she required a lot of interventions due to multiple complications – a situation that was exacerbated by having midwives who didn’t know Bradley or her birth plan. “It was just one thing after the next,” she says.

In pain, Bradley requested an epidural, but it took several hours for the midwife to accept she needed one, says Bradley, as it wasn’t on her birth plan. “The midwife didn’t know me from a bar of soap … I was in so much pain, my body was shutting down.”

Their daughter Aria was born healthy, but the experience of her birth has had a lasting impact. “I couldn’t sleep for the next two-three days because every

time I closed my eyes I had flashbacks … It was actually quite traumatic.”

The experience was so difficult for the couple, Cameron wasn’t sure he wanted to have any more children.

Determined to extend their family, when they moved home to New Zealand, they decided to try again, and the experience the second time around couldn’t have been more different.

Throughout her second pregnancy, with son Lincoln, Bradley received care from two midwives who got to know her, her medical history, preferences and birth plan. It was a huge relief, she says.

At 41 weeks, Bradley went into natural labour, and was supported by her midwives throughout. “I felt really comfortable and relaxed because I had the same midwives. They were informative, empathetic, caring and they had all the time in the world.”

After a 14-hour labour, Bradley gave birth to her son on July 1.

The couple credit their midwife care as a huge part of their different birth experience with Lincoln – so much so that they’re now considering baby number three. “It was positive, it was calm and I felt like my husband and I had choices.”

The quality and consistency of midwife care in New Zealand is worldclass and should be valued more highly, says Bradley. “That’s one thing New Zealand does well is midwives.

My midwives were absolutely amazing, I just wish they were paid more.”

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 21

Midwives play a vital role in a couple’s experience of pregnancy and birth. They build trust with the women and families they look after, get to know their birth preferences, their medical history and their personality – that’s the true value of a midwife, says Mollman. “You need to know that that person looking after you has got your back.”

The continuity of care a midwife provides has been shown to make a huge difference to women’s experiences and outcomes. “The way you’re treated, the respect you’re given, your involvement in the decision-making is important and if you’re not getting that, that affects your whole life including your parenting of that child,” says Kinloch.

From next year, Hawke’s Bay women will be struggling to find a midwife, due to the number leaving the industry, says Kinloch, whether the reason is burn out, better pay and conditions overseas, or simply ‘normal’ retirement age. She’s already had calls from women, crying on the phone because they can’t find a midwife.

All midwives are asking for is the support they need to do their job well and to be paid fairly for it, so they can continue to give women the best care

possible, says Kinloch. “It takes a community to support a family and it takes a community to support a midwife.”

Midwifery is an “amazing profession” she says, and New Zealand is so lucky to have these incredible, passionate midwives.

A day in the life of a midwife

Angelika Mollman’s role as a midwife is to provide medical care and support to her clients and their family. But there’s so much more to the job than that. No two days are the same and the nature of her work means she can get called to a woman in labour at any time. Here’s one day in her role as a midwife.

7.30am get up and go for a 2.5km run with the dogs. Shower, dress, eat breakfast.

9am Start seeing clients at the clinic (Maya Midwives). Meet with six women who are at various stages of pregnancy for antenatal checks.

Midday - Get called to the hospital to assist with a colleague’s client who has gone into labour with twins.

As multiple births are high risk, two midwives are present during the birth.

They carry out checks of the babies, which can be challenging as it’s sometimes difficult to differentiate between

the babies’ heartbeats. They need to ensure they’re hearing two different heartbeats rather than the heartbeat from one twin twice.

The mother, who is 36 weeks pregnant, is labouring well and chooses not to have an epidural. At 2.30pm the first baby comes out – a girl. Her brother follows 15 minutes later. Angelika’s colleague catches both babies, who are both healthy.

4pm Back to the clinic to see two more clients for antenatal checks.

5pm Go home. Write up notes and complete paperwork from the clinic.

Check test results that have come back to see if any need to be actioned or followed up. Take phone calls from clients who have questions. Finish work, while remaining on call for the rest of the night.

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Meet the chiefs who run our councils

Our five elected councils in Hawke’s Bay each directly employ only one officer, the chief executive. He or she then ‘rules the roost’, employing all other council staff, establishing the ‘corporate’ culture, and overseeing the strategic planning and day-to-day management of council business.

Arguably our council CEOs are the most important figures in local government, often ‘outliving’ our elected representatives and better understanding the intricacies of delivering services. Here you’ll meet HB’s two most senior chief executives.

Story: Bonnie Flaws Photos: Tom Allan

James Palmer Hawke’s Bay Regional Council James Palmer had a long career in Wellington, and for a number of years commuted between the bay and the capital. A Hawke’s Bay lad originally, he had been looking for a way to end his nomadic lifestyle – which over the years had seen him take thousands of flights – and ground himself here permanently.

Previously the group manager strategic development at the Regional Council, Palmer was also deputy secretary, sector strategy, at the Ministry for the Environment for three years, where he was responsible for the strategic direction of New Zealand’s environmental management system.

He’s been in the role of chief

26 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

executive for the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council for five years, and has just started a two-year extension.

Palmer says the machinery of central government is obviously much larger and more complex, and more formal in structure than local government, and everybody knows what their role is.

Local government has some similarities – councillors are like a legislature, they get to vote on things, but also they can be the opposition and have disagreements. And, it’s more transparent, doing their business in the public eye instead of behind cabinet doors.

Palmer says one of the main differences is that regional councils have a much bigger range of functions compared to highly specialised ministries, and chief executives are more proximal to their communities and elected members.

“In central government you are more

removed. It’s more theoretical. In local government it’s more practical and things happen more in real time and you can make a difference more easily.”

Palmer says many of the problems now facing local government stem from decades of inaction on critical infrastructure investment and environmental mismanagement, largely stemming from the discretion afforded them by devolved power. The national directives now coming at regional councils hard and fast are in part a response to that inaction. Chickens are coming home to roost, he says.

“That has rapidly layered up in recent years, increasing what we are required to do and on particular timeframes and they have got really significant resourcing and budgetary implications.

“So, one of the reasons that local government has grown in rates expenditure and activity, particularly for regional councils, has been that growing amount of national direction, which takes away some of your discretion and is forcing us to do more on particular issues. We see that continuing to grow.”

This creates tensions in a couple of areas, he says. Rate hikes are putting pressure on the asset rich and cash poor, as well as the asset poor and cash poor – which, let’s face it, is most of us.

“The upward pressure on rates is a challenge for our community and the ongoing financial sustainability of local government is something that we are currently looking at and is a cause for concern for local government generally. So we do have our hand out to central government fairly regularly in terms of funding support.”

The other tension is the skills shortage. Much of the work councils are now required to do – for example, fresh water reforms require water quality and quantity limits on every water body in the region – also require huge numbers of highly specialised science, engineering and IT roles to be filled; STEM subjects that traditionally the country has not produced many of, he notes.

“We really struggle to find hydrological modellers or [people in] specialised areas of science. All the regional councils are looking for the same types of people.”

HBRC employs 335 staff and staff turnover hit 20% in the last year, the highest the regional council has ever had, and Palmer says the Great Resignation has certainly visited Hawke’s Bay. There has been an

exodus of council staff to roles in central government, particularly. But the reverse is also true and the council is benefiting from workers looking for something new.

I asked him what it was like leading the organisation during the pandemic, and how controversial vaccine mandates had affected office life.

“What I would say is that of the five years I’ve been chief executive the last two have been the hardest, and the last year the hardest of the two. Turnover has been very high, staff morale has been very challenging.

“I think everybody has struggled in their own lives with everything that has occurred … that has made it really challenging being the chief people officer, which as the chief executive you really are, in maintaining the optimism and positivity and momentum.”

On the positive side, Palmer has led the organisation in an era in which there is much greater engagement with mana whenua and iwi, and he says it’s things like this, along with good progress in environmental management and restoration, which excite him most about his role.

Engagement with Māori has never been higher, a point that is not widely

“The upward pressure on rates is a challenge for our community and the ongoing financial sustainability of local government is something that we are currently looking at and is a cause for concern for local government generally.”

understood by the public, and nor is the importance of it well understood, he says. It is a statutory requirement for councils, and new national directives also require it – for example the Te Mana o Te Wai policies. But it’s also the right thing to do.

“Between our treaty entities and Ngāti Kahungunu’s marae based tai whenua network, we are working more closely in partnership than ever before.”

Palmer tells me how after the earthquake in 1931, the harbour board, a predecessor to the regional council, confiscated land from Ngāti Paarau at Waiohiki, to build a stop bank along the Tūtaekurī river.

“At the time they had a thriving

dairy farm. They were a prosperous Māori community there, very much in control of their destiny and their land was taken from them without compensation. And they were physically excluded from accessing the river which for hundreds of years had been their source of mana, where all of their life rituals had occurred and their mahinga kai was sourced from.

“The Tūtaekurī was redirected down to Waitangi having been previously naturally let out through Greenmeadows to the estuary.

“And so it’s wonderful to have a member of Ngāti Paarau, Hinewai Ormsby, as our highest polling candidate at the last local body elections and now chair of our local environment committee.”

Ngāti Paarau are also represented at the regional council’s co-governance table for regional planning and are involved in plans for the Ahuriri regional park, which will restore the natural environment.

“These partnerships are about healing, healing our history and landscapes. What I am really proud of and excited by is how we as an institution are facing our past, confronting that and are now working to restore our environment.”

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Nigel Bickle Hastings District Council

A boy from Porirua, who spent 30 years working in central government roles says it was the pull of family that first made him consider looking for work in Hawke’s Bay. With a long list of senior leadership titles including deputy chief executive of Immigration, chief executive of the Department of Building and Housing and a decade in what is today the Ministry for Social Development, Nigel Bickle had not envisioned himself in a local government role.

Yet, less than a year into his role heading up the Provincial Growth Fund for Shane Jones, Bickle resigned and took the reigns as chief executive at Hastings District Council.

28 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

His youngest son had won an academy contract with Hawke’s Bay Rugby in 2017; then his daughter fell in love with one of her brother’s rugby mates.

All of a sudden two of his four kids were living in the Bay, and Bickle was regularly travelling up to watch his son’s matches.

As deputy chief executive of Immigration for ten years, he had travelled here frequently with respect to the Recognised Seasonal Employers scheme – a vital labour support line for the region’s growers, and he knew Ngahiwi Tomoana well from being delegates together on official trips abroad.

“I always loved coming to Hawke’s Bay, never thought about living here.

And then I saw the job advertised and I thought, you know, that actually looks really interesting. So I did a bit of due diligence on the mayor and council and what they were trying to do and

thought it would be really interesting and sort of popped my hat in the ring.

The rest is history.”

He took up the role in February 2019, and despite knowing he would face delivery challenges like the post-Havelock North drinking water improvements and Hasting’s CBD revitalisation projects, he says he “absolutely loves it”.

“It’s a great place to live and in Hastings there is a renaissance going on, built on a thriving primary sector and a really progressive mayor and council which has got a big vision for Hastings.”

As a chief executive in public service, Bickle says he’s always been motivated by making an impact, rather than big titles. Local government is quite a departure from what he was used to, however. The signals and feedback are more immediate.

He knew his work for immigration was having an impact in terms of the country’s social, economic, international relations and humanitarian goals, but it was much harder to determine what the results were, he says.

“The first month I was here, the first council meeting was pretty contentious, because it was about whether we kept Cape Kidnappers closed or reopened it. And I remember picking up Hawke’s Bay Today and thinking, ‘who’s leaked the cabinet papers?’. And then thinking that’s right, we do it completely the other way around here.”

Early on, Hastings Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst asked him to come up with a plan to address the housing crisis.

She was tired of waiting on central government. Using his Wellington connections, and in collaboration with Ngahiwi Tomoana who was hosting the prime minister at Waipatu Marae, a presentation was given and an offer to come up with a credible plan was made and accepted, right there.

“We did that work and the government ended up choosing Hastings for its pilot for its place based housing approach at the end of 2019, and made commitments to build 100s of social homes. $10 million for Papa Kainga, housing through our iwi partners, a million dollars for the healthy homes initiative. We’ve been at it for three years now and we’ve subsequently got more investment because we’re actually delivering.”

I asked him about the centralising forces gripping local government at the moment – three waters reform, RMA reform, national policy

statements on urban development and housing – and if that was creating tensions for the council.

“They are trying to transform everything at the same time, and what that feels like at the community level for the council, for our iwi and mana whenua partners, is a little bit overwhelming … Sometimes I worry about how this stuff is actually going to play out in practice in communities.”

The district’s population has grown by 7% in the last three years and there are unprecedented levels of growth in residential, industrial and commercial construction, putting big pressure on land supply, he says.

Bickle and his colleagues are nailing down how the district will grow over the next 30 years, in its future development strategy. The two big issues impacting the strategy are the changing roles and responsibilities from the RMA reform and the creation of the new mega water entities under Taumata Arowai.

Hastings is mostly on board with the regulatory overhaul of water, especially given the 2016 events in Havelock North kicked it all off, but is less sure about the scale of the new water entities, he says.

“We did that work and the government ended up choosing Hastings for its pilot for its place based housing approach at the end of 2019, and made commitments to build 100s of social homes. $10 million for Papa Kainga, housing through our iwi partners, a million dollars for the healthy homes initiative.”

“We are concerned about representation and accountability back to our communities.”

Bickle’s leadership style is largely about enabling others, so he can focus on the big picture stuff looking five, 10 and 20 years out. He wasn’t recruited to fix problems in the council, as nothing was broken, he says.

“What I think I bring is the ability to partner and create alliances on the big things that can’t be done directly through council.”

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Nor is he obsessed with detail, preferring to trust his team to do their jobs. He notes a series of basketball courts being rollout out across Flaxmere was largely undertaken without oversight from senior leadership.

“How cool is that, that somebody in our organisation felt enabled enough to go and cut a deal with Basketball NZ, Sports NZ, Sports Hawke’s Bay, to be the pilot to roll this out.”

HDC employs 460 staff; staff turnover is running at 13 per cent, compared to the sector average of 18 per cent, he says.

“I think that speaks to the effort we put into being an organisation that is a really good place to work and where you can ultimately make a difference.”

He’ll be 53 this year and says he has a lot of scar tissue, which has probably changed the way he does things.

“I’m a highly visible leader. I don’t have a desktop, I don’t have a laptop, I don’t have an office. I live my life on my phone. And I’m all about relationships and partnerships and a purposeful way of getting things done.”

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Protecting our unique landscapes Marie Taylor: ecologist, seed collector, businesswoman

Story by Tess Redgrave Photos by Florence Charvin

Ask ecologist Marie Taylor what the most important ecological issue is facing Hawke’s Bay and her reply is quick, “habitat”.

“I am all about habitat and habitat protection,” she says.

“We are losing high-ecological value landscapes and original forest, stick by stick every day, and it’s happening very rapidly.”

From 1980s to early 2000s, the Department of Conservation’s Protected Natural Areas Programme identified representative examples of the full range of indigenous biodiversity in Hawke’s Bay – many on private land.

“We have to protect what we have left of these,” says Marie. “They are going to disappear if they are not protected.”

And she should know. The founding owner of Plant Hawke’s Bay, a commercial nursery specialising in selling local native plants, Marie was the part-time regional rep for the QEII National Trust in Hawke’s Bay for 13 years during the 1990s/early 2000s. She got to know the local landscape intimately then and today she is increasingly renowned for her work eco-sourcing seed from plants native to Hawke’s Bay by making regular forays out into our natural environment.

“Next to the Canterbury Plains, Hawke’s Bay has the least amount of native vegetation left, and I don’t think we treasure it enough yet,” says Marie.

“Our natural landscapes are over-run by pests; not just the predator species OPPOSITE: Kākābeak (also called ngutukākā), is one of New Zealand’s most critically endangered species.

“It also seems outrageous to me that people are still allowed to cut down mature native trees for firewood.

Trees hundreds of years old are disappearing from our landscapes really rapidly, and no-one is accountable.

That kind of thing is criminal.” of possums, cats, and mustelids, but also feral deer, pigs and goats. For example, in the last 20 years feral deer have spread right across the landscape and are found almost everywhere.”

(One red hind, she points out, will eat as much as 2.2 sheep.)

“The big challenge is to get wider recognition that we have to fence browsing animals out of our bush remnants. It’s expensive, she admits, “but if we don’t do it, we will lose all the biodiversity – the plants and animals – from parts of the landscape that help define local areas.

“It also seems outrageous to me that people are still allowed to cut down mature native trees for firewood. Trees hundreds of years old are disappearing from our landscapes really rapidly, and no-one is accountable. That kind of thing is criminal.

“On the other hand we need to recognise and reward the landowners who are making a positive contribution to protection, and that might encourage more landowners to carry out more protection work.”

One good example of protection work is the 130-hectare private Puahanui Bush remnant in Tikokino.

Marie is an independent ecologist and secretary on the Guavas/Puahanui

Charitable Trust and says it shows what can be done when the focus is on protecting habitat.

On-going pest control, deer and pig fencing, and restoration work led

by Project Manager Kay Griffiths of the Conservation Company means Puahanui is probably the largest remnant of regenerating dry lowland podocarp forest in New Zealand. It boasts totara, matai, kahikatea and is home to at least two colonies of native longtailed bats as well as bush falcon, large numbers of tui and kereru, forest gecko and a range of unusual invertebrates.

Contribution honoured

Marie Taylor grew up in Southland and has a Horticulture degree from Lincoln University and a journalism degree from Canterbury. She worked as a rural journalist for many years until repetitive strain injury (RSI) forced her to stop. After the QII National Trust role, she was living in Bay View and eco-sourcing plants for a steep slope, when she hatched the idea for her business Plant Hawke’s Bay. Since its inception in 2005, she has identified and collected seed from 78 local plant species, and is now in partnership with Rob and Coral Buddo. The business this year will grow 500,000 native HB plants “to enhance our environment”.

Commercial buyers, mainly farmers, will buy up to a 1,000 plants per time.

“Local plant species are adaptive to this environment so it makes sense to grow and sell them for the local market.”

Marie’s approach has earned her numerous accolades: she has twice won “The love of land” section at the NZI Rural Women Business Awards, and is also a winner of the supreme award. In 2020 she was awarded a QSM

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 31

“On the other hand we need to recognise and reward the landowners who are making a positive contribution to protection, and that might encourage more landowners to carry out more protection work.”

for her work eco-sourcing local seed, and last year she won the 2021 Hawke’s Bay Primary Sector Laurie Dowling Memorial Award for her contribution to local agriculture. “Her knowledge and experience are incredibly valued by rural Hawke’s Bay,” said the judges.

It is a damp, grey winter’s day when I pull up at Plant Hawke’s Bay’s 11-hectare nursery in Omarunui Road in Taradale. Marie is waiting near the entrance to greet me. I follow her through a large shed, pausing as she explains how one of the company’s state-of-the-art automatic potting machines works. Her office is in the tearoom and as we sit down, workers gather up cups and plates from lunch and slowly leave. A couple pause to ask Marie a question on their way out.

As we talk, I am curious as to why she doesn’t have a better office. I don’t ask the question of her, but as soon as we leave the computer behind and walk out into the nursery, I get it. “I love being out here when I can,” she says. “Let’s go and look at some plants.”

Seed gatherer

Our first stop is a group of about 25 thriving kākābeak – Marie’s personal

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favourite, and featured in fulsome red on her business card.

Kākābeak naturally occur in the wild from Shine Falls near Lake Tutira up to the East Cape. With its bright-red flowers shaped like a parrot’s beak, kākābeak (also called ngutukākā), is one of New Zealand’s most critically endangered species.

“There’s only 108 kākābeak populations left in the wild and that’s very worrying,” says Marie. “It puts it on a par with kakapo [our rare, nocturnal flightless parrot] in terms of our threatened species.” Earlier we had looked at a map on her computer showing the distribution of the 108 species.

A member of the kowhai family, kākābeak are good for our environment. They are legumes and are high in nitrogen. They are also a source of food for native birds and their seed pods were once a source of food for early Māori.

Marie is helping other local efforts to save kākābeak by growing plants from seed or cuttings and propagating them.

“We‘ll take cuttings from each of these,” she says as we walk. “We won’t collect the seeds here though as they are growing close together and could crossbreed.”

Marie has a ‘Seed Collecting’ permit from DoC and says her favourite thing to do is gather seed “because it’s peaceful.

“You have to be out there looking all the time,” she adds. “And you have to be careful about where you get your seed from and make sure it is from the source. Mostly I collect directly off a tree, or seeds from the ground underneath a tree, otherwise I collect leaf litter, in which case it is a mystery and you have to wait for things to germinate. That’s part of the magic!”

As we leave the kākābeak and walk through the nursery she points out plants: “That’s ribbonwood grown from seed collected from Central Hawke’s Bay, and that’s manuka from Hawke’s Bay and this is whau – which is good fun to grow. “She touches the expansive green leaf. It’s common in other places but not Hawke’s Bay.” The Hawke’s Bay whau looks exactly like whau I have seen in Auckland.

“Some species are significantly different from region to region and some are very similar,” Marie tells me. “A good example would be Pittosporum tennuifolium which varies considerably around NZ.” We stop at a brown fuzzy looking tussock plant. “Feel this,” she says bending down and touching the grass.

It feels sturdy as I run my fingers slowly through it.

“This is Hawke’s Bay Carex comans and it has a good story. In fact every plant has a good story,” she says. “I was out seed collecting up on Te Waka Range past Patoka when I found the Carex. I was with a friend and we took a whole plant and brought it back to the nursery and got it identified. I like the challenge of growing this now and getting it back out into the landscape.”

Another good story is Pimelea mimosa – found only on Te Mata Peak.

“When I was working for the QEII National Trust one of my colleagues in

Wellington had some Pimelea plants (a bluey-green sand daphne with white flowers) in her garden. She used to work in rare and endangered plants at Percy Reserve in Petone and the Pimelea Mimosa had been collected from Te Mata Peak in the 1970s by Norman Elder, [a teacher at Hereworth and skilled botanist] and grown at the reserve.”

Marie’s colleague sent her 400 seeds and with help from the local Friends of Te Mata Peak and its founder Mike Lusk, the Pimelea were planted on a number of sites, including at Giant’s head and the peak’s highest cliff systems, in the mid-2000s.

“They needed full sun, but it was a terrible summer that year and 200 died,” remembers Marie.

The story has a happy ending though: the other two hundred Pimelea Mimosa survived and are thriving on the peak today and flowering almost all year round. Some are very easy to find, growing just below the main carpark and adjacent to the Rongoa Garden.

“I was out seed collecting up on Te Waka Range past Patoka when I found the Carex.

I was with a friend and we took a whole plant and brought it back to the nursery and got it identified. I like the challenge of growing this now and getting it back out into the landscape.”

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 33

“It’s exciting because Te Mata peak is the only place in the world the Pimelea Mimosa is found growing naturally,” says Mike Lusk. Eventually he hopes educational signage will inform visitors about the Pimelea and other HB natives that have been planted – many supplied by Marie’s business. “She grows beautiful plants,” he adds.

Another of Marie’s plant stories and perhaps one even more intriguing is about Te Taha, colloquially known as the Gap at Westshore – “a cool little project that probably challenges people’s views of what natives are like”.

The Gap – the size of ten house sites – is a protected zone that forms part of the airport’s cross runway, established in the 1960’s and owned by Napier City and Hastings District Councils.

Restrictions on the height of buildings and plants on the prime waterfront site has meant it has been left to its own devices. Ironically it’s because it hasn’t been touched for so long, that the 8000m2 plot is now identified by the Napier City Council as a Significant Natural Area (SNA) and referred to officially as ‘Esplanade Herbfield’.

One day Marie was walking on the coast, probably with her seed collecting and ecologist eyes firmly on, when

34 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

“Even though the Hawke’s Bay landscape has been given a pretty severe beating in the last 180 years by farmers, engineers and pests, it still contains lots of clues to how we can look after it better.” she found among exotic species like the yellow ghanzia daisy and ubiquitous agapantha, one of New Zealand’s nationally vulnerable coastal plant species Pimelea Xenica clinging to life on the barren landscape.

“Most of our coastline, particularly in Hawke’s Bay has been modified by housing, engineering, damaged by quad bikes and vehicles, stock and feral animals,” says Marie. “This is a rare chance to restore a shingle ecosystem.”

She took the Pimelea Xenica seeds home and began growing plants from seed. Now Biodiversity Hawke’s Bay, Te Taiwhenua o Te Whanganui ā Orotu, Napier and Hastings councils, Westshore locals plus others have got behind the project to develop The Gap’s unique biodiversity. As well as the Pimelea Xenica, Marie is growing extremely rare coastal natives for

the site, such as nationally threatened Muehlenbeckia ephedroides (Leafless pohuehue), and the “at risk” Coprosma acerosa (Sand Coprosma).

Charles Daugherty, Chair of the Biodiversity Hawke’s Bay Trust and long-time conservationist, says Marie is a local treasure playing a unique and essential role in ecological restoration in HB. “Many people have directly benefitted from her work.”

He says we have national and international obligations to care for our species and if we value the real ecological restoration of our HB landscape and its history, then eco-sourcing is critical.

“We need to use eco-sourced plants because these are the seeds best genetically adapted to HB. Marie is the ‘go to’ person for this. She knows which plants belong where and she is knowledgeable and committed to getting it right.”

Eco-sourcing is not for amateurs, he adds. The identities of plants can be quite difficult. For example something like kanuka may look the same across a large landscape but it may be made up of many genetically different species.

“Eco-sourcing is the foundational element of ecological restoration.

Otherwise it’s just another form of planting.”

Protecting habitat

As Marie and I finish our tour of Plant Hawke’s Bay’s nursery, our conversation winds back to protecting habitat.

“You need scale to solve problems,” she says. “You have to produce plants at scale. That’s my driver here. My clients are mostly farmers. They might be doing riparian stuff or they might be taking out pine trees and replacing them with natives.

“But no,” she says, “I don’t think we should be getting rid of all our Pinus radiata blocks. A good landscape needs a mix of everything and we could do with a lot more pine trees in our landscape. If you have 10 or 15 per cent in pines you have a succession plan. This conflict between pine trees and everything else is manufactured, I think, basically by people who don’t like pine trees.”

Marie suggests HB would benefit enormously from having a crowd-funding website where people can put their money into high ecological-value projects. “I’d really like to see this. A way for people to contribute.

We need enduring long-term results.

“I like to take the 100-year view of a project and think about how we want the landscape to look in the future.

What should it be like; what could it be like; how do we plan for that to happen?

“Even though the Hawke’s Bay landscape has been given a pretty severe beating in the last 180 years by farmers, engineers and pests, it still contains lots of clues to how we can look after it better.

“In a forest if we want to create really good habitat working at every level, we first plant primary species that are tough and hardy, and then you go back and put in the longer-term species like titoki, podocarp and other

broadleaf species. If you plant a titoki at the start, it will be beaten up by the wind and sun. When hardy plants are as big as a person that’s when you put in the special plants and create a permanent canopy in the forest and feed birds over a long period.

“So it takes a bit of time. There are clues in the landscape and we know the kinds of plants that should be going back but they won’t survive if they’re not fenced.

“One of my things is that with eco-sourcing we don’t want HB landscapes to look like the rest of the country. They’re quite different so we need to respect our landscape by augmenting it in a respectful way, by eco-sourcing its native plants and trees. And we need to get more of our local species back into the landscape because it is pretty skinned out. We have a lovely suite of plants and we should be using them more.

“And we need to protect habitat.

What’s the price of losing a species?

How do we price that?

“Every species we have here in Hawke’s Bay deserves our respect.”

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REDA or not?

Will a new agency spur Hawke’s Bay’s regional economic development?

Tom Belford

It seems like every quarter there’s another ‘report card’ indicating how robust Hawke’s Bay’s economy is in the overall New Zealand scheme. We’re always in the higher performing group, at times the top provincial economy.

The latest from Infometrics reports that Hawke’s Bay, at 8.7%, has enjoyed the greatest growth from pre-pandemic levels of any region. “Strong levels of primary sector production have elevated spending levels and boosted employment activity across regions,” said Infometrics.

Each such report is followed by a media release from one or another of our councils, proudly boasting about our economic success.

But at the same time, Farmers Weekly cover headlined that three of NZ’s leading export sectors – kiwifruit, apples and sheep & beef had lost an estimated $400 million in revenue in the past year due to labour shortages and sickness. Hawke’s Bay suffered its share of that loss.

What to believe?!

Our councils believe the region needs a regional economic development agency (REDA) and last December announced collectively contributing $1.7 million to establishing one. This action followed a comprehensive review of local government investment in business and industry support across Hawke’s Bay. The review recommended these priority activities for ratepayer investment:

• HB Business Hub; • Programme Management support for Matariki Regional Development Strategy; • Industry and sector development (the Food Industry Programme, the Technology Programme and an additional sector development initiative); • Investment and talent attraction; • HB brand strategy and activation; • Coordination of skills and employment initiatives; • Provision of funding to support a ‘by Māori for Māori’ approach to regional economic development; • Additional funding for SME and start-up support – if funding allows and a clear gap or need is identified, but delivered by other providers.

Our councils’ announcement claimed: “The review highlighted a range of inefficiencies with the current system and a clear opportunity to do better to meet the region’s needs and potential. The platform will also present a strong and united voice and vision to external investors, talent and Central Government.”

BayBuzz applauded, as we do with all such regional consolidation, but in view of several failed past efforts to create a regional economic driver, asked these questions: • What is the actual governance structure and representation? The statement said: “an independent entity governed equally between business, iwi/hapū and local government”.

• Does this $1.7 million annually replace what councils already spend on ‘economic development’? And if not – as is likely – what related spending and ‘ED’ programmes remain at the discretion of individual councils?

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 37

Employment by industry • Showing top ten industries for Hawke’s Bay • Data as of 2018 5,700 employees Including 260 self-employed

Fruit and tree nut growing

4,000 employees Including 20 self employed

School education

3,970 employees Including 310 self-employed

Agriculture and fishing support services

3,550 employees Including 360 self-employed

Cafes, restaurants and takeaway foods

3,060 employees Including 20 self-employed

Meat and meat product manufacturing

2,750 employees Including 0 self-employed

Hospitals

2,380 employees Including 920 self-employed

Sheep, beef cattle and grain farming

2,340 employees Including 130 self-employed

Supermarket and grocery stores

Wage and salaried Residential care services Employment services Number of people 0 employed

As it stands, the funding allocation is 29% from each of HBRC, HDC and NCC, 8% from CHBDC and 4% from WDC. According to then regional development manager Sarah Tully, “The existing joint economic development funding across the five councils (totalling circa $500k) will be going towards the entity. Each council’s individual economic development funding or activity will be an area for each council to address and comment on further.”

• Related to that, what will the agency itself actually do? The media statement is long on ‘one voice’ and collaborative rhetoric, but notably devoid of any programmatic detail.

• Will the other ‘partners’ – iwi and business – ever put any cash up? Or are they just on board to spend ratepayer money?

38 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

2,260 employees Including 20 self-employed Self-employed

2,160 employees Including 90 self-employed 2000

4000

The REDA was to be in place by this past July, but is languishing on the design table. Perhaps because answering these questions – particularly the balancing of purely economic goals against social objectives – are thornier than expected.

So, does Hawke’s Bay need a REDA? What would it do? And what’s the delay?

What is economic development?

Perhaps the most meaningful and truest measure of ‘economic development’ is job creation … but not just any jobs, but rather well-paying jobs in environmentally sustainable business activities generating valuable products and services that will carry us into a resilient prosperous future. To anyone informed on the issues, that is a very

6000

8000

‘packed’ sentence.

Nevertheless, that’s the goal our REDA would seek to foster, within increasingly demanding environmental and social norms.

But apart from the public sector workforce itself – at 10,000 plus workers, about 11% of HB’s workforce, providing effectively a permanent, relatively well-paid base – it is private businesses that create jobs. And the most expansionist of those businesses are aimed at markets and consumers far beyond Hawke’s Bay. Each of those businesses makes its growth plans based entirely on its own needs, capabilities and opportunities … a ‘regional plan’ created by bureaucrats is largely irrelevant to their decision-making.

How then does local government

Perhaps the most meaningful and truest measure of ‘economic development’ is job creation … but not just any jobs, but rather well-paying jobs in environmentally sustainable business activities generating valuable products and services that will carry us into a resilient prosperous future.

and a REDA fit in?

For businesses that grow or manufacture ‘things’, mainly by making available land and physical infrastructure (e.g., transport, water, waste disposal) and issuing the consents involved in an efficient manner.

The fact that we have five councils involved in such decisions is not helpful. However, with REDA, the individual councils will still hold that decision-making power. So no gain there.

Nor will having a REDA remove the underlying contentious issues … like who ‘gets’ the finite land (and water) – agriculture, industry, housing; growth versus sustainability trade-offs; and funding public infrastructure at an acceptable pace. Arguments around all of these issues will persist. REDA is just another, possibly helpful, venue to have them.

If our REDA is truly facing the future, the job growth it would seek to somehow promote must address the issue of sustainability and resilience. What jobs do we now have that might be jeopardised by future trends, what opportunities cannot be fully captured by our existing workforce and infrastructure, and what new opportunities might those trends create?

However looking into the future in that manner suggests – in over-simplified terms – picking winners and losers … not in terms of individual companies, but certainly in terms of sectors and types of economic activity. Where can our region most safely and proactively try to head in the future? And we are politically loathe to have ‘bureaucrats’ do that. But if not them, who?

We – planet, nation, region – can

no longer operate as a mob of free agents. Climate change is driving the spike through that heart, although other pro-social goals would require the same.

What’s a poor REDA to do? Try to plan for our greater good for the future and use moral suasion to urge councils and businesses in that direction.

Today’s regional job profile

Looking at HB’s present job line up, the graph (on facing page) shows the “Top 10” industries making up 35% of the region’s 92,000 person workforce.

Arguably this profiling (and predicting of future need) is the very first job the REDA must undertake far more rigorously than it has been to date. The latest MBIE data cited here is from 2018.

A new player on the scene aims to fill some of the region’s workforce needs, the Hawke’s Bay Regional Skills Leadership Group (RSLG). Just launched in July, the RSLG is focused on two immediate projects – providing driver training for Wairoa teens (not having a driver’s permit is a key barrier for young job aspirants) and filling a special need to fill entry level jobs in the disability care sector.

Looking to the future, the RSLG will focus on these areas – training for jobs in the primary (initially horticulture and meat processing) and construction sectors, supporting wāhine Māori to transition into sustainable employment, providing career advice to young people (rangatahi) and providing them with ‘work ready’ life skills.

Note that this initiative, hugely important, is about filling jobs, not creating them.

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Agbiz growth

And indeed in our agriculture sector, at present and near term, the problem is not creating jobs, it’s filling them. By now, we’re all familiar with the region’s ongoing migrant/seasonal worker shortage (comprising about 7% of our workforce); a bit less familiar with shortages of Halal butchers, other meatworkers, packhouse workers and right up the chain to orchard and farm supervisors and managers.

According to Silver Fern Farms chief executive Simon Limmer, “Competition for labour was and will be for the foreseeable future an issue for the whole primary sector.”

Other than sharpening our understanding of the labour need, it’s not clear that our REDA will have any tools to resolve these shortages. Those

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“Having the Bay on people’s radars for the right reasons makes it a lot easier to attract the skilled people we need from Auckland, Wellington and further afield. It also increases the likelihood that more founders and leadership teams will consider making the move for their businesses and families.”

JEREMY HUNT FINGERMARK HEAD OF STRATEGY

are ultimately matters for our MPs to address through immigration and other policies.

Meantime, more agriculture growth is predicted, with orchardists’ demand outstripping the trees to plant. Are they simply ‘growing’ our ‘rotten apples on the ground’ problem?

Yet an ambitious company like Rockit forges ahead successfully, at some point growing more apples outside the region than within. Its production and marketing strategy is international in scope. Rockit told BayBuzz, “We have 165 permanent staff in Hawke’s Bay (as at the end of July), compared with 127 in July 2021.”

40 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

That’s 30% growth and the new roles are technical, marketing, managing. All Rockit has needed from council (HDC) was consent for its new packhouse and office HQ (Te Ipu).

What a REDA might offer a Rockit is unclear. In a sector where finding technology efficiencies (e.g. use of robotics) and ‘added-value’ is critical to business success, such companies have at hand the business intelligence and access to capital they need to expand.

As at Rockit, Bostock, Scales (owner of Mr Apple), Apatu or Brownrigg each charts its own business development, it has no particular need to ‘fit into’ a regional strategy. So if the REDA’s regional strategy were to envision – in the interests of regional sustainability and resilience – greater diversification toward non-agriculture related technology and IP services, our leading agbiz players would have little stake in it.

Similarly with the individual non-corporate farmers looking to prosper sustainably in the future. Their fate lies in adopting farming and growing practices that are environmentally and financially sustainable. With sector, government and academic players providing that guidance and incentives, this also does not seem to be a likely contribution from the REDA. So, arguably a REDA, which has no

consenting authority (land use, environmental or otherwise), has little or no relevance to our region’s largest economic sector.

Moreover, it already has a potential competitor waiting to launch (but also delayed, scaled back, and with no identified users), Foodeast, which received $12 million from the Provincial Growth Fund amidst claims it would potentially create 500 jobs and add $100 million to the regional economy in the next fifteen years. More than a glorified meeting café? BayBuzz will be following.

If HB agbiz is not a major beneficiary of the REDA, let’s look then at the other end of the spectrum, HB companies looking to thrive and grow in the non-agriculture technology and IP space.

Greater diversity?

According to a TechNZ report, there are around 500 firms in the region’s tech sector, with about 240 members in a network called H-Tech Hawke’s Bay. Most of these companies are much less known to the general public than our food producing giants.

For example, how many drivers routinely circle one of the main roundabouts into Havelock North and wonder, ‘What is that company?’ No, not

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“We have had to set up a second office in Christchurch as there simply hasn’t been the talent pool in Hawke’s Bay to fill vacancies. On any given day over the last 18 months we’d have circa ten vacant positions.”

HAMISH WHITE NOW CEO

McDonald’s; I mean Fingermark.

Fingermark, a digital signage, touchscreen, user interface, and vision intelligence company, got started in Havelock North in 2016, when founder Luke Irving moved his family and the company’s Parnell-based staff of eleven here, a lifestyle choice. The company services some of the world’s best known brands, from food services like KFC, Starbucks and McDonald’s as well as providing remote monitoring systems for employee safety in mining and industrial environments.

Fingermark recently tipped over the 100 employee mark with around 60 in Havelock North, and has often recruited overseas. And Fingermark’s Jeremy Hunt notes, “Over half of our team are in technology/developer roles

so salary levels reflect those in-demand skills” adding that across the company no employees would be earning less than NZ’s median wage.

With high-skilled staff so critical, Hunt believes that “Local government as a whole has a role to play in contributing to Hawke’s Bay being perceived as a desirable place for people to live, work and play. Having the Bay on people’s radars for the right reasons makes it a lot easier to attract the skilled people we need from Auckland, Wellington and further afield. It also increases the likelihood that more founders and leadership teams will consider making the move for their businesses and families.”

Asked how valuable a REDA might be in growing the HB economy, Hunt replied, “Probably marginal but I’d love to be proved wrong.”

In earlier interviews with BayBuzz, founder Irving lamented that councils did not do more to attract businesses to the Bay. “You have to have a scheme and strategy; to be brave and go into the cities and say we want your business in Hawke’s Bay and this is what we’re going to give you as an incentive … They’re not providing the support or incentives … businesses don’t just move here off their own bat.”

These days, Irving is more apt to

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Moreover, it already has a potential competitor waiting to launch (but also delayed, scaled back, and with no identified users), Foodeast, which received $12 million from the Provincial Growth Fund amidst claims it would potentially create 500 jobs and add $100 million to the regional economy in the next fifteen years.

put his energy behind Innovate HB, whose aim is to surface and mentor new entrepreneurs in the region.

He describes it as “a tight network of entrepreneurs, mentors and investors within the central region like never before.”

Probably better known around Hawke’s Bay is technology veteran NOW, whose ancestry in the Bay traces back nearly 20 years.

NOW CEO Hamish White told BayBuzz that the business has grown 120% over the past five years, adding, “Albeit that much of the growth is from outside Hawke’s Bay, what gives me the greatest pride is that this growth creates jobs here in Hawke’s Bay. The number of employees have grown from 40 to 78, with the vast majority of these in Hawke’s Bay. By 2028 we will have around 140 employees.”

White is a bit kinder to our local councils than Irving, probably in part because he does business with them.

As for a REDA, White is clear about what his sector might find useful. First is a focus on “our weightless scalable economy … Agriculture and horticulture are very important, but are not infinitely scalable. Training and development of industry specific skills would be hugely beneficial for the tech sector, including Call Centre capability.” He notes, ‘We have had to set up a second office in Christchurch as there

42 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

simply hasn’t been the talent pool in Hawke’s Bay to fill vacancies. On any given day over the last 18 months we’d have circa ten vacant positions.”

He also comments on the cost of doing business outside the Bay for HB companies. “Having a Regional ‘Korustyled’ business facility in central Auckland and Wellington, where we don’t have our own offices, would be of significant value to the many businesses like NOW who do business in the larger centres – our people spend many an hour between meetings sitting in cafes in downtown Auckland drinking coffee.” He sees this underwritten by local government, but with self-funding through a membership programme.

What does he not want from an REDA? “Though not impossible, the pursuit of attracting businesses to relocate is a waste of resource in my opinion. We need to look after and grow what we’ve got, rather than take it as a given that Hawke’s Bay based businesses will stay domiciled here.”

An early pioneer in the regional economic development endeavor was Murray Douglas, then chief executive of the HB Chamber of Commerce and now owner-operator of Te Mata Figs.

Douglas was an original driver of Business Hawke’s Bay, created in 2011 and buried in 2021 when councils declined further funding in favour of setting up the new REDA. As he recounts, its purposes were to: act as a single point of contact for government in dealing with HB on business matters (and vice versa); provide guidance to start-ups, including business training for new entrepreneurs; provide regional economic data and linkages to possibly supportive local companies; coordinate ‘regional projects’ – nowadays zero carbon, transport, Covid response; and advocacy on long-term economic planning.

And further: attempt to coordinate the economic staffs and activities of the councils. Douglas notes that this failed: “It failed in that often irrespective of the staff willingness, their parent groups may have had other agendas that militated against co-operation.”

His assessment: “I would still see all of the above as relevant.” He would eliminate the councils’ existing economic development units “as this will continue to offer the confusion and distraction that frustrated Business HB” and encourage parochial initiatives.

Where does the REDA sit?

Stalled.The original target to establish the REDA was 1 July. But according to HBRC staffer Michael Bassett-Foss, who hands-on directs the establishment process: “In response to discussion between the three parties involved in setting up the REDA, councils agreed to relax the 1 July start/ transition date to allow a more staged transition to developing the structure and governance arrangements for the new entity.

This is a more pragmatic and positive approach and we expect to have a fully formed company and REDA board appointed before the latter part of this year.”

BayBuzz hears that disagreement amongst the three parties – councils, business, iwi – has stalled the process.

Not a good sign for an entity that is supposed to energise regional development with unity of voice and vision.

However, interviewed by BayBuzz, HDC chief executive Nigel Bickle, who’s overseeing the establishment process in his role as chair of the councils’ chief executive group, insists that REDA will be created and have its paid Board in place before year’s end.

Bassett-Foss says: “(REDA) will be a partnership model between business, iwi/hapu and local government, with the sole purpose of supporting growth and productivity across our regional economy.”

So, is business on board? “Business is actively involved in the establishment of the REDA with a nominated representative as part of the REDA Establishment Group and the Board Appointments Panel,” says Bassett-Foss.

However when BayBuzz approached that representative, Brendan O’Sullivan, to address REDA issues, he was too busy, sending a brief reassuring ‘rah, rah’ email instead. Actually probably a good indicator of the general lack of business enthusiasm we’ve found for this undertaking … and a fundamental reason past efforts have failed.

Is a REDA worth the candle? Early optimist Murray Douglas once said: “We’ve got to be like a centipede walking on every leg we can find.”

True, but will the REDA contribute much to that? Nigel Bickle says, “Yes, but we’ll need to see the proof in the pudding.” Or is that custard? I tend toward Jeremy Hunt’s view: “Probably marginal but I’d love to be proved wrong.”

Subscribe to the best thinking in the Bay. 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 Christmas markets, Mel Lewis soon realised she had to take her business to the next level if she was going to compete with a growing number of competitors in the personal care space.

The new business was over a year in the planning. “My customers had told me the products they wanted to be using, but I didn’t have the technical skills to create them.” Through the Hawke’s Bay Business Hub, she applied for, and won, a Callaghan Innovation R&D grant at the start of 2019. That financial support enabled her to work with a leading product formulator to bring her ideas to fruition.

Ultrella Natural Deodorant is the first deodorant in NZ and Australia (“and the whole world, as far as we know”) to be able to reduce sweating naturally. The hero ingredient is a natural Botox alternative called IBR-Snowflake®, a plant extract made from Summer Snowflake bulbs.

This ingredient has been clinically proven to reduce sweating by 36% ... up until now you’ve had to use an antiperspirant to get results like this.

Ultrella was launched the Friday before lockdown. “It was a completely surreal day,” says Mel. “I very nearly didn’t go ahead, but then I kept thinking, ‘If I don’t do it now, when will I do it? There’s never a perfect time to launch a business, so I just leapt in and went for it.”

Prior to lockdown, she had been in negotiations with four major NZ retailers, but those conversations halted immediately. In this instance, being small worked in her favour, quickly pivoting to focus

entirely on online sales. Fortunately, Ultrella already had an online store, built by Aimee Stewart’s team at Connect Plus.

“When it looked like we were going into lockdown, I made a dash up to our warehouse in Napier, and loaded up my car with as many boxes of products as I could fit in so we could dispatch from home if required. It was such a lucky move.”

There were a couple of nervous weeks as Mel waited to find out if Ultrella was included on the MBIE’s register for Essential Goods. Once that was established, Ultrella was good to go.

“Having the population at home, spending a lot of time online, actually worked in our favour during those first few weeks. It gave us a chance to connect with potential customers and educate people about our ethos and our products.”

The groundswell of ‘buy New Zealand’ made sentiment on social media, and in particular the now 500,000 strong New Zealand Made Products Facebook page, provided a huge kick-start for Ultrella. The response to one unsponsored post on that Facebook page was “mental”, says Mel, “I had over 1,000 comments and questions to respond to. It took me days to go back to everyone. I posted on the Saturday night.

By Sunday lunchtime it was obvious we were going to run out of courier supplies.

It was really stressful trying to get more down from Auckland. The support from other local businesses was incredible.” Mel put out a call for help and Steve Christie from Blackroll NZ, Tom Ormond from Hawthorne Coffee, Nathan from Blackbird Goods and Shaz and Garon from Ecokiosk were among the

Ultrella founder, Mel Lewis. Photo: Florence Charvin JULY/AUGUST 2020 • BAYBUZZ • 23

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IDEAS + OPINION PAUL PAYNTER

Attention candidates: Say ‘No!’ Our house is flooded. My insurance company referred to it as ‘a leak’, but it was more like a horizontal geyser. A ferocious jet of water drilled through a wall and shot 3 metres across the room for perhaps a month. A sodden, squelchy, mouldy mess greeted us on our return home from abroad.

The clean-up is a somber affair as personal effects are examined and mostly thrown into the skip. ‘They’re just things’ I tell myself, but there are strange, emotional reactions to their loss. I feel a pang of grief as I discard a tie I bought in London 20 years ago and wouldn’t wear again anyway. Similarly, the split and soggy album covers.

Some of the indie music of my adolescence feels like part of my soul; some just a youthful error of judgement.

Even the undamaged items contain much that I’ll drop off at the Sallie’s.

All this has been a useful process in working out what is important. It strikes me as a question that needs to be asked in so many domains.

The upcoming local body elections are a chance for candidates and councils to debate what is important and perhaps even to listen to their constituency. I usually get to talk to a few candidates in the lead up to the election and it’s interesting to get a sense of their motivations and priorities.

While many local body entities seem to have struggled to find candidates this year, we don’t seem to have that problem locally where an entertaining campaign lies ahead. In my Hastings electorate there are 14 candidates for 7 vacancies, in Flaxmere 4 candidates for one vacancy and in the Takitimu Māori Ward 7 candidates for 3 vacancies. I feared Napier City would struggle to attract candidates, given the staffing and culture issues that they are struggling with, but for the mayoralty and in every ward, they have more candidates than vacancies.

44 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

The upcoming local body elections are a chance for candidates and councils to debate what is important and perhaps even to listen to their constituency.

Democracy is alive and well in Hawke’s Bay. The abundance of candidates means that many of them will not be successful. It takes courage to stand for council and contestable elections make our democracy work, so we should be grateful to all the candidates. But what will they do, once elected?

Local Government NZ is one place where councils might seek some leadership, but reports from their recent conference were not encouraging.

There seemed to be much discussion about diversity, inclusivity, youth, iwi, and climate change.

All these things may be important, but perhaps not as much as finding a solution for people that are sleeping in the park. Historically the homeless were almost always burdened by mental health or addiction problems, but that is no longer the case. Housing and healthcare are more important than anything else right now, but LGNZ seem not to see it as a priority.

Curiously LGNZ seem not to even want a functioning democracy. The $1500 a pop conference was promoted as including the private sector and non-government agencies, but they then proceeded to reject the registration of the Taxpayers Union and the Auckland Ratepayers Alliance. An inclusive democracy needs to include elements of society that disagree with you so that you can ‘challenge and be challenged’ as the event website suggests. Ultimately

the conference had no representation from ratepayer groups.

Both HDC and NCC have made some progress on the housing front, but they’d admit it’s not enough to solve the problem. I suspect Hastings CEO, Nigel Bickle has been working his Wellington contacts to get homes built, for which he deserves credit.

Housing has mostly been the domain of central government, but ultimately our councils have an obligation to the community to act where they see a desperate need and have been working with Kāinga Ora to do so. [Editor: BayBuzz will report in detail on this in our next edition.]

The other area that is in serious trouble is healthcare; particularly mental health. Regrettably the closed border policy has deprived us of many skilled workers. The government is in the process of revolutionizing our healthcare sector and why you’d do that during a staff crisis and global pandemic is beyond me.

Even though we’re seeing the demise of the DHBs I still think that councils should get involved in trying to attract and retain healthcare staff. The mental health crisis is extremely serious and it’s difficult to secure treatment for patients beyond pharmaceuticals. It’s not the hospitals’ fault. Their staff are overworked, stressed and many have resigned to seek better work conditions in the private sector.

As our economy cools, stresses will increase. I’ve heard many people already saying they cannot service the doubling of interest rates they’ve experienced. The demand for mental health services will continue to rise and the crisis will deepen unless urgent action is taken.

Perhaps the most important thing councils can do is to have focus. Their greatest error in the past has been

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to seemingly do anything that is politically popular. It’s time to say ‘No’ to a whole lot of things.

I’m not alone in this thinking. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was regularly quoted as saying a key reason for his success with the company was his ability to say ‘No’ to many good ideas and to prioritise carefully. Similarly, billionaire Warren Buffett reportedly once said, “The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say ‘No’ to almost everything.

I look at projects like the Opera House redevelopment and the associated retail stores. All this will look like a good idea in 20 years, but it has been an expensive and ambitious project. The new i-SITE looks like an error of judgement to me. When it was in the centre of town it was much more accessible, while it now looks very quiet to me.

The challenge for local government is that, when you’ve done things for many years, the public are incensed when you stop doing so. Many coun-

cils seem proud to announce that they are ‘keeping rate increases under 10%’, but that figure is too high for most ratepayers.

Our regional economic engine is slowing – the wine industry has had its worst vintage in decades, the apple sector is also having a challenging year, and even the golden child of kiwifruit has hit a banana skin. On top of this a forecast 15% fall in house prices is going to make us feel a whole lot poorer.

A tough term lies ahead for councilors and some hard decisions will need to be made. Councils need to take a hatchet to their budgets and to focus intently on the most crucial issues.

So, I challenge each candidate: Tell us three specific budget cuts you would make.

You do that and I’ll get BayBuzz to publish your response.

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

ALTOGETHER BETTER

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 45

IDEAS + OPINION DOMINIC SALMON

Small businesses can take climate action too

With 50 and 100-year floods seemingly every other week in New Zealand and Australia, unprecedented heat waves in Europe, and freak hailstorms in Mexico, just to name a few recent severe weather events, the impacts of climate change are well and truly being felt around the world.

While governments can set policy and regulation to influence behaviour and citizens can make individual choices about consumption, business has the power to deliver large scale change.

In New Zealand some of the biggest businesses are doing just that

46 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

While governments can set policy and regulation to influence behaviour and citizens can make individual choices about consumption, business has the power to deliver large scale change. through the Climate Leaders Coalition (CLC), the country’s largest alliance of business leaders dedicated to climate action. Collectively, the CLC signatories account for almost 60% of the country’s gross emissions, create

around 38% of GDP, employ more than 220,000 people, and have a combined turnover of $122 billion.

Our 3R Group Chief Executive Adele Rose is a founding signatory and is leading the charge for the Hawke’s Bay as the only signatory headquartered here. However, it’s not a title we are keen on keeping and we would love to see more organisations from the Bay joining the coalition.

We’re also one of the smaller signatories, especially compared with the likes of Spark, Z Energy, Toyota, PWC, The Warehouse Group and Farmlands, to name a few. The list of

Hawke’s Bay is also particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to its large primary industry which relies on stable weather and growing conditions. signatories is impressive and includes some of New Zealand’s biggest telcos, energy providers, banks, insurers, retailers, and construction companies, among others.

That doesn’t mean small businesses should be put off joining though – quite the opposite. The coalition is focussed on offering support for the smaller members.

Most SMEs don’t have the luxury of a sustainability manager, but this is where the collective efforts of the CLC can help – small businesses can benefit from the case studies and work done by larger organisations or from the ideas contributed by other small businesses.

Collectively, SMEs also have a larger role to play in tackling climate change. According to the Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment, over a quarter of all businesses in New Zealand have between one and 50 employees. The collective impact this group can have is substantial.

This is particularly relevant for businesses here in the Bay where the impacts of climate change are plainly obvious, such as the coastal erosion already threatening homes.

Hawke’s Bay is also particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change due to its large primary industry which relies on stable weather and growing conditions. This makes us particularly sensitive to extremes such as longer, hotter and drier summers followed by flooding in the winter – a repeated combination of which would be devastating to an area where agriculture is the backbone of the economy.

However, action on climate change isn’t just about preventing the worst.

Transitioning to a low-emissions, low-waste business model brings efficiencies, innovation and an increased social licence to operate. Consumers, particularly younger generations, expect the brands they interact with to be doing more to improve sustainability and take action on climate change.

Consider that using energy and resources more efficiently results in low-

er costs, and that thinking long-term and identifying your climate risks will make your business more resilient.

This is all good business practice and, with the support of CLC members, it’s achievable.

After all, businesses adapting, innovating and changing the way they operate in response to the world around them is nothing new – we just have to look at it through the lens of climate change.

The CLC has been running since 2018 with Spark CEO Jolie Hodson recently taking over as Convenor after Z Energy CEO Mike Bennetts stepped down. The coalition has steadily built on the goals it sets out for signatories around reducing emissions, increasing transparency, supporting stakeholders, and embedding action on climate change into ‘business as usual’.

Small businesses can benefit from the case studies and work done by larger organisations or from the ideas contributed by other small businesses.

In June this year the coalition released its new Statement of Ambition, which aligns its goals with international best-practice, science-based emission reduction targets.

As Jolie pointed out when talking about the new targets, each signatory faces different challenges in meeting the goals. However, the CLC is committed to supporting all signatories through initiatives like monthly masterclasses, business-to-business mentoring and by sharing best practice.

Tackling climate change is a shared responsibility of all of us, with business having to do some heavy lifting – none of which can be achieved alone.

Luckily, we have a growing group of large and powerful businesses and organisations which are taking steps to fight climate change. I encourage you to join us.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 47

IDEAS + OPINION DAVID TRUBRIDGE

To decolonise The Problem: climate crisis, mass extinctions, environment degradation, war, refugees.

The Cause: capitalism, the power of business over elected governments, the drive for profit for a few over the rights of many. Government efforts at tackling The Problem have been stymied at every turn by big business with opposing vested interests.

The Solution: Decolonisation.

I am sure that many people have the idea that colonisation was something that happened in the 18th and 19th centuries and that we have moved on from there.

We need to admit the extent to which we are still colonised. And I don’t think many people do. Which leads to a rather superficial idea of what decolonisation means.

Colonisation is not just strutting Europeans in pith helmets out to exploit new lands. It is a state of mind, a very insidious one that persists strongly today. Embedded in it is the attitude that nature is there for us to exploit – that we are the apex creatures who are separate from nature, that we have been given ‘dominion’ over nature.

Also inherent in colonialism are patriarchy and racism, which are both still rampant today. Our minds remain colonised by a distant European sense of entitlement. I am able to write this because I know it: I was brought up in Britain in the 50s and 60s. I was a product of the private school system which was designed to indoctrinate us with a sense of privilege and superiority. Somehow I escaped and have Aotearoa’s biculturalism to thank for opening my eyes.

Colonisation and capitalism are one and the same thing. Capitalism is the weapon used against nature.

Capitalism is the army of shock troops who have no moral code, who only act out their pre-programmed

48 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Colonisation is not just strutting Europeans in pith helmets out to exploit new lands. It is a state of mind, a very insidious one that persists strongly today. orders to exploit to the limit, then move on. As long as capitalism remains, so will the colonial mindset.

To be sure, the colonial/capitalist model has brought prosperity to many, though by no means all. But now it has gone too far and is failing to respond to the current crises. And I would say that it is no longer politically and philosophically tenable.

Colonialism has many ramifications, many radical outcomes, but I would like to focus on just one implication: land.

As Māori say, I am the land and the land is me. Land is the basis for everything. The Green Party is discussing how colonialism severed Māori connection to land and how they want to redress this by returning some land.

But they are missing the point: colonialism severed contact for everyone.

The issue is not just about giving land and connection back to Māori (though that is the most important one), it is doing that for everyone. The climate crisis demands it.

As long as we think we are separate and treat nature as a resource to exploit, then we are doomed. But humans have not always lived like this. And many indigenous cultures still don’t. So I think it is important to look to them for an older, more resilient model.

As I understand it, pre-colonial cultures like Māori did not own land, they belonged to it. Tribal groups had ‘mana’ or authority over their rohe, but within that area different smaller groups (hapū or whānau) had often

overlapping rights to different areas, depending on their activity. Some would also move between different areas seasonally. With resource collection rights came responsibilities, kaitiakitanga: because we are the land, so we have to look after it and hence our ongoing security. To maintain their rights they had to exercise ahi kā, continuous occupation, keeping the home fires burning. This ensured that no person or family claimed more than their share, or more than they needed.

Land ownership with title deeds and fences came here on a ship from Europe as a weapon of colonisation.

And it was not that old in Europe either. A few hundred years ago people used to build their own cottage, often in a village, but they grazed common land outside the village which no one owned. Until, that is, the rich passed a law that anyone who fenced land would then own it. Of course, only the rich could afford the fencing which was probably carried out with the labour of the farmers, denying themselves their own grazing and cropping.

It is also important to note that land in those days was meaningless if you could not travel to and from it within a day. So farming plots were all ringed around villages. Small and sustainable.

This, for me, is a good starting model for the future. Food, water and energy security are basic human needs and rights. There is no way they should be controlled by market forces. Germany suddenly woke up to this fact very recently when it discovered that its enormous reserve tanks of gas happened to be nearly empty – why? Because they are owned by Russian gas companies!

We can only approach sustainability and carbon zero if we ditch the market model of energy and foodstuffs being shipped around the world. They do not need to be – we can grow all we need here and most of it can be done

right next to our towns and villages.

Similarly with energy. Putin’s threat would have been immeasurably reduced if the west had not relied on Russia for so much of its fossil derived energy, which has also paid for his war effort. Renewables can all be local – you don’t need filthy oil tankers plying the sea and roads, making us dependent on amoral companies.

But I want to come back to land.

In a post-colonial world how can anyone own land? By this I do not mean the herbaceous borders around your house, but all the rest, including productive farming land. As Davids Wengrow and Graeber say in The Dawn of Everything, “‘Landed property’ is not actual soil, rocks and grass. It is a legal understanding, maintained by a subtle mix of morality and the threat of violence.” Or as Mao put it more bluntly, “Property, like political power, ultimately derives from the barrel of a gun”.

How can we embrace indigenous principles today to create a better relationship with nature and land, and hence tackle current crises?

If we are serious about moving on from colonialism, then we need to address the problem of land ownership. In a post-colonial world, no-one

should be able to own rocks, mountains, lakes, rivers, forests, thus excluding others. Nor should they own the source of our basic needs. We all have a right to be nourished by land and we all have a right to land’s life support systems like food and water.

I would go even further and say no-one should own land if they can’t demonstrate ahi kā. So goodbye corporations, absent landowners and other exploiters who have no incentive to practise kaitiakitanga. Goodbye fences with ‘Keep out’ and ‘No

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Aotearoa has the opportunity to lead the world here. The only way that we can address the climate crisis and reduce our impact on the environment is by tackling colonialism/capitalism. But there will be a fight!

David designs beautiful things; his company in Whakatu makes and sells them all over the world. He and his wife Linda live in Havelock North but would rather be in Mahia windsurfing or surfing.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 49

IDEAS + OPINION PATRICK HAPE

Tuia te muka tangata – Te Aho a Māui EIT strengthening ties with local iwi Māori Actively strengthening relationships with iwi Māori organisations in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti is a key focus for EIT as it transitions into the newly established Te Pūkenga – New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology.

Te Pūkenga is working toward reimagining vocational learning and has committed to giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi through its operations. For EIT’s transition into Te Pūkenga, giving effect to Te Tiriti is about responding to the needs of iwi Māori stakeholders, recognising and addressing the unique needs of Māori learners and staff, and exploring the integration of local mātauranga Māori. It’s about strengthening ties with local iwi Māori groups for EIT to increase opportunities for Māori internally and externally.

Over the years EIT has established and maintained relationships within the broader community. These relationships have included local

businesses, community organisations and iwi Māori groups in both Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti. EIT has continued to shape our operations around the demands of our learners and stakeholders. Our staff come from the community, are based within the community and continue to engage with the community because our local relationships are important.

In light of the expectations created

by Te Pūkenga around Te Tiriti, and as EIT’s recently appointed Executive Director Māori, it is now more than ever important to ensure that partnerships with iwi Māori groups are beneficial to EIT but more importantly to iwi Māori.

As members of our local community we provide support in a very organic way – including with iwi Māori groups. We support local initiatives like Te Ahu o te Reo Māori, some programmes engage mana whenua to develop and deliver tailored training,

Brooklyn Te Kani-Ruha, Te Toi o Ngā Rangi – Bachelor of Māori Visual Arts student, Toihoukura, EIT Tairāwhiti.

50 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

and the recently established rangahau Māori centre within EIT explores kaupapa of relevance to local whānau and hapū.

One of my key priorities is to grow our ability to support the local Māori economy by being intentional in our engagements to train iwi Māori workforce and deliver on iwi Māori priorities. How can we create regular opportunities for EIT learners and staff to practice in Māori organisations and environments? EIT has taught carpentry to whānau and hapū on their marae while they contribute to marae building projects and have also placed nursing students alongside nurses of Māori health organisations while completing clinical placement.

Why can’t we ensure all learners have the opportunity to undertake part of their learning in a Māori context?

We are fortunate to have a variety of iwi Māori organisations within the Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti regions.

These organisations collectively support cultural regeneration efforts but are also engaged in areas like health, housing, education, horticulture, and environmental protection. EIT has and continues to support iwi Māori engagement in these areas.

However, there is an opportunity through Te Pūkenga to connect our regions with a national suite of training and opportunities that can align directly with the varying priorities of iwi Māori groups. Strengthening the relationships with local iwi Māori groups is an introduction into the broader networks of opportunities.

Te Ara o Tākitimu is a student support initiative that is delivered in partnership with Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Incorporated. The initiative empowers Māori and Pasifika pre-trades learners in Hawke’s Bay, so they are confident to engage with their studies

to achieve their goals.

This support is continued for the building and construction learners that are part of this initiative if they choose to pathway into an apprenticeship with K3 – a property development company wholly owned by the Ngāti Kahungunu Iwi Asset Holding Company. K3 is a growing entity which wants to enable whānau and hapū to build homes for the hapori or community. The partnership with Ngāti Kahungunu in the building and construction sector adds value to EIT programme content and delivery but (fingers crossed) also leads to enriching iwi-based priorities and initiatives within the community.

Working directly with iwi Māori, in their spaces, and toward their priorities helps to inform our institution on how to be more responsive to the needs of iwi Māori. These are the best experiences to learn what Tiriti partnership looks like in practice – getting in there and doing it with and for the people. The need to integrate mātauranga Māori within the operations of Te Pūkenga is a focus for the network.

We want our approach to engage our learners and staff with mātauranga Māori that is driven by and for the lo-

Samantha Lee | Bachelor of Nursing Student (Hawke’s Bay Campus)

One of my key priorities is to grow our ability to support the local Māori economy by being intentional in our engagements to train iwi Māori workforce and deliver on iwi Māori priorities.

PATRICK HAPE

cal communities we support and from within a Māori context. This process for us starts with the strengthening of our iwi Māori partnerships.

One of my roles at the moment is to explore what local iwi Māori priorities are. Once we identify what these priorities are, we can explore how we might contribute to achieving these through training and or through regular engagement. Colleagues across the Te Pūkenga network are building relationships in our respective communities in different ways. This is important because we want to be responsive to the environments we are in. These learnings are then shared throughout the network as lessons for others.

We don’t all look the same and our iwi Māori groups don’t look the same

either. What connects the initiatives across the network are the same philosophies and the same general approaches. There is a definite correlation across the network, but there’s also a whole lot of individual learnings that are coming out now that we are beginning to work closer together. We are starting to see the similarities, but also the differences and this is enriching our own practices.

The transition to Te Pūkenga is an opportunity for EIT to provide a greater network to achieve local priorities. It’s not a one size fits all, but rather an overarching philosophy that draws on the strengths of the different regions. It’s exciting that Te Pūkenga is encouraging our network to think about and prioritise Tiriti partnerships and excellence.

In my opinion, the cornerstone to Tiriti excellence is a solid relationship with our Tiriti partners that demonstrates mutual benefit. We are not there yet – but we’re making a start by strengthening our ties with local iwi Māori.

Patrick Hape is EIT’s Poutāhu – Executive Director Māori

YOU'LL KNOW IT WHEN YOU SEE IT

EIT School of Nursing

L O R N E NOW

PRACTICE IT CERTIFICATE | DEGREE | POSTGRADUATE MASTERS

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 51

The HB Future Farming Trust sponsored dialogue between Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor and journalist Rod Oram on the future of farming with climate change. Photos: Jack Warren

HAWKE’S BAY FUTURE FARMING TRUST Launched with seed funding from the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council, the Trust’s mission is “To promote, inspire and celebrate profitable farming systems that enrich the environment and the community.”

The Trust aims to expand Hawke’s Bay’s hands-on knowledge of best, restorative farming practices, focusing on innovation, science insights, new technologies and farming systems change.

As Trust Chair Liz Krawczyk puts it: “We are all about demonstrating and communicating leading edge practices here in Hawke’s Bay that will help our region’s primary producers achieve financial and environmental sustainability.”

We identify, publicly recognize and promote Hawke’s Bay best practices, practitioners and champions, and also promote non-Hawke’s Bay/New Zealand practices with potential upside relevance to our region.

So far the Trust has supported onfarm demonstrations, confirming, for example, the potential for building

soil carbon content and nutrient holding capacity. We’ve helped fund real-time water monitoring technology in the Mangaone Catchment. And we’ve sponsored workshops and field days to spread awareness of farming practices that both increase farm productivity and lessen adverse environmental footprints.

Hastings District Council.

The question we ask is: What should Hawke’s Bay’s best performance look like in the future with respect to soil health, clean waters, food quality, animal welfare, efficient water and energy use, and profitability?

Our current trustees are: Liz Krawczyk, Phil Schofield, Scott Lawson, John van der Linden, Tim

Coming soon: the launch of our major project comparing conventional and ‘regenerative’ farming practices here in Hawke’s Bay.

Most recently, 150 guests joined the dialogue we sponsored between Agriculture Minister Damien O’Conner and journalist Rod Oram on the future of farming with climate change.

Over time we will document the superior performance by Hawke’s Bay’s farmers and growers across all farming sectors – pastoral, horticulture, viticulture.

Coming soon: the launch of our major project comparing conventional and ‘regenerative’ farming practices here in Hawke’s Bay. Joining HBRC as Keystone Sponsors supporting our work are Bayleys Country, Napier Port and

Aitken, Will Foley and Tom Belford.

We encourage you to sign up for our monthly e-newsletter to learn about leading edge farming practices in Hawke’s Bay. To learn more about HB Future Farming Trust, visit our website; www.hbfuturefarming.org or email us at info@hbfuturefarming.org

BayBuzz is pleased to support Hawke's Bay Future Farming Trust

Bay Biz Hawke’s Bay has foresight. It has initiated some of the country’s most progressive business concepts including multiple ways to combat climate change.

iMIX. Photo: Tom Allan

Stewart Financial Group is proud to sponsor BayBuzz regional economy coverage.

A sustainable future?

In July the world watched as Europe burned and the United Kingdom ground to a halt in sweltering temperatures. In New Zealand, local councils grappled with wild weather; extreme rainfall, washed out bridges, and discussed managed retreats from the rising sea.

Photos Florence Charvin

BayBiz

/ B RENDA NEWTH

NASA says that “the earth will continue to warm, and the effects will be profound”, warning the effects of human-caused global warming are “irreversible on the timescale of people alive today, and will worsen in the decades to come”.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council – our region’s primary environmental agency – declared a climate emergency in 2019, and in its most recent annual plan noted: “the reality of a changing climate was becoming more pressing and urgent”. It appointed its first Climate Action Ambassador, Pippa McKelvie-Sebileau this year. Her focus is to ensure the Regional Council is carbon neutral by 2025, and take a key leadership role in a community-wide response in Hawke’s Bay becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

In a recent media article McKelvieSebileau says that to meet national emissions budgets, we all have to reduce our emissions by 9% by 2025, an extra 16.5% by 2030, and a further 23% by 2035. The numbers are simply staggering.

“Emissions reductions goals will influence how we travel, how we heat our homes, what we choose to consume,” she says.

EECA (Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority) research shows that 88% of Kiwis want businesses to do more about climate change, and Hawke’s Bay businesses are beginning to do their bit. Here’s a snapshot of some of the initiatives underway across the business community.

The solar farm

Hawke’s Bay Airport plans to be carbon neutral by 2030. The airport’s sustainability strategy was approved by former CEO Stuart Ainslie in December 2019, and has four core pillars; financial return, environmental excellence, social responsibility, and operational efficiency.

Current airport CEO Rob Stratford says that reaching net zero is an important goal.

“It’s going to require targeted action and investment. We have a comprehensive plan and we’re building decarbonisation initiatives into our capex

56 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

and asset replacement plans over the next eight years. In 2021, our carbon footprint was 65tCO2e.”

He says the airport is working hard to reduce emissions right across its business. “We undertook a comprehensive emissions mapping exercise in 2019 that gave us a great base to work from.

We know that electricity is our biggest source of emissions so that needs to be a major focus for us.”

The major carbon reducing initiative for the airport is its planned solar farm, an investment of $30-$35 million. In June 2020 the airport (co-owned by Napier and Hastings councils and the Crown) announced plans to convert 10 hectares of unutilised land into New Zealand’s largest solar farm (it’s since been overtaken by Christchurch Airport’s Kowhai Park).

Stratford says the airport is in the initial stages of the project, with feasibility completed and a team assembled to take the project through its next stages. Turning of the first sod is

“Reaching net zero is an important goal. It’s going to require targeted action and investment.”

ROB STRATFORD, HAWKE’S BAY AIRPORT

some way off, with “consultation and resource consents coming first” and construction planned for 2024.

At 24MW, the solar farm will generate enough electricity to power 5,0006,000 homes annually, but the plan is to use most of the energy generated on site to power airport operations.

Stratford says they’d like the surplus to be available to local Hawke’s Bay businesses, but will work through this with Manawa Energy, partner for the solar farm project.

He acknowledges there may be residual emissions that can’t be eliminated, and that the airport may need to look at offsetting. “We’re looking into

“Take one step at a time. There’s so many things you can do, it’s amazing how it all adds up.”

NICK STEWART, STEWART GROUP

sourcing permanent native forestry offsets which support local biodiversity and water quality outcomes along with our local community.”

As well as the solar farm, Stratford says the airport has made a number of significant changes that have reduced emissions, including moving to a greener vehicle fleet.

“We’ve already replaced two airside vehicles with electric or hybrid vehicles, and plan to replace a third this year. Those changes saved 10.5 tonnes of carbon emissions in 2021, as well as reducing our fuel costs by 41%.

“We’re also investigating options for a hybrid fire engine (a specialised version for airport operations), as well as electric mowers, solar-powered bird-scaring canons, and other alternatives for our petrol and diesel-powered equipment.”

Other carbon reducing and

sustainability measures at the airport include using 100% renewable certified carbon neutral electricity, transitioning the carpark lights to energy efficient LED, and investigating EV charging, meter upgrades and energy efficiencies at the pump station, says Stratford.

As far as waste is concerned, most single use plastic has been eliminated from the airport’s café and retail area, and there’s a trial of ‘worm-approved’ paperboard-based cups in the works.

With carbon reducing initiatives in place on site, Stratford says the airport is also looking at how it can reduce the carbon emissions required to get to the airport. “We’re talking to Hawke’s Bay Regional Council about public transport options, and we’ve installed a secure bike and e-bike facility to encourage cycling as a low carbon mode of transport,” he says.

Ticking all the boxes

Stewart Group, a wealth management business in Hastings is fully embracing carbon reduction measures, not only in its operations, but also in the investments available to clients.

It launched its Simply Sustainable initiative in July 2021. To date, the company has installed 36.6kW of solar panels on the roof of its Karamu Road office, and its vehicle fleet is now fully electric.

Altogether, an investment of $250k.

CEO Nick Stewart, says that Stewart Group believes in walking the talk.

“Our offices now run on solar power, as do our vehicles. We export excess power to the grid, and this summer we will make our EV chargers available to the public on weekends through our partnership with Parkable – currently in the beta testing phase – with profits going to charity.”

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 57

“Our offices now run on solar power, as do our vehicles. We export excess power to the grid, and this summer we will make our EV chargers available to the public on weekends through our partnership with Parkable” NICK STEWART, STEWART GROUP

Built for Stewart Group by Our Energy, its electricity provider, Stewart Group is part of New Zealand’s first private solar community, the Te Rehe Solar Network, with 14 current members and seven prospects in the process of joining.

Stewart says the company’s path to sustainability has been over a number of years, but it has only been in the last four years that they’ve been able to make sustainability measures work

fiscally. “It’s not purely altruistic, it has to work financially too.

“We changed our lightbulbs to LED about six years ago, we have high speed hand dryers to eliminate paper towels, work with local suppliers wherever possible to reduce our environmental footprint, monitor our water use, and we have looked at the chemicals we use for cleaning. We have run the same lens over everything we have been doing.”

His advice to businesses looking to be more sustainable: “Take one step at a time. There’s so many things you can do, it’s amazing how it all adds up.”

And on the investment side, Stewart Group now offers clients a fully “clean” ESG (environmental, social, governance) investment portfolio in emerging markets.

Stewart says this is the final piece of the jigsaw puzzle. “We didn’t want to promote a portfolio with a significant number of carve outs, and have had the environmental ‘Simply Sustainable’ overlay on our emerging markets portfolio across all sectors since July last year.”

The uptake has been good, says Stewart. “A lot of the time, people don’t know they can invest their money that way. When we talk to people about it, they’re like ‘This is great. I didn’t realise I was able to do that’.”

Sustainability strategist

Jo Pearson, owner of sustainability specialist The Collective Impact, says that generally Hawke’s Bay businesses are in the emerging stage when it comes to sustainability.

“The larger businesses are leading the pack, as they should, and as of next year publicly listed companies have

From humble Hawke’s Bay beginnings, to nationwide coverage Industrial

Automation, Processing and Plant Maintenance

Residential

New Homes, Renovations, Heating and Ventilation

Commercial

Schools, Hospitality, Warehousing and Office Blocks

Rural

Dairy Sheds, Irrigation and Effluent Systems

58 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Jo Pearson and the team from Mission Estate. The wine industry has had sustainability measures in place for many years.

to report on climate-related risks. As for the smaller businesses, things are happening, but for the most part it is not in a planned or strategic way, and they’re not telling people about it, or getting any return on their sustainability investment.”

Pearson’s job is to help business think strategically about sustainability, and where it fits within their operations and business model.

“From there it’s about developing the overall strategy, linking sustainability into the brand strategy, and then into communications, so they can get the ‘cream on the top’,” she says.

Pearson says that businesses need to be financially sustainable first, before they think about sustainability initiatives.

“Essential is the buy-in at the top table, with the directors and management team fully on board. The leadership team has to inspire and engage the front line, and allow them to come up with ideas,” she says.

Hawke’s Bay with its reputation for

“Hawke’s Bay with its reputation for high quality and artisan produce is well placed to tell a strong sustainability story that consumers will pay a premium for.”

JO PEARSON, THE COLLECTIVE IMPACT

high quality and artisan produce is well placed to tell a strong sustainability story that consumers will pay a premium for.

“There’s definitely a growing demand in the premium category for products that have got sustainability initiatives attached. NZTE research shows there’s a value-add for the higher priced products that have got various sustainability elements attached.”

Sustainability is a journey, or a continuum, says Pearson. “It doesn’t stop once you’ve attained zero carbon status. That’s not the finish line.

“The next challenge is, what can you give back to the community or the environment, so you can become carbon positive?”

What others are doing

Pan Pac Forest Products – announced its sustainable development goals in 2020, adopting 11 out of the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals. Pan Pac will release its inaugural sustainability report later this year, outlining current performance, and planned projects to achieve its goals.

Napier Port – launched Te Mahere Toitū (its 10 year sustainability strategy) in August 2021, targeting 14 of the 17 United Nations’ sustainable development goals and incorporating 100 identified actions. Advancing sustainability is a foundation of the Port’s business strategy, and it will release its first sustainability report later this year.

Matangi Angus Beef – uses solar power for farm buildings and fencing, plants 3,000 native trees/shrubs annually, uses paper and wool in packaging,

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 59

where possible, and partners with a carbon neutral freight partner.

3R – sustainability and product stewardship specialists, most notably, the designer of stewardship schemes, including Tyrewise, the country’s first regulated product stewardship scheme, to deal with New Zealand’s end-of-life tyre problem, as well as a raft of others. Helps clients to reduce their environmental impact.

Hapi-Ora – 2021 Hawke’s Bay Business Awards Excellence in Sustainability winner. An organic business that prioritises sustainability outcomes.

Hawke’s Bay Technologies – have been carboNZero certified for nine years. The company manages its carbon footprint and that of its customers’ technology to ensure it has zero impact on the environment.

Brebner Print - purchases paper from sustainably farmed forests.

Has invested in new technology and systems to reduce water, power and chemical usage, achieving Toitū Enviromark Gold certification.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council – climate change is at the heart of all HBRC activities. Specific emission reducing programmes include promoting public transport and cycling/cycleways, and the sustainable homes programme.

HBRC also supports teaching and education for a sustainable world across the region. It also has carbon drawdown activities, and is getting its own house in order with a comprehensive sustainability programme, including an EV-first policy, working towards achieving Toitū accreditation, plus a raft of other measures including reducing energy use and recycling.

“The next challenge is, what can you give back to the community or the environment, so you can become carbon positive?”

How to get started

JO PEARSON, THE COLLECTIVE IMPACT

Woolworks – a new hot water heat pump at its Awatoto site will reduce carbon emissions by 24%, and the company has a comprehensive carbon reduction programme in place across its North and South Island sites.

Hastings District Council Tradie Breakfast initiative (in partnership with 3R) - bringing together local experts to talk waste reduction in building and construction that contributes half of the material going into landfill, material recovery strategies and recycling, and the importance of design and procurement in reducing waste. And for itself, HDC has developed a comprehensive ‘Eco-District’ strategy, which includes climate-related goals but reaches beyond.

Wine industry generally – have had sustainability measures in place for many years. Wineries and vineyards have to be certified every year.

What does the future hold?

NIWA’s climate change predictions for Hawke’s Bay read like a bad horoscope – more extreme weather with impacts on people, agriculture, coastal homes and assets, air quality, infrastructure, and a significant impact on horticulture. Responding to climate change

• Reduce air travel – catch up by Zoom or Teams instead • Use energy efficient LED lights • Purchase carbon neutral electricity • Electrify your vehicle fleet • Look at your waste streams – reduce, reuse, recycle • Work with carbon neutral suppliers and supply chain partners • Calculate and lower emissions • Involve your team • Integrate sustainability initiatives with your business strategy • Consider allowing staff to WFH one day per week – saves 20% emissions • Join Hawke’s Bay Climate Action Network mailto:climateaction@ hbrc.govt.nz

presents both threat and opportunity.

A combination of stakeholder and government pressure will drive emission reduction and sustainability activities in the business community in the years to come. Businesses going the extra carbon-zero mile will have to demonstrate that they are not only sustainable, but they are also contributing positively to the environment. And that’s where the real opportunity lies.

As you can see, BayBuzz is building up its ‘Climate Heroes’ business list. If you think we should be writing about your business, please let us know: editors@baybuzz.co.nz

BayBuzz Online 1. The Buzz e-newsletter 2. Expanded website: baybuzz.co.nz 3. BayBuzz digital magazine

You can find it all here: baybuzz.co.nz/digital

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Tom Allan.

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BayBiz Innovators

/ FI O N A FR AS E R

Made to order: chemo drugs from Onekawa Behind a plain white door, in an innocuous looking building set down an ordinary asphalt driveway in Onekawa, there’s a hive of industry going on. And the primary goal is to make sure that Kiwis sick with cancers and other illnesses have speedy access to the best drugs available. Photos: Tom Allan

It’s like something out of ‘Breaking Bad’. Men and women clad in head to toe hazmat suits, gloves and masks, diligently measuring and mixing highly sensitive substances behind layers of protective glass. To the rear of them, and on the other side of a second thick window, is a room housing what look like enormous tumble dryers.

This is iMIX, an aseptic compounding plant in Napier, founded by Jeremy Egerton. And if you don’t know what aseptic compounding is, you’re not alone. “It’s a very niche industry,” begins Jeremy – a Southlander who fell in love with a Hawke’s Bay girl and moved to Napier in 2017.

Aseptic compounding is the mixing of medicines to produce personalised medications – in this case, chemo and immunotherapy drugs. “We take orders from DHBs as well as private clinics,” explains Jeremy. “Each order is patient-specific, with doses based on his or her weight and height. We will compound the medicine when we receive the order, and put it on the courier so it’s delivered to the patient for their treatment the following day.” iMIX isn’t the only company compounding chemotherapy treatments, but Jeremy’s is definitely the most interesting, with a commitment to being more nimble than, and “deliberately different” to the multinational drug companies in this space.

“The pharmaceutical companies can’t deal with individual orders like we do – instead, they’ll mass produce medicines at particular levels of

62 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

“The pharmaceutical companies can’t deal with individual orders like we do – instead, they’ll mass produce medicines at particular levels of concentration and each patient will need a specific dose of that compound. With the service we provide and the way we do things, the patient is more than just a number.”

concentration and each patient will need a specific dose of that compound.

With the service we provide and the way we do things, the patient is more than just a number.”

Jeremy only began his business three years ago. He’d studied pharmacology and biochemistry at the University of Otago, then moved to Melbourne to work at a small family-run compounding business, starting off as a technician.

Travelling on to London, he managed large aseptic compounding units in London hospitals and after he returned to New Zealand, helped a DHB build one before branching into consultancy.

“I guess all that experience gave me the confidence to have a crack at something of my own,” he says.

So he went to Canopy Cancer Care, New Zealand’s leading private medical oncology provider, with a proposal.

And that proposal resulted in the establishment of iMIX, with a model that split the business 55/45 – the majority holding to Jeremy.

He needed Canopy capital to even consider going into the aseptic compounding game, he says, “because the barrier to entry is huge. The equipment isn’t cheap, and then you’ve got stacks of regulatory and health and safety requirements.” Indeed, the compounding rooms are positively pressured, so that air can leave the room without being drawn back in from the outside. The chemicals can be dangerous when handled incorrectly, so there’s an emergency shower room, and those aforementioned hazmat suits, the height in pharma-cool fashion.

The other advantage to partnering with Canopy was brand equity. “In the chemo game, you’re mostly dealing with DHBs, who are notoriously risk-averse, so to have the backing of a known entity was important.” iMIX started by servicing the Canopy clinics (they’re active in Auckland, Tauranga, Whangarei and Hawke’s Bay) and as their reputation grew, so too did the number of orders flying out the door to patients having their chemotherapy treatment at a range of other major clinics and hospitals New Zealand wide.

There were some hiccups in the start-up phase, and Jeremy admits to a few sleepless nights when his entire compounding operation was set up and ready to go, staff were on the payroll, but he hadn’t yet had the seal of approval from Medsafe to trade.

Watching the bank balance dwindle with absolutely no way of making a cent was “stressful, nerve wracking.

It got pretty borderline there for a

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 63

moment,” he admits. And when certification finally arrived, it was “all hands on deck just to get orders out the door.

Back then,” he muses, “we thought 30 or 40 orders was a big day.”

In fact, when Jeremy first shot images for his iMIX website, he only had three staff. “We had the photographer take the photos in such a way that we looked like we had heaps more!” he recalls with a smile. If he needed to refresh his site in the future, he’d have no shortage of models, with a current staff of 35. And they’re mixing upwards of 250 orders each day.

In fact, iMIX is so successful, you’d wonder why there aren’t other startups giving aseptic compounding a red-hot go. But there’s an easy answer.

“You need expertise, and you need a lot of money, and that’s probably why it’s been the domain of Big Pharma for so long.”

Canopy, TRG Imaging and iMIX are now all part of one parent group with their end goal to help smoothe the patient journey, from diagnosis to treatment. “The idea is to offer a seamless, integrated approach so that, amid the shock of a diagnosis, a patient doesn’t have to worry about bouncing from one provider for a scan to another for chemo,” Jeremy says. “What we’d like them to hear is, ‘You’re already booked in to get your imaging done – and you’ll see your oncologist next Wednesday.’

It’s always going to be a traumatic time for a patient, but we want to make it less stressful, if we can.”

However, to a patient receiving chemo or immunotherapy that has been compounded by a Hawke’s Bay technician at iMIX, there’s very little to distinguish what’s hanging on their IV pole from something compounded by one of the multinational drug companies. It’s possible a nurse or DHB staff member might mention it. “We’re told that patients are often quite fascinated to find out their chemotherapy was made by a small company founded in New Zealand.”

Or, more likely, they’ll see a flash of packaging or a smidge of branding.

Jeremy says that why he’s deliberately chosen a cheerful colour palette and friendly logo to market iMIX. “We didn’t want anything sterile or clinical – nothing blue and white!” he laughs. So, chemo infusions come in black non-PVC bags with a bright strip, and the iMIX logo – like everything the company does – is patient-centric.

“If you look closely, you’ll see the X is actually a person.”

64 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

“New Zealand’s not the only country with a broken health system and I think there are other opportunities, for sure. If you can design a new model that works, there’s no reason why it can’t be applied elsewhere.”

Jeremy – engaged to Jo and with three gorgeous daughters – is a man who isn’t keen on blowing his own trumpet. In fact, he’s never done a media interview before, and finds the interest in iMIX rather curious.

For him, the priority is keeping his business human-centric, socially conscious, and for the team working here to have fun, learn and grow. “We try and recruit locally wherever we can and to take people on a bit of a journey – we can train just about anyone to work with us.” So far, it’s working well.

“The team we have on board is a really passionate group who go above and beyond to make sure that all patients get their treatment on time. We’re stoked with our crew.”

So what’s next for iMIX? Since inception, Canopy’s taken a larger stake and Jeremy a smaller one, but he’s at pains to point out that it doesn’t change his vision. “We’re never going to go down a highly corporate route – we’re a company servicing a domestic clientele and have clear values around that.”

And demand is growing still. More and more DHBs are switching to iMIX and enjoying the service, which, in turn, enables iMIX to bring further innovative integrated solutions to market. “We’re set up nicely for the transition to Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ),” says

Jeremy. “And we’re looking at opportunities for other alternative models to bring additional savings to the New Zealand health sector.”

As for shipping or flying medications to other countries, Jeremy says it’s unlikely. “Moving compounds across borders is hard,” he explains. “But New Zealand’s not the only country with a broken health system and I think there are other opportunities, for sure.

If you can design a new model that works, there’s no reason why it can’t be applied elsewhere.”

If anyone can do it, it seems more than likely Jeremy Egerton – the young, unassuming pharmacologist who dreamed of a better way to serve cancer patients and made it happen – will be having more excellent aseptic compounding adventures in the future.

“It’s better to try and to fail than to never try – and I’d never want to die wondering,” says Jeremy. “And healthcare as an industry is stable and growing so you don’t get the booms and busts you might with other sectors like tourism or property. It’s a good place to be.”

But for now, what he’s most proud of – and most invested in – is the small improvements he’s making, daily, to those with cancer diagnoses.

“To provide life enhancing treatment to thousands of New Zealanders while delivering savings to the public health system is something I’m really pleased about,” Jeremy concludes.

“That, and the vibe and the values we’ve created right here in Napier.”

Fiona Fraser is the director of Contentment PR & Communications.

Nominate a savvy entrepreneur to feature in an upcoming column by contacting fiona@contentment.co.nz

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Blurred lines need to get clearer If you’ve ever been fooled by a ‘cotton-rich’ fabric claim before (and been disgruntled by the scratchy poly-cotton blend you received when the garment actually arrived) you’ll understand the importance of looking past buzz words when it comes to getting what you paid for.

Nomenclature is important, and in most cases, you legally cannot call something what it is not. You can’t call prosecco ‘champagne’, even if they’re both bubbly in the end. Similarly, leather and vegan leather must be distinguished from each other.

When it comes to sustainable options in the financial services industry, however, the importance of clear and distinct identification is still somewhat lost.

Environmental, sustainable and governance factors (ESG) are not universally coded, nor are they monitored by some global authority. If you’re someone who doesn’t want their investment dollars going into firms that contribute to pollution, or mistreat their workforce, or manufacture controversial items like weapons, you have likely heard of sustainable investment. It’s not a cure-all for the impact humans have had on the planet, but it is an attempt to do better while still delivering comparable fiscal results.

Of course, as with any new trend that might give companies a point of difference, there’s been a fair amount of bandwagon-jumping by those who want to get their slice of the pie. Legislation has been slow moving, though recent moves from the Financial Markets Authority – Te Mana Tātai Hokohoko indicate New Zealand is heading towards a crackdown on

66 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

If investors cannot see what they are actually getting, and why, it’s a red flag. Not only because you’re not getting what you want – but because it throws into question the integrity of an organisation who cannot or will not provide this information.

cowboys with a habit of putting the cart before the horse.

In July, the FMA released its review of disclosure information from a sample of management investment funds labelled or marketed as being ethical, environmental or sustainable (or a combination thereof). All of the funds had weaknesses in information disclosure in at least one area, with most needing improvement in “multiple areas”.

Considering that ESG-coded investments are relative newcomers to the modern investment zeitgeist, it’s not particularly encouraging to see the FMA reporting that overall it would be difficult for investors to parse through and find the relevant information to choose which funds they would like to select or avoid. Some of this was due to information being scattered across different sources, or lacking sufficient detail, or just not giving a complete picture.

If investors cannot see what they are actually getting, and why, it’s a red flag. Not only because you’re not getting what you want – but because it throws into question the integrity of

an organisation who cannot or will not provide this information.

To be clear, you will likely not find an exact drill down of every asset in your portfolio, itemised by name and cents spent. But you should be able to definitively see what areas you are, and are not, engaging with – and this should be available upon request.

Greenwashing is used to describe misleading claims that lack concrete information about the actual ESG impact being achieved. It occurs when an organisation spends more time and money on marketing itself as environmentally friendly than on making measurable change.

We expect evidence of ESG credentials, but it is confusing for us as investors. ESG has a different meaning to us all. A professional investor will be looking for long term value and growth.

Often this involves making change from within an organisation by collectively shifting the strategic direction of an organisation towards ESG. A retail investor wants to generate an immediate positive measurable social and environmental impact plus a financial return.

Those of us that follow capital markets understand that markets move fast to meet the needs of investors; it is clear regulation is playing catch-up. Similar to the steps taken by the FMA, the FCA in the UK is deciding on a new sustainability classification and labelling system for investments. The EU is focusing on disclosure and in the US there is a move to standardising ESG disclosures.

As investors all we want is a common system of accountability and measurability. We all have different needs. The professional investor will focus on multiple factors to determine the suitability

Greenwashing occurs when an organisation spends more time and money on marketing itself as environmentally friendly than on making measurable change.

of an investment. Many retail investors will focus on a single issue close to their heart. What is clear is that being upfront and transparent about ESG also builds trust rather than negatively impacting public reputation.

Think of the movement towards transparency in ESG investment in similar terms to the craze around organic produce. You might buy organic to avoid ingesting certain

compounds, or because you believe they should not be used in farming at all – but if the people pulling your organic beetroot up are in poor conditions, or the company is secretly supporting dodgy activities, the small good you’ve done has been essentially wiped out by this misbehaviour.

Don’t be fooled by flashy claims.

Look for the whole story. And if it’s not there... look elsewhere.

The information provided, or any opinions expressed in this article, are of a general nature only and should not be construed or relied on as a recommendation to invest in a financial product or class of financial products. You should seek financial advice specific to your circumstances from a Financial Adviser before making any financial decisions. A disclosure statement can be obtained free of charge by calling 0800 878 961 or visit our website, www.stewartgroup.co.nz Nick Stewart is a financial adviser and CEO at Stewart Group, a Hawke’s Baybased CEFEX certified financial planning and advisory firm. Stewart Group provides personal fiduciary services, wealth management, risk insurance and KiwiSaver solutions. This article was created in conjunction with Mancell Financial Group.

Simply Sustainable™ A science-based approach by STEWART GROUP for sustainable and ethically-minded investors Choosing sustainable options can be more than reusable bags at the checkout.

We can help you find the best sustainable investment strategy for your requirements.

Call us today for a free, no-obligation chat about what sustainable investment might look like with your situation and goals.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 67

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Culture & Lifestyle

The 8th HB arts festival reveals a performance choice that covers the gamut from classic to contemporary – conventional to cabaret – and corners a rich choice of reading in both prose and poetry. Then we please the most discerning of palates with Yvonne Lorkin discovering one of the Bay’s best wineries while Ian Thomas lists the seven nicest pies to be found in the region.

Photo: Florence Charvin

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

Weaving dreams Some say that the art of weaving is a metaphor for understanding our place in the universe.

That through the physical process we gain an understanding of our planet and how we, the occupants, are woven into its cycle. How apt then that the phrase ‘Whiria te tāngata!’

(Weave the people together!’) – is the Kaupapa for the 8th Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival.

Story by Michal McKay Photos by Florence Charvin

Whiria! Plait!

Whiria! is a call to action and is a directive in Te Reo Māori to go and plait, a metaphorical call to intertwine relationships, stories, and genealogy through the art of weaving.

In a search to extend the previous Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival guiding whakatauki (proverb) Tūtira Mai Ngā Iwi, Pitsch Leiser, festival director, was gifted the phrase Whiria Te Tāngata, by esteemed local weavers Karmen Thomson and Wi Pohatu. In discussion, this whakatauki was shortened to the more directive Whiria! as a call to all of us to weave ourselves back together after two difficult years of pandemic and uncertainty.

Pitsch is recognised for his own uncrushable spirit. Particularly when it comes to staging performance art despite the odds. The fact that the festival has survived the confronting ravages of Covid over the past two years is proof. And this year he was determined to find a message which would convey that through our community strength the creativity of Hawke’s Bay remains unconquered.

The objective was to find a way to make this year’s festival significant – one that truly conveyed what we as a region are about, particularly in the art world. It was suggested that as Hawke’s Bay is historically significant when it comes to Māori weaving (raranga), wouldn’t it be wonderful to celebrate the traditions of the area

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through weaving.

Thus weaving became the theme of the entire festival of 65 shows over the two weeks between October 14-30 and marked by a full day’s celebration of raranga – the Māori art of weaving – the traditional art which evokes tribal memories of Polynesian ancestors and the treasured culture they brought with them so many centuries ago. How appropriate, when our artistic world has become somewhat frayed by the wearying trials we have had to face, to inspire us to bring those strands together by weaving artists, creators, performers, and showmanship back together.

Pitsch met with Karmen Thomson and Marama Ngawhika and together they discussed the possibilities and how far they could take it, the focus being to launch the 8th Arts Festival.

Workshops

Experts from Gisborne, Muriwai, Rotorua, Matakana Island and within Kahungunu will offer the opportunity to participate in creative workshops.

“Workshops which through their very existence provide a message that this is a celebration of bringing everyone together to weave our differences into a stronger unity through an art form which is so strongly linked to Hawke’s Bay,” he explains.

Fibre plays a predominant role in traditional weaving; during the day workshops given by both artists and kaiako (teachers) will demonstrate

with traditional methods and processes as well as contemporary materials and techniques. Tukutuku (lattice work) tāniko (finger weaving, muka (harakeke fibre) extraction, whatu (cloak making techniques) and raranga (harakeke weaving) will be given by such recognised artists as Wi Pohatu, Karmen Thomson, Erin Rauna, Fiona Jones, Tracey Roberts, Martha Hampton and others. John TuriTiakitai will share some history and timeline of weaving.

Karmen Thomson is the weaving tutor at Te Wānanga o Aotearoa. She has been weaving for over 20 years – a journey which began under the tutelage of renowned master weaver Matekino Lawless in Rotoiti.

Of Ngāti Kahungunu and Ngāti Tūwharetoa descent she comes from a family of artists – strongly influenced and inspired by her brothers George Nuku and Darryl Thomson. “When growing up, I didn’t see any weavers, there were no doubt a few dotted around, but sadly, it wasn’t something you saw much of in our community.”

Around the mid-90s Karmen started feeling the pull toward Raranga.

“There was nothing here in Hawke’s Bay at the time, so I moved to Rotorua to learn. Learning to weave opened my eyes to how talented and amazing my culture is; it helped me to grow in more ways than I ever expected.” Coming home and passing on what she had learned was a natural progression.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Nephi Tupaea, Karmen Thomson, Pitsch Leiser and Wi Pohatu.

“When Pitsch first approached me about the festival and having a Māori weaving focus, I was rapt. I felt it was exactly what we need, as it will not only benefit the wider community but also the art of weaving itself, within Kahungunu. I fully support positive promotion for our cultural arts and sharing the beauty of them with others.”

Karmen explains, “Whiria! is an acknowledgment to our ancestors, also to the practitioners and weavers who share their skills, keeping our arts alive and thriving.”

“I want to acknowledge Pitsch and Charles [Ropitini] for having the foresight to lead this kaupapa through a weaving lens. Quite often weaving gets overlooked for the other art forms, i.e. carving, painting etc. It’s time for that to change and move forward together as one, as it used to be. Whiria! is going to be a day of celebration.”

Wi Pohatu, who is currently principal at Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Te Ara Hou, Napier, also facilitates a group of kairaranga (weavers). With regular wānanga at Te Muriwai Marae, Gisborne, he too is acknowledged as an experienced weaver.

Wi is of Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairarapa and Ngāi Tāmanuhiri descent.

He grew up in Muriwai, south of Gisborne and was taught the

72 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Whiria! is an acknowledgment to our ancestors, also to the practitioners and weavers who share their skills, keeping our arts alive and thriving.”

KARMEN THOMSON

traditional methods of weaving by his aunt and grandmother. “They brought me up and I was surrounded by all the fundamentals of what weaving meant – at a noticeably early age they taught me to cut flax – whenever my aunt wanted to weave, I was sent off to get the fibre. It was part of my upbringing through primary school and high school. There were a number of other nannies who also had a hand in teaching me to weave, and I quickly learnt to be very diplomatic,” he comments dryly. He went on to training college – already an accomplished weaver – he has been teaching weaving in all of its different forms since starting his teaching career but more recently with monthly weaving wānanga with the Te Muriwai Weavers, Muriwai, Gisborne.

“Teaching weaving has been a huge part of my life. I didn’t realise how fortunate I was until I had to research hat making towards my degree. My

research took me all over thinking that I would find similarities elsewhere, but no. I came to realise that a particular hat starter practiced by my whānau was peculiar to the whānau. My teachers were quite protective of their weaving heritage, but no-one ever said, ‘do not share’.

“Today weaving is offered and practiced, but like many traditional art forms it is becoming more contemporary and decorative rather than functional. Sometimes that potato kit is produced but in a very contemporary way. The traditional production has been lost to us, so we now produce a different product in a different way and sometimes with a different label. The weavers who are brave enough to think freely are turning it into a quite different art – one based more on creativity than function. A lot however is based on new skills developed over time and with experimentation.”

But of course, the whole art is based on plaiting which is why Whiria! is such a beautiful theme for this festival – it is a plaiting of the people using performance art as the ultimate braid.”

Revealing just how far weaving has progressed since it first originated will be the renowned fashion designers Shona Tawhiao and Taongahuia Maxwell. Shona’s work is known nationally and internationally in Milan and New York Fashion Weeks

and Taongahuia has showcased at Miromoda and NZ Fashion Week.

Both embrace their Māori heritage in their creations which have a woven focus – much of it having progressed beyond recognition in the development. Traditional and contemporary cloaks and kākahu will highlight their brilliance in taking the basic plait and turning it into something breathtakingly beautiful.

The Whiria! fashion show will be co-ordinated by Nephi Tupaea who was born and bred in Kahungunu.

She is of Ngāti Koata, Ngāti Tīpa, Ngāti Koroki-Kahukura and Ngāti Kahungunu descent.

A longstanding member of the arts collective Pacific Sisters and currently working towards her degree with Te Wānanga o Aotearoa in painting. Nephi returned to New Zealand from Australia in 2018 to take care of her mother.

Her multi-faceted arts background made Nephi a natural choice to co-ordinate the fashion side of Whiria! “Karmen asked me to be a part of the workshop and we just took it from there.”

Festival strands

The different strands which have been woven together to create the 2022 Arts Festival are typified by Whiria!” Pitsch

explains. “On one level we have more conventional work such as the homage to Dame Malvina Major in Sharing the Dream or David Coddington directing Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tell Me On a Sunday. On another we have the strongly contemporary which has grown from the traditional such as Ko Au by the Project Team or The Most Naked featuring Hannah Tasker-Poland and Lucien Johnson. There’s the partnership with Jamie Macphail and his Small Hall Sessions featuring Jackie Clarke and Stephen Small for five great cabaret shows in five rural halls. And there is always the temptation to push the barrier, but this time around with the strands being plaited into one big festival we embraced every aspect.”

There are a lot of free shows like Whiria! and Nuit Blanche, and $20 rush tickets providing access to most shows as a last minute daily offer available through subscribing on the HBAF website. This could be well worth it to catch music icons Don McGlashan, Teremoana Rapley or 2022 Taite Music Prize winner Anthonie Tonnon, or no other than our best comedienne Urzila Carlson.

And let us not forget the last piece of the festival puzzle which provides a perfect backdrop for all these

powerhouse performances.

The opening of the Municipal Precinct in Hastings gives multiple meeting places and venues for such productions as Whiria! which is being held in the magnificently restored Ballroom with its many memories of community gatherings. An opportunity for everyone to experience what has been such a huge undertaking by the Hastings District Council which had the foresight to see what developing this beautiful communal space could do to bring not only the Hastings and Hawke’s Bay communities together but those of the entire country.”

When architects Matthews and Matthews were given the task of developing this treasured communal area their first instinct was to call in consultant Dena Aroha Bach as they knew it was vital to have someone involved who was strongly immersed in the Māori community.

Their vision of threading and weaving relates to both the people and the place – connecting the tributaries and the braids beneath the buildings which were the fabric of their foundations, to the plaiting of our multiple communities.

The 8th Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival well-illustrates their vision.

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 73

A cultural feast

Story by Rosheen Fitzgerald Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival promises a smorgasbord of cultural delights on which we are invited to feast.

As with any laden table, it is tempting to get fat on our favourite foods, safe, reliable and familiar. But there is more to life than carbs and meat. If we graze around the edges and taste the more exotic delicacies, we may acquire a liking for something new, fresh and interesting. Delve into some of the more unusual offerings and you will be pleasantly surprised.

Photo: Putaanga Waitoa

The Most Naked 28 October, Toitoi Assembly Ballroom If you’re into edgy and open to having your mind blown, then look no further than The Most Naked, a captivating feat encapsulating burlesque, cabaret, dance, live music and what developer, lead performer and all-round alchemist Hannah Tasker-Poland calls political eroticism.

“It explores this fascination we have with the body – revealing the body, concealing the body, delving into people’s relationship with nudity, particularly the feminine body. I’ve always been super fascinated with the historical ideal of women’s bodies. The scarlet woman, the femme fatale, the witch, the slut, the whore – all the ways feminine bodies have been on one hand adored, lusted after, obsessed over, but at the same time repressed and controlled, abused, and manipulated,” reveals Tasker-Poland.

Taking this dichotomy as inspiration, she plays with expectations, utilising her brimming kit of theatrical tools to produce a show that cleverly picks apart the social fabric even as it wildly entertains. A passionate soundtrack composed and performed by the virtuosic Lucien Johnson anchors the piece, catering to all your aural pleasures.

The Most Naked is a masterclass in feminine empowerment.

Channeling a dominant goddess, Tasker-Poland takes full ownership of her superlative physicality championing eroticism and sexuality even as she provokes the audience to question the lens through which society views the human form. “We all have a body.

The body can be seen as this really boring perfunctory thing, a mass of bone, sinew, muscle, and flesh that we have loaded all of this social conditioning over how it should look.” Tasker-Poland strips bare these social norms, using the body as metaphor to highlight the objective oddness of the assumptions projected onto the sacks of meat that house our immortal souls.

This is a show that challenges, but Tasker-Poland is not in the business of provocation just to be provocative. She understands that alienating her audience would only dilute her message. Yes, there may be some discomfort, but she’s taken care to direct those feelings towards the social norms she is trying to expose. “There’s a difference between doing something that may be challenging as opposed to something that is just abrasive, that completely rubs people the wrong way. We want to take care of the audience as well. I really want to be with the audience. I tried very hard not to

make this a preachy show, I don’t want people to feel on the out. It may be a different perspective for some people. If they’re feeling uncomfortable it may be that they’re not feeling uncomfortable with me but with society.”

This arts festival performance is a coming home for Tasker-Poland. She spent her school years in Napier but has had few opportunities to perform in her former home. “I still have tendrils of connection to the Bay. It feels really good to come back, not just with any show but with something I have birthed, and share it here,” she muses. Back when she left for the bright lights and big city there were no spaces here for the kind of work she wanted to explore. It is testimony to the sea change of arts in the region that she will be welcomed back with open arms and a full house.

Projekt Team Biggie & Smalls 2x2 All Style Dance Battle 15 October, Napier CBD Ko Au 16 October, Toitoi Municipal Building A quiet revolution has been happening in the underground dance scene. Projekt Team, a global dance collective, are breaking out of their cyphers and going public, bringing you a pair of dance experiences like you have never seen before.

Projekt Team comprises around thirty diverse members from across the country and as far flung as Europe and Japan. They work in the realms of improvisation, focusing on freestyle battles in the sphere of street dance. Run like a family, they cultivate a culture of care that is borne out in their work. “Projekt

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 75

Team is based on people first and dance second.

Friendship and connection is the main thing and that brings us all together,” says one of the team’s leaders, Seidah Tuaoi.

Tuaoi came to Hawke’s Bay last year with a wealth of performance experience behind her to teach dance at Karamu High School. A street dance veteran, she has been growing the local scene, hosting bi-weekly workshops in the school’s studio for whomever wants to come along. Tuaoi gives dancers of all ages and skill levels “the tools and movement vocabulary to gear up to battle.”

Their practice is about to be put to the test in Biggie & Smalls 2x2 All Style Dance Battle, a free performance run as part of White Night. It’s a duo competition, in which pairs of dancers face off against each other, competing for the love of the crowd. “Biggie represents an experienced dancer or freestyler who has battled in many events and Smalls is someone who’s new to the battle scene,” explains Tuaoi.

Pairing novice and experienced dancers creates the supportive mentorship environment Projekt Team is all about. Duos work together to produce moves and mini routines but the music on the night is a surprise to which they must improvise. Pairs of red and blue cards are passed around the crowd and spectators get the final say on each battle’s winner. From a starting sixteen, one winning team will emerge victorious.

“There are not many dance battle events happening in Hawke’s Bay, we are really looking forward to bringing it here. We want to make sure there are opportunities for competition, we want to make a platform for freestyling,” says Tuaoi.

Projekt Team’s second festival show is something completely different. Ko Au, meaning I am, is a performance installation utilising the many rooms of the new Municipal Building. Spectators move between rooms in groups on a guided tour, “similar to an art gallery but there is a choreographed route,” explains Tuaoi.

Ten team members have been supported by Tuaoi

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and the team’s founder, Josh Mitikulena, to develop a five-minute piece reflecting their own discrete cultural and personal identity.

“The foundation of each piece is street dance, but they’ve brought their own cultural identity into their pieces. They’re playing with cultural movement, cultural ideas and concepts and try to fuse that with their own personal stories,” explains Tuaoi.

Each dancer has choreographed their own work and will also transform their room into an expression of their identity, so that ten installations accompany the performance. Tuaoi describes the piece as an expression of “different stories, different journeys, different perspectives on dance and how they view life. We’ve tried to encapsulate that within their room and a five-minute performance slot.

It’s a snapshot of where they think they are in life and what they’ve created through dance … They’ve played a lot with their own personalities, so you’ll get to see that once you enter each room.”

Dancers come from diverse backgrounds, bringing a tapestry of culture and experience to the work. There are two Māori and two Samoan performers, as well as Indian, Cook Islander, Niuean, Tongan, Vietnamese and Korean. One dancer set his room up as a replica of his own living room. Another recreates his family run bakery and uses flour to create movement.

Though now in its fourth run, this is a first for Hawke’s Bay. Dancers are excited to connect with a virgin audience, to bring us something new and unusual we haven’t seen before, both in style and execution, and to share a little piece of who they are.

The Revelator, 30 October, Toitoi

Arahi is an artist with big dreams and the raw talent and hard graft to bring them to reality. Anyone who has had the pleasure of witnessing one of his shows knows that they are less displays of musical prowess than immersive multifaceted experiences.

For the second year running, Arahi plays the Arts Festival finale on the Toitoi stage. Last year’s show, The Hurricane Years, took us on a haunting journey through his back catalogue, breathing life into a host of exquisitely costumed characters. Rather than trying to force some sense of false intimacy in strange times, he stripped back his stage, laying the elements bare, a stark observation of the zeitgeist.

The Revelator offers similar social commentary, this time a meditation on the nature of change. It is a show in two acts, revelation and redemption, consciously channeling the evangelical. ‘Arahi’ means cosmic herald, a sign in the sky that something new is beginning. Here, he takes on the role of preacher, spreading his message with heartfelt conviction and prodigious skill. “Usually, my shows leave people feeling alienated on purpose, but with this one I’d like them to feel almost a sort of cleanse,” he reflects.

The first act sees Arahi indulge his dramatic flair with his first foray into theatre. Carefully curated musical numbers intersperse with live actors performing a series of vignettes developed to tie thematically to the songs.

They chart the journey from innocence to experience, document our disparate realities and examine the ways we grapple with inevitable change.

Arahi sees this novel approach as a means for connection, something for which he hungers. “Sometimes it’s not enough to tell people, you have to show them … I’m creating the world the songs exist in, their context, their intentions. The songs are what I mean but the theatre is what I really mean,” he says.

Like a brewing storm, tension builds throughout the first act ending in an explosive kapa haka performance.

Incorporating Māori arts in a novel way is important to Arahi. He knows that which does not evolve becomes fossilised and he is invested in keeping his culture alive.

After the revelations of the first act, the second promises redemption. A full set change brings with it the mood and feeling of a stadium gig, a riotous rock concert, action in motion. Arahi describes it like, “the rapture, like you’ve ascended after the trials of the first set, like you come out the other side. Now let us break bread, go forth.”

The potency of Arahi’s composition is equalled by the calibre of the musicians he works with. He has pulled together a big band of the finest artists

and collaborators, each one a master of their instruments. “These tunes are the pinnacle of what I’ve been doing,” he explains. In this show he gives them the star treatment they deserve, thoughtfully arranged with orchestral quality.

This is an ambitious show in which Arahi displays his mettle, pouring his soul out onto the stage for your entertainment and illumination. It promises to be a singular spiritual experience to ignite the fire inside, leaving legions of faithful followers in its wake.

These three morsels are just a taste of the buffet the arts festival has on offer. There are plenty of shows to suit every palate, to challenge and delight.

The Air Between Us features acclaimed disabled aerial artist, Rodney Bell, enacting jaw-dropping feats on his specially designed wheelchair rig. The show is free and will be in both Napier and Hastings so there really is no excuse to miss it.

Letters from Iraq sees Rahim AlHaj telling his story and bearing his soul on oud, an Arabic lute, backed by strings, bass, and percussion. This is his love letter to his fractured country and its people, and promises to be a heart wrenching experience.

Put My Ear to the Ground responds to the gaping hole left in this year’s festival by the late Puti Lancaster, and speaks to something of her unfinished work, her legacy. Its title is taken from a line of her poetry, “Tomorrow I will put my ear to the ground and listen for your words.” This interactive installation will be a co-created, process-oriented collaboration over three days as part of a long goodbye.

Teremoana Rapley: Daughter of a Housegirl is the culmination of thirty years of soul searching, rich and deep.

This is music with substance that will transport you even as your eyes are delighted by a visual feast.

Mrs Krishnan’s Party is a comedic theatre experience that puts the audience right in the action, treating them less as guests than as family. This is not sit back and watch theatre as audience members are expected to roll up their sleeves and get involved.

A Boy Called Piano is gritty theatre at its best. Fa’amoana John Luafutu tells his own story of growing up in institutional care in the 1960’s. Dark and powerful it drags some of our nation’s shame into the light.

These are but a sample of the varied cultural treats the Arts Festival is serving up. Dive into their ample programming and let your tastebuds be piqued.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 77

Photos: Floyd Pepper

Fringe in the ‘Stings Lurking round the corners of Hastings CBD, the Arts Festival’s unruly stepchild, Fringe in the ’Stings is back with a vengeance. Nominally cancelled last year, it was replaced by Safe As, a covid compliant mini festival comprised of mostly local shows. This year restrictions are lifted, and the net has been cast wide drawing in a range of performances from the Bay and beyond.

Cast from the mould of the iconic Edinburgh Fringe and affiliated with New Zealand Fringe, this festival is founded on the principles of inclusion and experimentation. Ticket prices are kept low, and events run one after the other throughout the day and night so you can experience a cultural pick ’n’ mix, flowing from show to show absorbing the anarchic creative atmosphere this festival inspires. Novice performers are supported and encouraged to have a go, and seasoned makers given a platform for more unusual projects.

Fringe in the ’Stings runs in the first two weekends of October, just before the Arts Festival, a joyful celebration offering music and dance, puppets and poetry, comedy and drama, pop up street performances and visual arts. Centred around Heretaunga Street’s 200 block, Common Room and Spaceship

78 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

are its two main venues with happenings and activations occurring in Albert Square and the surrounding streets, and special shows hosted in satellite locations.

Fringe in the ’Stings is run on love and a shoestring, powered by an army of volunteers passionate about bringing unusual and affordable art to the people of Heretaunga. Its existence is a testimony to the community of creatives that have sprung up around town, banding together to make something strange and lovely, a genuine expression of the vast and diverse appetite for art on the fringes of the ’stings. fringeinthestings.co.nz 30 September/1 October/ 7/8 October

Sport Hawke’s Bay exists to enhance the health and wellbeing of Hawke’s Bay by influencing, enabling and supporting our communities to be more physically active.

Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa is a partnership between Sport NZ and Sport Hawke’s Bay that supports programmes or projects that focus on play, active recreation and sport experiences for tamariki and rangatahi. Applications are submitted from a wide range of organisations, all working to activate young people across the region. Sport Hawke’s Bay has $680,000 to distribute across Hawke’s Bay annually.

all of whom are providing quality experiences for our tamariki and rangatahi.

Kate Benny, Community Partnership Advisor says “It is great to see applicants listening to participants and providing opportunities for them to be active in a way that they want to be. For the coming year, we encourage organisations to work alongside our young people and involve them more in the planning of the project.”

JUNE 2021 - JULY 2022 SUMMARY Sport Hawke’s Bay is proud to be in a position where we can support new initiatives being established in Hawke’s Bay that support our young people to get active. Over the past 12 months, we have supported over 100 organisations,

Funding was spread across the Hawke’s Bay region, with $63,020 going to Play projects, $391,471 to Active Recreation and $232,970 to Sport. Of this funding 30% went to Napier based projects, 27% to Hastings, 10% to Wairoa, 7% to Central Hawke’s Bay with the remaining 26% to regionally focussed projects.

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The Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Festival has come a long way since its birth as The Hastings Festival of Writers: a series of events at the Te Mata Estate in the barrel rooms of the winery. It swiftly gained a reputation as ‘the’ festival for fine writers and hospitality. After all the companionship of a table of like-minded friends mulling over the pleasures of poetry and prose while sipping a fine drop and munching on fine fare is synonymous with our region. Here, chair Louise Ward introduces us to some of our finest.

Let’s start the conversation Story by Louise Ward Photos by Florence Charvin

Dear Reader, Six fairly ordinary looking humans have once more removed their spectacles, entered the telephone box, and donned their capes of miraculousness to bring you … Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Festival 2022! These shapeshifters are Maureen Roache, Carla Crosbie, Catherine Robertson, Josephine Carpenter, Brandi Dixon and me.

LEFT TO RIGHT: Maureen Roache, Carla Crosbie, Catherine Robertson, Josephine Carpenter, Louise Ward and Brandi Dixon.

Why do we do it, and what’s going on?

When putting together a programme we must keep in mind our kaupapa, the actual point of what we’re doing.

Absolutely it is to have fun and entertain people, but we must reach as wide an audience as possible. It’s called a Readers and Writers Festival because it’s for readers – all of them.

And if you are not a reader, we would like to encourage you to become one, because not only do you need to read to access basic life stuff, reading improves sleep, general knowledge, motivation, concentration and focus, it teaches empathy, reduces stress, sets a positive example, slows cognitive decline. I could go on, but I will not – you know how to Google.

So, we’ve established that it’s an essential service to society (excuse me whilst I ruffle my cape). What do we need to include to inspire those readers and grab their attention when competition for it is fierce? Publishers are rather good at monitoring trends

so that’s a good place to start – what does the publishing programme look like for the coming year, or what’s been happening that has dominated conversations?

This year, we have a session entitled Imagining Decolonisation: Continuing the Legacy of Moana Jackson. The topic is one that underpins most issues in Aotearoa New Zealand; whatever your opinion, colonisation and its ongoing ripples affect every person living in this country. This session is free, entirely funded by Hawke’s Bay Readers and Writers Trust and our sponsors.

Ali Tamainu is Pou Ārahi – Māori Advisor for Hastings District Libraries, and she will be facilitating this session, a kōrero between Mereana Pitman, MNZM, family violence prevention trainer and facilitator; Dr Hinemoa Elder, writer and child and adolescent psychiatrist; and Dr Monty Soutar, ONZM, historian, writer, teacher, soldier, university lecturer, iwi chief executive, civil servant.

Ali says, “Decolonisation is a process and implores a person to dig deep within themselves to determine what decolonisation might look like for them, and the flame for change starts when you understand colonisation.

Igniting that spark begins with conversations and an open mind that will force you to confront uncomfortable truths about yourself, even if those truths exist in a time and place beyond your reach and influence. The beauty in the journey is that you have such knowledge about the past and present and can start preparing for a future

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 81

that looks distinctively yours.”

It’s not scary, but full of hope. This session will delve into these ideas in a positive, future focused way.

It’s not only readers that get the benefits of a Festival though. Cristina Sanders is the author of two novels for grown-ups, Jerningham and Mrs Jewell and the Wreck of the General Grant, as well as an award-winning young adult novel, Displaced. Cristina feels validated by an invitation to appear: “Being selected to present at a Festival is like a medal for an author.

It’s a nod of recognition from some dynamic people that what you do in your lonely room for years on end is not a self-absorbed waste of a life but creating something for others to enjoy.

A live audience is a reward for all that loneliness. Book sales are nice, but people turning up to hear more about a story because they have read it and enjoyed it is a huge encouragement.

It is terrifying, but a packed room of expectant readers is what success looks like to an author.”

A common piece of feedback from authors we’ve hosted is that it’s a great experience to be part of a writing community and hang out with other writers. To this end, we release the full programme to our authors early so they can have a look at what’s going on and decide if they’d like to spend more time than is strictly necessary for their gig, so they can hang out, meet other authors and talk writing. Cristina describes the experience thus: “Festivals are where covens of writers assemble. It’s the collective spirit in an otherwise mostly solitary job – the water cooler of a writer’s life, a place to meet new friends, hear the gossip, see what’s hot, check the industry barometer. It is a relief, after months of intense emotional exhaustion and stress, to surface from wherever you’ve been (and I’ve been castaway on a sub-Antarctic rock for a couple of years) and swap gossip with the others who have come back from fighting Taniwha or investigating grisly murders or wherever their weird brains have taken them. Writers’ festivals always are high spirited and fun because of that release – when the authors are unchained from their brains and go out frolicking.”

It’s worth it just to come and witness frolicking authors, isn’t it?

Residents of and visitors to Napier and Hastings in previous years may have noticed Becky Manawatu leading Kyle Mewburn astray in Matisse wine bar; Paul Cleave catching the rugby in

82 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

“Being selected to present at a Festival is like a medal for an author. It’s a nod of recognition from some dynamic people that what you do in your lonely room for years on end is not a self-absorbed waste of a life but creating something for others to enjoy.”

CRISTINA SANDERS

Napier; J.P. Pomare having a pint with Marty Smith in the Globe when it was the Emporium. Jack Heath finished one of his kids’ novels on my sofa one year (more or less in the same spot Neil Gaiman sat one time … and yes, I am absolutely name dropping and showing off and you know you would too).

Inviting your local talent is key, and there’s a lot of it out there. Cristina (Havelock North) will be joining young adult authors Aaron Topp (Central Hawke’s Bay) and Keryn Powell (Napier) in a session entitled To the Sea. All three have stories immersed in the ocean, dealing with climate change, legend, prophecy, shipwreck, and storms. The pull of the moana is strong for these authors and Aaron, a keen surfer, will also be hosting a workshop for aspiring young writers on how to create action packed sports adventures.

Back to the something for everyone.

We must think about what a Hawke’s Bay audience is, and what they want.

If we can’t get bums on seats, what’s the point, right? Traditionally, sessions from writers on cooking and gardening are extremely popular. Annabel Langbein and Kath Irvine were hugely informative and entertaining last year, and the session with Alexandra Tylee and Allyson Gofton a few years back is still spoken of in hushed, reverential tones as one of the best sessions ever.

This year we bring you the authors of the wildly successful books Two Raw Sisters and Salad. I think every Kiwi home now has a copy of the latter judging on sales figures. At around the time of this year’s Festival, Margo and Rosa Flanagan, the raw sisters themselves, are releasing a book entitled Simple Fancy and they are coming to tell us all about it. These women are smart, dynamic, and skilled at making healthy food appealing and delicious. So, who

are they, and how do they do it? Lizzie Russell will tease their story out.

Oh hey, we’re allowed to talk about menopause now, right? It happens to about half the population and varies in its symptoms and degrees of nightmarishness. Nicky Pellegrino (Don’t Sweat It) and Niki Bezzant (This Changes Everything) are authors of two of the biggest books on menopause in Aotearoa and together with Dr Samantha Newman, will create a joyful, open, and safe space in which to discuss this crazy, crazy thing. Bring a crowd, grab a glass of something and let’s talk, then we can all go and see Urzila Carlsson afterwards. What a night.

What about the geeks, I hear you cry? What is a Festival without a Dungeons and Dragons inspired novel launch and a large, multi-player DnD extravaganza? Fear not. Gareth Ward (yes, relation) is releasing Tarquin the Honest: The Hand of Glodd, a comic fantasy adventure featuring the universe’s most honest wizard and his sandwich scoffing friend. Dust off your robes and stay for a raucous, high rolling game of DnD. All skill levels are welcome – Dungeon Masters will be provided. (If you don’t know what that is, just come along and hurl yourself into something new and so much fun.)

There’s more. I’ve not even mentioned Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, Nafanua Kersel, Sisilia Eteuati, Max Rashbrooke, Charlotte Grimshaw, Charity Norman, and Catherine Robertson.

I urge you to check out the whole Readers and Writers programme, nestled within the loving arms of the wider Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival. It’s happening right here on our doorstep, and we are so, so lucky. Come. Be challenged and inspired, educated, and confronted, amused, and entertained.

We look forward to seeing you, all.

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Culture

WEL L B E I N G / K AT E M C L E AY

Her patient fight “Waves will calm, the mind will be set free.”

Photos: Pippa Marffy

This wellbeing column takes a deep bow to New Zealand’s Mental Health Awareness Week – an annual campaign that aims to help Kiwis understand what boosts their wellbeing and improves mental health.

We talked to courageous and truly inspiring young Hawke’s Bay author and poet, Catie Nettlingham, who is set to launch her first book, Her Patient Fight, in September. Catie’s book is a collection of poetry chronicling her journey over the last four years through mental illness.

84 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

CATIE NETTLINGHAM

It is a story of hope, change and inspiration.

When Catie left high school to go to university, the big change in lifestyle and pressures surrounding this caused Bi-polar to develop. The initial onset of anxiety and depression prompted her to seek treatment through the university GP. She was given medication without any follow through or offer of additional services. She kept returning to the GP as she knew she wasn’t feeling right until she eventually crashed and returned home to Hawke’s Bay. Once back she was admitted into the mental health unit and that is when treatment and her recovery really started. “I feel I was very lucky to get a lot of support from the services

available in Hawke’s Bay. The staff were so amazing, so kind and caring.”

She went on to talk about how underfunded the sector is, but also felt that there was not enough credit for what is happening. “I’m aware I’m one of the lucky ones who got the help they needed. Especially taking it back to my initial experience of falling through the system. But there is a lot of amazing work happening with people who have severe mental illness.”

Catie is an advocate for taking medication. “You can do therapy, mindfulness and lots of different things, but when you are severely unwell with a chemical imbalance, taking medication for me was the number one treatment.” She also praised the support

“This is the life I have fought for and now I want to make the most of it.”

CATIE NETTLINGHAM

Who to contact in a mental health crisis?

she received from family, friends and community in Hawke’s Bay. “It was a huge help having that support system.

It saved my life really.”

Catie also credits being open to talk about her own experiences with mental illness with her loved ones and people she felt comfortable with. “No one is going to help you if they don’t know you are struggling.”

She talked of the challenge of having to change tack in her life in order to put her health first. “It can be such a lonely experience as it is so individual for each person. Initially it can be hard to talk about as you don’t really understand it yourself. I thought people would judge me more than they did.

I think I had a fear that people would misunderstand, but what I found was that while some people didn’t really understand, they were open to learning and listening. As I processed what happened to me I became more open to talking about it and people cared and listened.”

Catie’s passion going forward is to keep spreading hope and awareness around mental health and wellbeing.

She wrote her book, Her Patient Fight, not only for her own processing but to inspire other people who might be in the thick of it. It gives an insight into mood disorders and anxiety and what it’s like from someone who has actually been there. It covers what helped her in recovery and finishes with inspiration and what keeps her going each day.

While Catie continues to take life one a day at a time prioritising her wellbeing, she is currently also working, caring for people with intellectual disabilities. She is planning on returning to studies. And meantime is preparing for her book launch on September the 9th.

Copies of Catie’s book can be ordered through www.catienwriting.com

1. If there is an emergency phone 111 (if anyone is in immediate physical danger) 2. Or go to the nearest hospital emergency department (ED) 3. Phone your local DHB Mental Health Crisis Team (CARTT Team) Helpline 0800 611116

Need to talk to someone else?

Tukituki MP Anna Lorck with Youth MP and former • Free call or text 1737Karamu any timeHigh for School student Keelan Heesterman. support from a trained counsellor • Lifeline: 0800 543 354 (0800 LIFELINE) or free text 4357 (HELP) • Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO) • Youthline: 0800 376 633, free text 234 You are standing proud for your peers and for the • Samaritans: future of our region.

0800 726 666

Congratulations to all our school leaders across Hawke’s Bay

Anna Lorck MP for Tukituki

You have started your year of leadership at a Catie’s Wellbeingtime in our history where school life, your learning environment and how you keep connected with Wisdom friends and teachers has certainly changed from when “I’m out meeting with • Your health is the most you began in Year 9. Who would have imagined that important thing local communities, mask wearing would basically become part of the • Stay connected uniform, and yet as young people always do, you rise to • Things in life don’t always have please get in touch to be high pressure the challenge, adapt and make the most of technology a visit or also teach us a thingto or organise two!

• Take time to do what to you enjoy.

book an appointment at my office.”

• Set up good systemsWith and healthy five daughters who, like me have grown up and routines when you aregone well around to school here, I am forever learning more by exercise, diet, connection, sleep listening to the younger generation’s ideas for a better • Notice when your routines are world, for Climate Change, for wellbeing. I know you Electorate office slipping and use this as a sign that will keep making the most of every 06 8701 470opportunity ahead you need to slow down and put more now and as you continue on your own journey for Karamu Chambers time into yourself lifetime success.

Keep flying high.

129 Queen St East • Know your red flag to go get help and who you will reach out to Hastings • Get in touch with GP and health anna.lorck@parliament.govt.nz professionals if you have concerns To keep up to date about your mental health Yourup local Tukituki sign forMP myfor e-news: • Mental illness is treatable and it can Follow me on Facebook: lorcktalk@parliament.govt.nz be managed. Keep hold of that.

Anna Lorck /AnnaLorckMP

Kate McLeay a mindfulness mentor, yoga teacher and retreat host based out at Cape South Country Estate and Wellness Retreat near Waimarama in Hawke’s Bay. www.katemcleay.com

06 870 1470 anna.lorck@parliament.govt.nz

Authorised by Anna Lorck MP, Parliament Buildings, Wellington

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER • BAYBUZZ • 85 Authorised by Anna Lorck MP, 129 Queen Street East,2022 Hastings

Culture FO O D / I A N T H O M AS Nothing tastes as good as the memory of food shared with friends on an adventure

Pies worth leaving home for Midway through my quest to find the Bay’s best pies I fell into a food coma and lost focus.

I had a nightmare that I was drowning in a flakey sea of mediocre gravy.

I awoke ruminating on the meaning of pie, midway through a pastry encrusted existential crisis: Is it even possible to find a great pie? Isn’t a pie just a pie?

Is it instead an enigmatic bite of nostalgia, a fond food memory, dependent on contextual support to evoke that recollection of unctuous warmth and comfort? Were the happy memories created on a road trip transferred to the pie eaten on the journey? Probably. Nothing tastes as good as the memory of food shared with friends on an adventure.

My current adventure had a clear mission: To find the Destination Pies Of The Bay – pies worth leaving home for.

Gathering myself together, I found six pies worth talking about. Actually I found seven, but that includes the Paetiki Bakery in Taupō (worth a visit on your next trip up the island). The pies that made the top list are those that have well-crafted fillings wrapped in a structurally sound and tasty pastry case. All are sold hot in paper bags ready-to-eat. Comfort food munched in the comfort of a car, van, or truck.

In no particular order, here are my favourites: (I feel as if I should be wearing a tuxedo and opening an envelope).

86 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Hollies Bakery, Swansea Road, Flaxmere – Steak and cheese pie A stoutly proportioned offering in which the steak is well represented and the cheese plays an appropriate supporting role. A well-engineered crust allows just the right amount of flakey pastry to cascade onto my shirt.

New Century Bakery, Taradale Road Potato top pie Superb mash topping over a traditional mince filling. Not the agar-like suspension but a savoury mince mixture that earns the label of ‘proper’.

Photos by Florence Charvin

The Pie Man Maraenui, Bledisloe Road, Maraenui – Steak and cheese pie Certainly worth the short trip out to town. Again the steak to cheese ratio is spot on. I’m not looking for a meat lover’s pizza in a pie. I’m looking for cheese in a supporting role.

Holly Bacon, Warren Street, Hastings – Beef and bacon pie Think rich casserole style beef and bacon. A meal-size pie, best eaten late morning before they run out. Famous for their bacon and ham products, Holly Bacon’s foray into cafe/kitchen is a hit.

Shaneo’s Bakery Cnr St Aubyn and Hastings Street, Hastings – Smoked brisket pie A twist on the steak and cheese with the substitution of smoked brisket. A well balanced smokey flavour, a little cheese encased in buttery pastry.

I can imagine emails to the editor are already being bashed out bemoaning the bakeries that I have omitted, so strongly are pie opinions held by those who have the pie habit

New Century Bakery, Taradale Road – Steak pie The best pastry of all the pies I tasted.

A delightful crunch to the base pastry and, once again, a ‘proper’ meat filling.

As a good friend once told me, “A steak pie requires steak, not just meat.”

Wise words.

There you have it. Those are the pies good enough to go out of your way for, to make a special journey for. Disregard the dyspepsia and grab them all in one magnificent pie excursion. Take a wingman along to share the load.

My guess is that there are about 100 places to buy a hot pie between Bayview and Hastings. In order to compare like with like I also limited myself to traditional flavours. There are more exotic fillings available that our grandads wouldn’t recognise. I decided that these probably relied on bought-in flavour bases rather than from-scratch gravy formulations.

I’ve also omitted those that use more thickener than I deem appropriate.

I can imagine emails to the editor are already being bashed out bemoaning the bakeries that I have omitted, so strongly are pie opinions held by those who have the pie habit.

I haven’t paid too much attention to the prices. Certainly there’s been lots of comment from my unpaid advisors on how much more expensive pies are than they used to be. I can’t argue with that although I would like to point out that prices do go up.

The ‘A list’ pies ranged from about $6 to $9. Amongst other foodon-the-run options I think that’s expectable, if not acceptable to some.

I suggest that we get used to paying good money for good pies and keep supporting the kiwi institutions that make them. In my mind if a long black coffee is worth $4.50 then a pie of quality is certainly worth $7 or more.

Let’s not worry about pie crumbs in those hard-to-clean places by the gear stick or mince stained pants … pledge support for the pie persons of our area.

Culture W I N E / Y VO N N E LO R K I N

Monowai Rocks!

Photos by Tom Allan Things don’t happen slow with Emma Lowe. “I said to Marcelo, if you come to New Zealand and decide you like it and want to stay, then we’re going to have to get married,” she shrugs. “So he came here on a fiancé visa and nine months later we’d had a wedding, had vines in the ground, a winery about to be built and babies a few years later.”

Located on the Crownthorpe Terraces, 40 minutes drive west of both Napier and Hastings on the quiet vastness of Matapiro Road, the entrance to Monowai Estate sits just past the stately, historic, Charles Natuschdesigned Matapiro Station Homestead and directly opposite the stately, historic, Natusch-designed St Georges Memorial Chapel. It’s the westernmost winery in the region and it’s pretty much the middle of nowhere.

There are lots of ways to describe Monowai Estate. Quiet achiever might be one. ‘Under the radar’ would be another. While it’s true that in the 20 years since they launched, Kiwi winemaker Emma and her Chilean husband Marcelo Nunez have notched up an impressive array of awards and an increasing presence on restaurant wine lists around the country, it’s also true that many Kiwi wine lovers have never heard of them. They are so far under the radar they’ve been practically subterranean.

The first thing I notice walking into Emma’s office is an old, well-worn, La-Z-Boy, which Emma says has soothed many a tired body during the 20 years of long harvest shifts. “It’s

the most important piece of furniture here,” she says. Marcelo bursts into the room, frantic from prepping for an upcoming sustainability audit and hurls himself into the chair. Crack!

Something inside the old seat gives way, but there’s no time to grieve.

Monowai began in the early 2000’s when Emma’s beef-farming parents, Norman and Lynette Lowe, looked to lure their daughter home from abroad by purchasing land to grow a vineyard. She’d trained in Adelaide and California then began working in France, South Africa and Switzerland before meeting Marcelo in Chile while working for an English wine consultancy. “They liked hiring Kiwis because we’re detail-oriented and good at doing the paperwork” she says, glancing at Marcelo. “Always on about the paperwork!” he laughs, rolling his eyes.

They both worked (as friends) at a 5 million litre winery in Colchagua in an isolated community. So, with not much to do outside of work, romance soon blossomed. When Lynette called with a ‘vineyard at home’ proposition, “The offer was too good to not do it,” smiles Emma. “I had no idea where I was coming to,” shrugged Marcelo, “but I follow her.” Much to the sadness of his very close-knit family. “It was very hard on my mother. I had been away before when I joined the army for a year’s service like most young Chileans, but it was still hard for her.”

The task of turning the 25ha property into 22ha of vineyard began instantly upon arrival. “First we had to clear the

Out here in the RD9, the Ngaruroro River, carving its way oceanward from the Kaweka Range, has left terraces littered with large boulders that locals not-so-lovingly refer to as ‘Matapiro swedes’.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 89

stones from all the earthworks that’d taken place,” Emma says, locking eyes with Marcelo in a split-second acknowledgement of a shared trauma.

These weren’t just any old stones. Out here in the RD9, the Ngaruroro River, carving its way oceanward from the Kaweka Range, has left terraces littered with large boulders that locals not-solovingly refer to as ‘Matapiro swedes’.

90 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Tonnes of stones cleared from the property are stacked alongside the winery and serve not only for sculptural effect, but as a painful reminder of the spine-straining effort it took to build their dream. “It wasn’t just rocks either,” adds Emma, “a large shelter belt had to be cleared, and the tree roots, my god, we had to dig them out and it literally took …” Marcelo finishes

her sentence, “Weeks and days and months.” “Mum drove the tractor pulling a big tip-trailer and we followed her, clearing the rocks and roots by hand.” The vines were planted in the heat and the dust. “We wore ski masks.

We were scarred for life,” Emma adds.

“We love the idea of experimenting with inter-row cover crops, but we can’t bring ourselves to cultivate the

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ground for fear of all the extra stones that’d appear!”

Emma designed the winery herself.

It was completed in just 5 months back in 2005 and it’s perfectly purposed for their needs. Perfectly except for one tap, which Marcelo firmly points out, is in the wrong place. “Let’s not dwell,” I say, diverting to other challenges.

Marcelo’s biggest mission was

learning English. “So hard,” he laments. “Despite having an amazing English teacher in high school, I was actually a terrible student, but he believed in me when I didn’t. He told me one day I’d do amazing things and possibly travel far away from my country. I wish he could see what I am doing now. He would be proud.” To force him to improve his English, Emma assigned

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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022 • BAYBUZZ • 91

“It’s the most important piece of furniture here.”

Marcelo bursts into the room, frantic from prepping for an upcoming sustainability audit and hurls himself into the chair.

Crack! Something inside the old seat gives way, but there’s no time to grieve.

him all winery related phone calls.

“Suddenly he had to have conversations and it worked. But when I went to Chile, I had no choice!” she laughs, “Nobody spoke English.”

Extremely house-proud, Marcelo loves it when the vines have all been trimmed, the rows mowed, and it all looks neat as a pin. His other loves are horses (he has two), chickens, “I’d farm chickens if I wasn’t growing wine because it has great cashflow, plus I love chickens.” And (because the mighty Ngaruroro River borders their entire property), trout fishing.

Emma’s favourite gadget is her crossflow filter. Very geeky, but also essential when you’re pumping an average of 240 tonnes of fruit through your winery each year. “The most we ever did was 270 tonne but ended up

92 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

fermenting merlot in the picking bins!” she laughs.

They’re also passionate compost makers, blending wood chip, pea hay and grape waste together to spread around the base of the vines to keep them healthy. Speaking of health, an extensive, native regeneration plan is also underway along the bank between the vineyard and river where invasive blackberry was cleared, and flaxes, kōwhai and mānuka planted to complement existing natives. The winery is also cloaked in flaxes, helping it blend into the landscape. And what a landscape it is. “We sometimes forget how lucky we are to live somewhere so stunning.” Emma locks eyes with Marcelo and they both nod. “We’re reminded every time visitors come here and say ‘wow’”.

With new labels designed by Havelock North firm Font, Emma is working on expanding their domestic distribution and upping their game on social media. But after 20 years, together with children Anita (14) and Lucas (11), they now have a dynamic, sustainable, expanding business and the hard graft is paying off. “It had to work. We had no choice,” shrugs Marcelo. “I used to think it was all so hard, hard, hard, but looking back, I’m so proud of what we’ve made.” He hoists himself out of the old La-Z-Boy, ready to launch back into a wintery afternoon of pruning. “It’s no chicken farm, but I love it. Some days I can’t believe it.”

Explore the Monowai wines and the story at monowai.co.nz

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Culture B O O KS / LO UI S E WA R D

A way with words Some books tell a damn good yarn, some provoke, and some linger in the mind, the beauty of their prose warming the soul.

These three novels revel in the richness of language and the power of a word well turned.

If you’re going to entitle your novel Defenestrate, you’d better follow through with some more words of weirdness and wonder. Renée Branum does so, with aplomb.

The novel tells the story of Marta and Nick, twins born into a family plagued by a falling curse. Their greatgreat grandfather pushed a man to his death in Prague in 1835 and since then, generations have fallen to their deaths. It’s Nick who falls, and Marta who tells the story of their close bond, their panic driven mother, their years in America and in Prague, trying to beat the curse and find out who they really are.

Branum is the queen of the simile, my pencil scratching underneath sentences of sheer beauty as I read. A woman’s body slams from a height into a car bonnet, ‘the rumpled metal forming around her like the silken sheets of a deep soft bed.’ A man is observed at an ice rink, ‘the blades of his skates making jagged, punctuated lines, like dashes of Morse code.’ And my favourite, concerning the twins’ father’s heart condition, ‘the danger was elsewhere… like the rot surrounding a cherry pit.’

Shivers.

It’s not just the richness of language that marks this book as a beauty, but the themes on which it dwells.

Falling, yes, but also the act of being seen, always observed when in the company of others. The twins are obsessed with Buster Keaton and Marta muses on the incredibly dangerous stunts he filmed, his crew unwilling to watch: ‘They all looked away, hiding their faces, while Keaton did not flinch, did not blink, the camera’s lens the only eye to meet his.’ It’s mind blowing.

94 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

Kate de Goldi is a fan of the word and in Eddy, Eddy she wields it as a weapon and a salve.

Eddy is a nineteen year old soul, brought up by his Uncle Brain. Stuff is going on for Eddy: some kind of catastrophic exit from his Catholic high school, a caustically clever but needy best friend in Thos More, a series of unsatisfactory jobs.

Eddy is aware of the influence that Brain has had upon the formation of his character, and worries that he’s a boy aging too soon. He freaks out at Thos’s place one night, terrified that he sounded just like Brain. Thos replies.

‘No more than usual,’ he concluded.

Eddy was appalled. ‘It’s the vocabulary,’ said Thos. ‘How many fourteenyear-olds say concatenation?’

Eddy tries to supress his Brain-like wordage after this incident, vowing to live a ‘two-syllable life.’ It doesn’t work of course, because he loves it.

Eddy’s current job is pet minding, and this is the catalyst for him to meet, and reacquaint with, the extraordinary people who will weave through the story with him. It also provides opportunity for humour – example: Mother the constipated (male) cockatoo: ‘Eddy should expect some semi-aggressive openers and a salty vocabulary.’

Eddy has had some major trauma in his young life and it is gently unwound and sorted throughout the story. He, and his accompanying human and animal friends, work it out together. It’s delightful.

Babel is a doozy of a novel by R.F. Kuang. Described as an arcane history, it charts the journey of four students (Chinese, Indian, Haitian and English) in the Royal Institute of Translation at the University of Oxford. The seat of this faculty is Babel Tower, an eight storey edifice of libraries, offices and workshops housing the country’s most valuable scholars.

Babel is where words are manipulated onto bars of silver, rendering the metal magical and powerful. A match-pair can power steam trains, heal wounds, hold up buildings and forge protective wards.

Our main protagonist is Robin Swift, a child of Canton. At about ten years old Robin’s family are struck by cholera. He is on the verge of death, his family having already perished around him, when Professor Robert Lovell arrives and offers him an opportunity: come to England, study hard, become a translator at the fabled Babel Tower.

What Kuang weaves is a complex tale of power, corrupted politics and colonisation. The dreaming spires of Oxford are beautiful, filled with genius minds doing prodigious work. But what they’re really doing is holding up an Empire that relies on pillaging other countries and cultures to retain its power. Robin and his cohort of ‘foreigners’ are essential, but still seen as other, barely human and only accepted because their skills are essential.

Three very different novels exploring the deepest longings of humanity, linked by a richness of language and an acknowledgement of its beauty and importance.

Immerse yourself.

Culture MO U T H Y B R OA D / JES S S O UTA R B A RRON

Road rage Remember on Wednesday when you took the corner too quick on an amber and the lady on the diagonal sat on her horn so long your ears are still ringing?

That was me.

Or, last night, you parked your fat tyre across the white line and took up two parks at Kmart instead of one. When you got back to your loser-cruiser there was an offensive message left in the dust on the back window. Me. Or, yesterday, you over-took that hatch-back coming past Awatoto and you got the middle finger. Also me.

I have a problem with driving. Not my own of course – my driving is impeccable – yours. And every other person from Wairoa to Waipawa.

I don’t hate other drivers, I love them. I love that they do things that give me a burst of adrenaline to fuel a decent “Fuck you!”. I love that I can blow off steam, shout obscenities at you and you can’t hear me. And I have Jim Mora and The Panel up so loud neither can I really, but it feels good.

I go looking for opportunities to rage on the road. Excellent intersections that guarantee quality consternation are the corner of Grove and Karamu, and the point where Georges Drive meets Kennedy Road. Try turning right at those and you’ll be ranting too.

At the latter, I once got pulled over for ‘tutting’. A police officer was coming in one direction, me the other.

He swooped around in front (turning right) and frazzled me. So I tooted.

Knocking my tongue on my upper palette, I waggled my pointer and shook my head. Next thing, he’s throwing a u-ie and coming up behind. I pull over my jalopy. He gets out of his. Walks up, tells me to wind down the window, waits. About six minutes later … (I was driving a 1989 Honda Civic at this stage and those winders stick like a (insert

96 • BAYBUZZ • SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2022

I have a problem with driving. Not my own of course – my driving is impeccable – yours. And every other person from Wairoa to Waipawa.

favourite slur here) ... glowering over his aviators, he says, in his best ‘Ponch and Jon’ voice: “Did you just tut me?”

It doesn’t take much to get people riled. If they’re in the mood for argybargy it just takes a miss-timed bit of passive-aggression. And, most of the time I am not passive-aggressive when it comes to berating my fellow-commuters, I’m just aggressive.

My main beef is suburban monster trucks: those massive (br)utes that belong in the Outback, roo-shooters mounted on the mud guards, tyres up to my hip, cab so high you need a nerf bar to clamber in. Perfect for the trek up to the Village for some seal-skin loafers, or the blat down to Vetro for goose-liver pate. Perfect too for driving straight over my 1997 Suzuki Swift (I’ve upgraded since the Civic) without even noticing. Not for those gas-guzzlers are judder bars, chicanes or even the curb … these all-terrain hell-hounds simply ride right on over.

I’d shake my fist at each and every one but none would notice, they’ve got that many blind spots.

I don’t mind old people driving. You know where you are with old drivers: You’re behind them and you’re going to be late. Old people deserve the right to choose whichever lane they like … take both! Old people deserve to ignore zebra crossings. Or better still park up at them and wait ‘til a pedestrian comes along just so they can do one of those Shakespearean flourishes

that screams chivalry without saying a word. Plus, anyone over 80 has to redo their licence every year so they’re all probably better drivers than you or me.

For their driving test, there should be a special section for anyone domiciled in the ‘Stings, entitled Roundabouts.

We have 63 of them in Hastings and we still don’t know how to use them correctly. It’s simple, really.

Come up to the roundabout, ascertain whether you will be exiting the roundabout at less or more than a 180 degree angle, indicate left for yes, or right if the angle is X-180, X being a sum total of the angle at which you first entered said roundabout divided by the number you first thought of.

As you prepare to exit the roundabout subtract the first sum by 180 to the power of 4 and multiply that by the angle of the road, then indicate accordingly. Whatever you do, don’t flick your blinker just after you leave the roundabout, it’s an indicator not a confirmator, you bull’s pizzle.

I could mount a campaign (on a traffic island obviously). Or march in the streets (keeping safely to the footpath).

But instead, I shall rise above it.

If you can’t beat the beasts who think they own the road, you’ve got to join them. So I’m moving up to the biggest, boldest, bolshiest behemoth in town.

From there I can look down on the lot of you (literally). I can shake my fist, waggle my finger; I can curse you, critique your skills, and question where you even got your licence (back of a cereal box?). Plus, it only costs me $3 to go from here to there and back again.

Yes, you got it. From now on, I’m taking the bus.

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