BayBuzz Magazine - Nov/Dec 2012

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FROM THE EDITOR

HBRIC? What’s that?

BY ~ tom belford

Regional Council passes the heavy lifting on its dam to its investment company.

I write this fresh from a meeting of the Regional Council, where the decision was made to seek a resource consent, through a special Board of Inquiry process, for the proposed Central Hawke’s Bay water storage scheme.

Plenty has been written in this magazine about the $600 million dam project, including by its leading advocates, so I won’t re-hash the substantive issues here.

the record to date, ratepayers cannot be very reassured that input from informed skeptical parties will be sought or welcome.

Many in the community will be looking for signals from HBRIC’s leadership that they will run a transparent process and seek information from independent parties as they prepare their consent application and formulate financial plans.

And now a bit of BayBuzz housekeeping.

Indeed, very few substantive issues were raised in the discussion today; most that were came from Councillor Remmerswaal, who was also the only councillor to oppose moving the project to the resource consent application stage. Other councillors, already having concluded that the dam is the salvation of Hawke’s Bay, basically made clear that their fingers are crossed, eagerly anticipating a sign-off from the Board of Inquiry next year.

So what happens next?

To applause from the audience that filled the Council’s meeting room, Councillor Kirton noted that HBRC had not distinguished itself by its lack of transparency and handling of the public consultation process on these issues. He saw no evidence that the recommendations or concerns offered by Tukituki Choices submitters (i.e., the majority opposing the Council’s preferred course of action) had been taken aboard by HBRC staff.

He commented on the need for HBRC on a project of this importance to move from a “low trust to a high trust environment”.

Amen to that.

Exactly how that will happen is still murky, however. Because responsibility for progressing the dam resource consent application has now been handed to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Company (HBRIC), which is governed equally by three councillors and three private citizens – Andy Pearce (Chair), Jim Scotland and Sam Robinson.

What steps HBRIC will take, if any, to bring more transparency to the further process and earn greater public support remains to be seen.

As staff concedes, an enormous amount of detail work must ensue, both as the resource consent application is developed and as financial aspects of the project, including key elements of the farming economics presently assumed, are more deeply probed.

These preparations must proceed in tandem, before the final consent application sees daylight and is presented to central government, and the devil is clearly in the details. However, given

A few pages on, you will see our first Letters to the Editor page.

We receive heaps of comment on our stories and reaction to the magazine as a whole, but most of it has been face-to-face and of the general ‘You’re doing a good job’ variety. And we get a fair amount of comment online, but that almost always relates to my blog postings.

While BayBuzz readers can comment online, at whatever length and as often as you wish, we are also happy to publish readers’ views on our Letters to the Editor page. You can email us at editors@baybuzz.co.nz or mail us at BayBuzz, PO Box 8322, Havelock North. Of course that space is limited, so we ask you to be concise. And we reserve the right to triage and abridge letters as necessary.

Also, please check out page 55, where you’ll learn how to take our BayBuzz Reader Survey. We need your advice.

Please take advantage of these two opportunities – our Reader Survey and Letters to the Editor – to engage with BayBuzz and improve what we do.

WE NEED YOUR ADVICE TAKE OUR READER SURVEY ONLINE AT WWW.BAYBUZZ.CO.NZ

ISSUE No.9 : NOV / DEC 2012

THIS MONTH You couldn’t ask for a wider range of articles in this issue – the future of farming in our region, the report on Hawke’s Bay’s socioeconomic performance, your right to die, urban design, children in poverty, closing the rail line, the arts audience here in the Bay, parking tickets, and more.

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

FEATURES 16

Thinking Outside The Paddock

By Keith Newman

30

Hawke’s Bay Urban Futures – City v2.0

By Anthony Vile

36

Going Without In The Fruit Bowl

By Jessica Soutar Barron

46

Dragon Flies In The Tractor Radiator … A Good Sign

By Phyllis Tichinin

This publication uses vegetable based inks and environmentally responsible papers. The document is printed throughout on Sumo K Matt, which is FSC® certified and from responsible souces, manufactured under ISO 14001 Environmental management Systems.

8

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WANTED: SUPERSTAR FARMERS

By Tom Belford

What separates our top-performing farmers and growers from the average and the mediocre?

And how important is that to the Hawke’s Bay’s economy?

22

ON DEATH & DYING

By Mark Sweet

Pending legislation would give New Zealanders ‘end of life choice’. What are the issues and implications?

40

40

STRONG FUTURE RELIES ON CHILDREN

By Jessica Soutar Barron

In Hawke’s Bay, the very group we will all rely on so heavily in the future is the one currently getting the rawest deal.

44 WINDER REPORT

By Tom Belford A report on our region’s lagging socioeconomic performance, the role local government plays in those issues (and how well), and ways to move forward.

IDEAS & OPINIONS

CULTURE & LIFESTYLE

20

50

WILL A DAM BRING THEM BACK TO THE BAY? Stuart Nash

28

IN SUPPORT OF END OF LIFE CHOICE Dr Libby Smales

34

Announcing The Napier/ Gisborne Railway Party Tim Gilbertson

48

GETTING INSPIRED Claire Hague

Local Lifestyle, Global Dominion for Bay’s Hi-tech Ambassador Keith Newman

52

BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES Kay Bazzard

56

What’s Art Without An Audience?

Lizzie Russell

62

Yes, Art Happens South Of The Bombay Hills Roy Dunningham

TAKE THE BAYBUZZ READER SURVEY – p55

66

MARKING TIME Brendan Webb

THE BAYBUZZ TEAM > EDITOR Tom Belford Senior writers Jessica Soutar Barron, Keith Newman, Mark Sweet,Tom Belford columnists Brendan Webb, Claire Hague, David Trubridge, Des Ratima, Douglas Lloyd Jenkins, Elizabeth Sisson, Kay Bazzard, Lizzie Russell, Paul Paynter, Phyllis Tichinin, Roy Dunningham, Tim Gilbertson editor’s right hand Brooks Belford photographyTim Whittaker creative, design & production Steff @ Ed art assistant Julia Jameson advertising sales & distribution Tessa Tylee & Trevor Howes Online Mogul business manager Silke Whittaker printing Format Print

nov/ dec 2012

contributors > JESS SOUTAR BARRON Jess is a wordsmith and project manager whose past gigs have included time with Sky TV, Hastings District Council and Band, as well as three years as a communications manager with the Metropolitan Police Service.

She also produces Fruit Bowl Craft Jam and Pecha Kucha in the Bay. KEITH NEWMAN Keith is a journo with nearly 40-years’ experience across mainstream and trade media.

He’s won awards for writing about hi-tech, produces Musical Chairs programmes for Radio NZ and has published four books, one on the internet in New Zealand and three others on New Zealand history.

LIZZIE RUSSELL Lizzie grew up in Hawke’s Bay, and returned in 2010 after stints in Christchurch, Palmerston North, Wellington, Te Awamutu and Tokyo. She works at Hastings City Art Gallery and as a freelance writer, and is co-organiser of the Wildflower Sculpture Exhibition and the HB Readers and Writers Festival.

MARK SWEET Napier-born, Mark worked overseas in Hong Kong and Scotland, but returned to Hawke’s Bay, launching Pacifica restaurant.

Selected for the Mãori Literature Trust’s Te Papa Tupu programme where he was mentored in refining his just-released novel, Zhu Mao. He’s published Portrait & Opinion with Richard Brimmer.

TOM BELFORD Tom’s past includes the Carter White House, building Ted Turner’s first philanthropic organization, doing heaps of marketing consulting for major nonprofits and corporates.

Tom publishes BayBuzz and writes an acclaimed blog for professional NGO fundraisers and communicators in North America and Europe.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letters to the Editor Welcome to our new Letters to the Editor page. We encourage readers to criticize, expand upon or applaud our articles as you see fit. Each of our magazine articles is published online – www.baybuzz.co.nz – where you can always comment … at any length and as often as you like.

But we are also happy to publish a limited number of readers’ letters here. You can email us at editors@baybuzz.co.nz or mail us at BayBuzz, PO Box 8322, Havelock North.

I’d like to congratulate you and your team on a fantastic magazine. It is well written, thought-provoking and beautifully laid out.

Since returning to the Bay some months back, I have read two editions and have truly enjoyed both. Of special note is the balance achieved in BayBuzz stories and I’m particularly pleased - both as an interviewee and a reader - with Jessica’s story on mental health issues. It was not over-dramatised, which it so easily could have been - and has been my experience with magazine and newspaper coverage in the past.

I think your range and coverage of the topics of late has been just fantastic.

A real resource for the Hawke’s Bay, and crediting the readership with the intelligence they deserve, as well as enabling the public to access and give informed consideration to the current, relevant and important local issues. So well done!

MW

I think BayBuzz is a good read.

Kindest regards, Lindy Andrews

I was given a year’s subscription as a gift, now I’m hooked. So have decided to renew for another year!

Margi Butler

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

6

Also wanted to say well done for the article on depression-having been both a counsellor and sufferer in this field, I found the article pretty well balanced. One of the things which freed me up, if you like, was the advice from a psychiatrist to think of the illness as just like any other physical illness in terms of how and why and what you do to work it through, so removing the stigma and some of the nonsense surrounding the condition.

As a result of my work and training I came very much from an anti-drug treatment attitude, but I now know that all therapies have their value, as long as workers in the field realise this and remain open to all possibilities - it really is ‘horses for courses’ in treating this illness. The best book I found was The Zen Guide through Depression written by a counsellor who became ill and so saw both sides of the equation.

Cheers and thanks, JD

Just want to thank you so very much for BayBuzz. It is like a lifeline knowing there are you people out there with an honest approach to HB situation with an understanding of the needs and the courage to stand up to local govt ... I understand the huge commitment you and your league of trusty crusaders have undertaken doing what you do and want to thank you so very much ... you give us hope.

I offer heartfelt thanks to all of you who are keeping up the good fight against the criminal indifference displayed endlessly by those who are in charge of how things are decided in this once fair land.

Back in the 70s as a Values Party supporter … we thought that hopefully the message would get through – but no …

So this city girl born and bred moves to the glorious Tukituki Valley and revels in the beauty and peace. And learns that all is not well under the surface – eg. the river she loves to fish has turned into a polluted sewer.

Why do we rural land dwellers go to the trouble and expense of installing eco-septic systems for our waste, yet upstream tons of poo are let loose because the town sewerage is inadequate for purpose? And why do I maintain fencing along my river frontage to prevent stock from accessing the waterways, when so many neighbours blithely continue to graze the riverbanks willy-nilly?

And how does a super-expensive dam encouraging yet further polluting industry help reverse the already acknowledged and growing environmental degradation problem?

(Abridged) Rae Jager

PVM

Correction In our Sep/Oct edition, we mis-captioned this picture as Gary Sye. But that’s not Gary, it’s his brother Roy Sye, principal of Tamatea Intermediate, and it’s Roy who we interviewed for our education feature, A Is for Assessment. Sorry Roy!

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Situated at the end of Durham Drive, yet only minutes from Havelock North is possibly one of the finest modern homes built in Hawke’s Bay. Designed by Gavin Cooper, number 370 is nestled into the landscape with grounds that extend to 6 hectares providing protection to the home so that the far reaching views can never be built out. The living areas are expansive and all open up to the view that sweeps before you encompassing the ranges, the Heretaunga Plains and out to the Mahia Peninsula.

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Built in 2009 and beautifully crafted to the highest of standards this home is in a league of its own. Standing proud on approximately 1.10 hectares of expansive level grounds, this is grand living on an impressive floor plan of 827 sq m. The entry foyer connects to a series of elegant formal and informal rooms, including billiard room. The stunning kitchen with walk-in chiller will delight every chef. Connecting effortlessly to the outdoors with a beautiful green outlook to the olive grove and positioned

just minutes walk from the vibrant Havelock North Village.

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Situated in a magnificent elevated location, designed by Paris Magdalinos, and built in 2004 this contemporary home has been positioned to maximise sun, privacy, space, shelter and views. Some of the exceptional features that give this prominent property its ageless character include a wine cellar, loggia outdoor entertaining, in-ground pool, natural timbers, cathedral ceilings, Basalt stone and cedar shutters. You will be enriched by this architectural home as it offers the ultimate for Hawke’s Bay living only minutes to wineries, schools, Taradale village and Napier city.

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Wanted:

Farming Superstars BY ~ tom belford

What separates our top-performing farmers and growers from the average and the mediocre? How might the bar be raised? And how important is that to Hawke’s Bay’s economy?

Tom Belford investigates.

The stakes The recent Winder report on the Bay’s socioeconomic performance says this: “The Hawke’s Bay economy is driven by primary production, but is home to those sectors on New Zealand’s agribusiness complex that have been amongst the poorest performers over the last decade. The region’s economy is thin and vulnerable to external factors, including drought, global commodity prices, exchange rates and interest rates.”

To those uncontrollables, Winder could have added: increasing cost of fuel (driving up both on-farm and export transport expenses) and petroleum-based fertilizer inputs, and rising competition from other southern hemisphere producers with lower costs and greater scale.

Continued on Page 10 »

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

Talking with two successful farmers at a recent council event, the word that came up was ‘uncertainty’ – referring to the extraordinary degree of risk and the uncontrollables that farmers must contend with.

One said, “My dad’s advice was to just not waste time worrying about things I couldn’t control … to focus on the things I could.” The other seconded that advice: “I take it further and tell my kids, do not worry about something that may or may not happen in future ... that is stress!”

Good advice for all of us, but obviously easier said than done, especially for New Zealand farmers, who have worrisome suicide rates. Rural suicide rates are 50% higher than the level of urban areas, an issue on Federated Farmers’ radar.

NZ’s Chief Coroner attributes that to stress levels, the isolated nature of the job, and fluctuating prices and other uncontrollables.

Later that day, I received an email from another grower in the Bay, commenting on the cold snap that arrived the night before, bringing frost, and noting: “A frost like last night hammers process crops and tomatoes here are wiped out.”

Another day in the life of farming in Hawke’s Bay.

9

SUPERSTAR FARMING

HDC Councillor Ru Collin: too much tech sitting on shelf

Imagine an alternative reality where New Zealand was colonized not by England but rather Japan or China. In this reality, New Zealand would produce very different foods and beverages.

This is what the future potentially looks like. coriolis research

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

10

Optimists see these factors as cyclical or occasional in impact; pessimists (realists, perhaps?) see them as unrelenting trends.

Either way, it’s abundantly clear that the 40% or so of Hawke’s Bay’s economy driven by primary production is fragile.

And it’s an environment where only the most able producers and growers can truly and consistently prosper.

Predicting the next two years are likely to be gloomy for agriculture in the Bay, observers still like to say, as does the Winder report, that: “The longer term prospects for the regional economy are rosier. In a world where production becomes increasingly constrained by scarce water the productive capacity of New Zealand and Hawke’s Bay will become more valuable.”

That said, the Winder report also recommends that: “Hawke’s Bay will be more prosperous if it is able to diversify and significantly deepen its economy; and insulate itself to some degree from the cyclical nature of primary production.”

The challenge of ‘diversifying’ the Hawke’s Bay economy, while often noted in regional strategy papers, seems to overwhelm the imagination of our provincial leadership, so few concrete ideas or initiatives have ensued.

Discussion focuses instead on squeezing more out of the farming and growing sector, despite the ominous trends mentioned above.

The most frequently mentioned ideas for doing that are adding more value to what we produce (as opposed to simply selling the basic commodity), and attaining a ‘premium’ positioning in targeted global markets by capitalizing upon our ‘green’ … ‘pure’ … ‘natural’ image.

However, it’s not clear that farmers and growers themselves benefit from the ‘add value’ strategy, as those returns tend to accrue to processors like McCain’s and Watties, whose profits head offshore. The ‘premium positioning’ strategy arguably

could deliver more value directly to the folks with dirt under their fingernails.

Underneath all this, however, is the core issue of farm productivity. Some farmers and growers are better than others at what they do … just as some doctors, teachers and chefs are. And maybe some are simply unlucky or lack critical mass.

Regularly we see signs in the media, trade publications and studies, and dinner party conversations that all is not well: • Another winery – this time Matariki – in liquidation.

• Seven dairy farms in Patoka, owing over $40 million, are in receivership.

• Below breakeven dairy payout expected to put even the best dairy farmers under duress.

• The Psa-V vine disease attacking kiwifruit (causing industry-wide losses of $500 million) arrives in Hawke’s Bay; meantime, growers nationwide who produce 70% of kiwifruit volume are not profitable.

From there, the Government’s Economic Growth Agenda calls for the near trebling of the real value of agri-food exports, from $20 billion to $58 billion (2009 figures).

Coriolis Research points out that Canterbury is the size of Denmark, but Denmark produces over twice as much food and beverage as NZ, with only a slightly higher population. Italy is the same size as NZ, but feeds its larger population (60 million) and still exports twice as much food and beverage as NZ. The experts behind A Call to Arms (which included local wine entrepreneur Graeme Avery) comment that meeting the Government growth goal would require a compound annual growth rate of around 7%. Over the past 25 years this growth rate has been around 3%, and they estimate that ‘published strategies’ would lift this to about 4%. The result is a gap of about 3% growth required in addition to ‘business as usual’ growth.

To close that gap, A Call to Arms proposes four “transformational” strategies: 1. Selectively and profitably increase the quantities and sales of the current range of agri-food products.

• So and so has gone bust.

And yet the pressure is on to do better … and to do better in the face of increasing demands for environmental safeguards.

Pressure to do better The Ministry of Primary Industry and other expert groups, like the Riddet Institute in its recent A Call to Arms, want New Zealand’s agri-business to do better and contribute more.

According to A Call to Arms, New Zealand produces enough food (calories) to feed around 20 million people, enough protein to supply the needs of 45 million, and enough dairy products to meet the consumption of 165 million.

2. Profitably produce and market new, innovative, high-value food and beverage products.

3. Develop value chains that enhance the integrity, value and delivery of NZ products and increase profits to producers, processors and exporters.

4. Become world leaders in sustainability and product integrity.

The report supports these strategies with myriad specific action recommendations.

Of interest to those pondering how Hawke’s Bay farmers might fit into this picture, the report suggests:

SUPERSTAR FARMING

“New Zealand can be a high value niche producer, targeting small affluent populations, and/or a supplier of high value (preferably branded) nutritional ingredients to improve the nutritional value of food in developing markets.”

But amongst our sector weaknesses, says A Call to Arms: “Personnel skills development and investment in the development of talent in the sector are lagging behind those of strongly growing economies.” We have “poor availability of experts to industry.”

Regarding talent, the report argues mainly for a stronger cadre of scientists, engineers and marketers focused on agribusiness needs, supported by significantly more R&D. However, the starting point in this food chain is the army of farmers and growers on the ground. Hawke’s Bay has about 7,500 of those, mostly in fruit growing and pastoral farming.

And on the ground, what New Zealand and, by extension, Hawke’s Bay needs are superstars.

Average, better, best Farmers know that the same piece of land can yield quite differently in different sets of hands, as can two adjacent properties in different hands.

A local sheep and beef farmer recently walked me through the family’s five-year

financials. This husband and wife team (let’s call them Farmer Jones) farm about 500 hectares, and have made a profit in each of the past five years. Their Gross Farm Income (GFI) over those years ranged from $57/ha (in the drought years 2006/7) to $564 (in 2010/11).

Where does this place Farmer Jones amongst their peers?

In 2010/11, their GFI of $564 compared to the average of $335 for farms of their type, whereas the ‘Top 20%’ averaged $540 in GFI. By this and other measures, this is a well-performing team.

What makes them this successful?

• Data and benchmarking Perhaps the first thing to note is that Farmer Jones indeed has comparative data and uses it to benchmark their performance. They subscribe to a service called FARMAX, enter their own farm data – costs, inputs, income, stock numbers, production – and then access heaps of comparative analyses that help identify opportunities for improvement.

If they are not performing as well as the ‘Top 20%’ in one aspect or another, that’s flagged and they set out to find out why … and how they might do better. “One good decision and we get our money back.”

Where do they get that help? Occasional farm consultants, material from Beef

• Debt It would be hard to find any farmer without debt ($48 billion nationally).

Sheep/beef farming is New Zealand’s dominant agricultural land use, occupying four times as much land as the next closest use, dairying. In Farmers Weekly, a Beef & Lamb NZ economist comments that S&B farm debt grew 55% from $760/ha in 2004/5 to $1170/ha in 2010/11. “There is a legacy of debt that built up from refinancing to maintain farm operational and family needs with less emphasis on farm investment.”

HB farmer and national Fed Farmers president Bruce Wills says (Rural News): “We are living beyond our means …

I know that about 10% of farmers, roughly, are struggling to cope with debt loads and some of those 10% won’t make it.”

Continued on Page 12 »

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

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& Lamb NZ, veterinarians, and heaps of reading! And a great deal advance planning to anticipate risk and deal with it.

Obviously it’s not the data alone at work here; it’s the mindset of the farmer.

Indeed ANZ reports that only 33% of farmers they’ve surveyed benchmark their performance against others in their industry. When asked, Farmer Jones said that would track accurately against what they observe.

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SUPERSTAR FARMING

Farmer Jones carries very heavy debt, a function of having begun farming from scratch. And then doing well enough to trade up. Said Farmer Jones, “Nothing focuses us better than meeting interest payments.”

This family, a bit more than 20 years into farming, isn’t at a point where they can relax, not sweat the details, and not strive to make improvements. Mrs Jones works off-farm for the family’s “fun” money.

Clearly what you see in Farmer Jones is the farmer as entrepreneur.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

12

• Life cycle The Farmer Jones husband and wife are in their mid-40s. Bruce Wills says the average sheep & beef farmer is age 58.

Understandably, the motivations and goals of a 45-year-old farmer and an older, say 65-year-old farmer might differ. And with that, interest in innovation, use of new technology, change in farm systems, commitment to environmental mitigation measures, new investment and borrowing.

One can clearly visualize Farmer Jones poring over computer spreadsheets and researching online for new products, or experimenting with methods; less so the farmer in the home stretch of the 50-year farming life-cycle. Especially when changes might take years to bear fruit and/or would involve new debt … and when mistakes could require years of recovery time.

This issue is drawn into focus by the Regional Council’s dam proposal for Central Hawke’s Bay. Any farmers taking up this scheme would be taking on considerable new debt (HBRC projects $300-$400 million in on-farm costs) and be committing to more intensive and different farming … neither a welcome prospect in one’s twilight years.

All in all, given their attitude toward learning and improving, their financial motivation, energy, and life stage, Farmer Jones and those like them can look to make money farming in Hawke’s Bay … barring nasty surprises from nature.

Agbiz in Hawke’s Bay What is the overall scale of the primary sector in Hawke’s Bay? According to figures compiled for the Winder report by economist Sean Bevin, the primary production sector accounts for 21% of approximately 18,100 businesses operating in the region.

Of these, 59% are pastoral farming enterprises, 12% fruit growing, 5% grape growing, 7% forestry/logging and 10% primary industry support services.

Another 1.8% of businesses fall in the food, beverage and forest products processing category.

Continued on Page 14 »

Longview Packhouse

SUPERSTAR FARMING

10 Attributes of the Successful Farmer / Grower From Ru Collin, Hastings Councillor, who has been involved in a number of representative bodies in the ag sector.

“I can think of at least ten attributes that make the difference...”

1 Separating the successful from the rest is a mixture of confidence and hardheaded business.

2 The farmer/grower needs to have the passion inside him and her to keep at it, despite the issues he/she faces.

Otherwise it is too hard and not worth it. Passion produces the drive.

3 The best farmers/ growers benchmark and make sure they work towards performance where they are in the upper quartile on everything. They also know their costs.

4 The best farmers/growers stay close to who pays them. In farming, it’s the processing companies; in horticulture, it’s far varied; in viticulture, it’s wineproducing operations.

6 The income cycle is close to the cost cycle. In extreme examples, a pipfruit grower will incur a 12-month cost cycle, but can wait for 18 months to be paid. The cost cycle and income cycle don’t match. This is bad.

7 The entity’s financial structure suits the business.

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8 The best growers and farmers understand risk management and look to minimize risk exposure to their agribusiness wherever they can.

9 They produce quality product at a price consistently: they create a demand. This is a most important element. In short, “You can’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk.”

10 And finally, luck does play a part in success.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

5 The successful match their land use to best effect. Nowadays the best farmers play to a particular farm’s strengths; and they will acquire farms that are fit for purpose. In horticulture, it’s much the same. Specialization and matching best land use is increasing and as a result, productivity and size of operation is increasing too.

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SUPERSTAR FARMING

Enterprises like these directly contribute $1.84 billion (or 28%) of the region’s GDP, and 25% of its employment. By comparison, the total Service economy of Hawke’s Bay accounts for $4.5 billion of GDP and 71% of employment.

When pundits speak of Hawke’s Bay’s ‘rural sector’ driving 40% or even 50% of the region’s total economy, they are assigning a percentage of the value of the service providers – from accountants and lawyers to car salesmen and baristas – from whom the primary sector purchases.

Lawrence Yule told a public meeting recently that he liked to think of Hawke’s Bay as the “food capital of New Zealand”.

That spurred me to try and tick off a number of Hawke’s Bay-owned food or agribiz companies that might be consistent (if not major, in every case) money-makers … helping to extend Hawke’s Bay’s food reputation far and wide. Try it. It’s not as easy as you might think. The adjoining box reflects the collective wisdom of a variety of pundits I asked.

Hawke’s Bay Ag-biz Leaders by Reputation for Success 1 Apatu Farms 2 Apollo Apples 3 Brownrigg Agriculture 4 Fern Ridge 5 Firstlight Foods 6 Focus Genetics 7 Goodtime 8 Hawke’s Bay Seafoods 9 JB Bostock 10 Lowe Corp

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

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11 Mission Estate 12 Progressive Meats 13 Rural Equities 14 Rush Munro’s 15 Sileni 16 Star Food Service 17 Stockco 18 Te Mata Estate 19 Wineworks 20 Yummyfruit And while all of those might make money, at least occasionally (indeed, some modest owners on this list would stress the ‘occasionally’!), how many of

those do you think have been heard of in Shanghai, San Francisco, Sydney … or even in faraway Auckland?

But at least most of those have a hand in bringing money into Hawke’s Bay, for which we parasitic service providers are thankful. Together, the primary production and processing sectors account for 75% of total regional exports.

Could these companies grow more, generating more wealth for the region?

At the root of it, each of these companies either grows (or catches) things, or depends upon those who do.

One of the star performers on the list has grown 25% year-over-year in revenue for the past five years. When I asked the owner what most limited his business, the answer, somewhat surprisingly, was adequacy of suppliers, not market demand. He expects overseas market demand for his premium products – which can command a 15%-25% price premium – to continue to grow. His problem is finding suppliers with the right quality and entrepreneurial orientation.

And so we come back to the individual farmer and grower, who today must be both green and black.

Improving productivity Here, another point made by Ru Collin is relevant. He says: “Technology transfer – where good science is practically applied – has been an ongoing issue for a long time in NZ. It didn’t use to be, when government really understood the productivity agenda, and its field staff via the science agencies, ag and fisheries got on with really effective tech transfer. Over the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, even though EEC tariffs had come off, good science was being applied en masse.

And the country responded.

“However that changed when government decided that CRIs were to produce a profit, and their job was confined to do the science, and make it available. So since the ‘90s, we saw MAF and other entities downsized dramatically in the field, and as a result effective tech transfer has languished. Today many entities are trying with tech transfer, but the litmus test being uptake, it can be slow and, worse, inconsistent. To me it’s a real shame to see really useful science sitting in boxes or on websites, and not being fully harnessed.”

Fed Farmers president Bruce Wills points out that Beef & Lamb NZ has six farm advisers; Dairy NZ has 42 advisers.

It would appear that sector groups could stand to do more educating and skill improvement and less lobbying.

Does advice make a difference?

“Since the ‘90s, we saw MAF and other entities downsized dramatically in the field, and as a result effective tech transfer has languished.” ru collin A project now underway in the Upper Waikato, as reported in the Dominion Post, says emphatically, Yes! There, dairy farmer Colin Guyton is leaching less than 20 kilograms of nitrogen a hectare, half the catchment average, and still managing to record a return on assets of 5.4%. He’s part of a group of dairy farmers who are being advised and monitored by farm consultant Alison Dewes in a project funded by the Primary Industries Ministry and DairyNZ, with help from the regional council there.

Says farmer Guyton: “We’re showing farmers it is possible to get your leaching down and still be profitable. We’re giving them belief … We can’t hurt the rivers, we can’t be responsible for that. That’s being silly. If we’re damaging the rivers we must change the way we farm.”

“Farmers fear they have to make huge change when a lot of them don’t need to,’’ says consultant Dewes. “They need to be aware of what they’re doing, understand the numbers and be guided through the change.”

So it appears that smart farming is green farming is profitable farming. A lesson the HB Regional Council needs to embrace and evangelise, particularly as it champions intensified farming supported by irrigation. Its model for the CHB water scheme assumes that all farmers in the irrigation footprint will be ‘Top 20%’ performers.

Farmers I mention that to generally scoff. Others predict a wholesale turnover in farm ownership that will bring in more ‘modern’ and ambitious, if not more capable, farmer superstars. And still others, like biological farming adviser Phyllis Tichinin (see her article on p46), say more fundamental changes in farming practices – focused on rebuilding soil health – are needed to optimize performance.

Going back to the 3% productivity gap for agbiz estimated by the A Call to Arms experts, as important as R&D and ‘adding value’ might be, at the end of the day the burden still falls on the individual farmers and growers of Hawke’s Bay and all of New Zealand to significantly lift their game.

May their tide lift all our boats!

Sponsoring insight into the economic prospects of Hawke’s Bay HB’s ‘other’ economy

tim.co.nz

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

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Thinking outside the paddock Keith Newman canvasses local thought-leaders about the ‘other economy’, the social life of digital natives, venture capital, water skiing on the Ruataniwha dam and unleashing people power.

The need to diversify has been part of every economic report ever commissioned in Hawke’s Bay but has mostly been taken to mean spin-offs from agriculture, horticulture and viticulture … as if that’s the only kind of culture we know.

If around 40% of the Bay’s economy

is land-based, including associated production, processing manufacturing, engineering and support industries, then there’s clearly another economy, although it’s much harder to define.

To achieve an economic shift that differentiates itself from our land-based heritage we have to tick more than the sunshine, lifestyle and tourist attraction boxes and look to areas that aren’t held to ransom by climate and commodity prices.

The McGredy Winder Report commissioned on Hawke’s Bay’s performance by our councils articulates what we already know – over the past decade the region has performed below average, and in school report card terms “has significant natural talent, but does not yet use it all effectively” and “could do better”.

Statistically there are 18,000 businesses across Hawke’s Bay; 62% comprise the selfemployed and only 234 companies employ more than 50 staff. Employment was 80,000 at its peak in 2005 but is down 4.1%. We’ve been slowly slipping sideways.

Some firms have set a stunning pace for

innovation and export but it’s not exactly the groundswell needed to drive sustained economic growth. So how do we evolve from being ‘price takers’ at the mercy of the markets, to price shakers setting the pace because we do it smarter and better than anyone else?

Misunderstood or muddling?

The buzz words that popped up in every conversation for this article were ‘potential’ and ‘opportunity’ along with an almost defensive mentality that suggests nothing’s really wrong, we’re just misunderstood.

Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s regional development manager Michael BassettFoss believes many successful businesses fly under the radar and we’re not very good at telling our stories. “In regional New Zealand we tend to give lots of examples of challenges as opposed to opportunities and would do a lot better if we started talking about the glass being half full rather than half empty.”

Business Hawke’s Bay says the same things, but many companies either appear too shy or humble to stick their heads up,

THINKING OUTSIDE THE PADDOCK

Unleashing people power Rachael Cornwall, the CEO of employment agency Red Consulting, says we need better engagement with existing resources, including talented folk who want to make a contribution but find themselves locked into middle management or roles well below their achievements in other centres.

That includes many young people who are looking for permission to do a lot more, “perhaps taking one more step on the leadership or production management rung so they can come into their full potential and share new ideas.”

Unless this ‘horsepower’ is unleashed, and people are listened to and get a chance to show what they can do, Cornwall suggests they’ll move to other companies or other regions.

Currently there’s not the scale of organisations to provide good leaders with a career path and there needs to be

some robust debate about how that can change. “We need a better idea of what the other economy looks like, including looking again at our natural resources, even oil and gas.”

That, she says, is “a scary one that noone really wants to face” as everything needs to be balanced against protecting our valued environment.

The McGredy Winder Report admits there’s no silver bullet for driving change or transforming an economy although the key is people, businesses and groups making conscious decisions to invest, take risks, work differently, and pursue new opportunities.

Visionaries needed A common thread is the desire for a united vision and a strategy to achieve this rather than the currently fragmented leadership.

“Effective and inspiring community leadership can make the difference between mobilising the community’s resources and capabilities to achieve common goals or muddling along,” says the report.

Hal Josephson agrees there’s a need for “enthusiastic evangelists, advocates and ambassadors who can not only inspire but actively make a difference and do this quickly”.

Josephson, who’s hobnobbed with the who’s who of Silicon Valley and brokered international trade deals, suggests the 21st century is “still not really in motion yet for Hawke’s Bay” although a range of opportunities are begging.

“You can’t just start from scratch, you have to figure out what has enabled the local economy to prosper and create new prosperity using new tools and technology.”

Chamber of Commerce spin-off, Business HB, helps businesses improve their marketing and presentation and become more tech savvy through its Hothouse and e-Commerce hubs.

Business HB development manager, Michaela Vodanovich, says there are constant inquiries from companies wanting to get a better handle on growth and development, mainly in the primary and food processing area, although some good hi-tech ideas are coming through.

Investors are looking And there’s now a pot at the end of the rainbow for those with world-beating ideas.

Business HB has plugged into substantial offshore private sector funding, specifically for start ups and new industries, and will short-list the best the Bay has to offer.

The challenge is getting candidates up to speed. Vodanovich says, there’s a real need

“There are constant inquiries from companies wanting to get a better handle on growth and development.” michaela vodanovich

for owner-manager courses to help market and commercialise. “The gap for us is a lack of commercial knowledge to present new ideas in such a way that people would be interested in investing.”

So who are these companies and what sort of ideas are up for investment?

Vodanovich insists it’s a highly confidential programme. “Nine times out of ten businesses don’t want to share that information.”

About five hi-tech firms looked like they had potential for the short list when BayBuzz inquired ahead of our previous edition, including one with ‘world class potential’. However as Vodanovich says, it’s a moving target and some of those opportunities no longer exist. “Anything to do with lightweight economy or ICT is a really fast moving area.”

While the offer of start-up or venture capital cash is on the table, Vodanovich says some companies exhibit a stubborn preference to remain totally New Zealand owned and operated. “There are opportunities but identifying those businesses is not easy.”

Vodanovich says the education process is ongoing and it’s about repetition, “constantly reminding businesses that there is help here, that funding and investment is available.”

Continued on Page 16

»

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

or everything’s hush-hush while managers and their teams are upskilled to become more tech and marketing savvy ahead of export or finance deals.

So the list of ‘other economy’ businesses supposedly doing so well in Hawke’s Bay reverts to the same champions being applauded five years ago: Unison, Future Products Group (FPG); Hayden & Custance, Furnware, ABC Software, Xero, Intersoft, Sirtrack, ABB, NOW, Big Save, Red Steel, Xplore, Mogul, East Coast Credit ...

As far as hi-tech and information and communications technology (ICT) goes, retiring Chamber of Commerce CEO Murray Douglas says there’s not a lot going on in Hawke’s Bay other than a few “cameos”.

The problem is we don’t have a deep base for ICT which needs to be developed concurrently with science and technology innovation in our land-based industries. “It will develop but slowly because we don’t have a university or strong research facilities.”

Douglas is concerned at the low number of innovators in the Bay. “Over the last ten years we created less companies in Hawke’s Bay than any other region. That’s bad because it means we’re not attracting entrepreneurs, which are the group that start up companies.”

Unfortunately this whole subject is likely to provoke a long yawn from certain people. “There’s a deep-seated comfort level” among one group who aren’t touched by the economic decline and resist change. “Another group are well enough catered for at a lower level that they don’t feel they need to extend themselves.”

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» Entrepreneur Rod Drury advises

local service-based industries to export themselves. “Get on the phone, organise meetings, attend conferences, book a flight to Auckland on cheap fares once a month and every year to Melbourne or Sydney.

Become a global expert, meet people you can do business with and start exporting outside the region.”

He says we can’t afford to keep thinking the Government will bail us out of every tight spot. “If we want to do better, everyone should be thinking about exporting; that’s a cultural message that isn’t getting through and needs to be the next step-change.”

Digital natives needed If the Hawke’s Bay economy is to advance; and ultimately defend itself from other regions taking advantage of the borderless digital economy, it must leverage breakthroughs in science, technology, engineering, communications and new ways of thinking.

Ignoring the eternal march of the microchip and the pervasiveness of nextgeneration broadband is a dangerous thing for any business that plans to expand. And without skilled people — digital natives perhaps — who thrive in that kind of culture, innovation will be limited.

Hamish White, CEO of NOW, believes the challenge for local businesses is to redefine their shop front. He cites Hawke’s Bay Seafoods which now advertises online and ships seafood directly to Auckland.

Ben Deller and Hamish White NOW evangelists

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

18

tim.co.nz

“From a local market of 2.9 % of the population they now target about 35% of the overall market.”

Stephen Hill Motors is no longer reliant on people visiting the car yard. This company uses TradeMe to sell into the ‘boy racer niche’, mostly outside of Hawke’s Bay, with customised, lowered cars with fitted body kits. Another exemplar of the e-world, he says, is Big Save Furniture which has centralised all of its shop functions to Hawke’s Bay, including the call centre.

And East Coast Credit Control have redefined themselves as a worldwide debt collection agency. “They’ve gone global and they’re based in Hawke’s Bay with a couple of hundred staff,” says White.

Michael Bassett-Foss believes the proliferation of broadband, the increasing mobility of the labour force and the ability to access global markets is a no-brainer for Bay businesses. However, one impediment is that we haven’t put enough effort into creating the right social environment for entrepreneurial types.

“Hi-tech, high growth industries in particular, attract younger people who enjoy a more socially diverse environment.

I think Hawke’s Bay can do better in that regard with its social amenities and infrastructure to support that.”

Bassett-Foss says the cluster-based environment where groups of companies share a common physical space and resources promotes the kind of networking along with wider employment and social opportunities.

“We need a better idea of what the other economy looks like, including looking again at our natural resources, even oil and gas.” rachael cornwall

That in turn can reflect an innovative, go-ahead, leading edge environment that attracts other smart people; skilled people in large hi-tech companies often break away and start their own businesses, contributing to economic growth, he says.

Digital meet and greet Tourism is one of the areas where Hawke’s Bay thrives but like most landbased businesses, it’s relatively low-paid, although there’s potential for fresh thinking to change that.

One suggestion is to re-brand the Bay as a hospitality haven and a thoughtleader for hi-tech conferences and trade shows. Hal Josephson says what’s needed is hi-tech meeting facilities with ultra-fast broadband connections and big screen hi-definition video conferencing to bring remote expertise and resources from around the globe.

Locally-hosted events, whether virtual or real world, are a catalyst for people to meet, network, share ideas and ultimately get things happening. “You can’t always get someone to come and press the flesh but you can get them on a video conference facility optimised for collaborative technology. This could help Hawke’s Bay take thought leadership based on what already exists.”

All of this would be a good fit alongside innovation hubs to connect with R&D engineers and scientists regardless of location or discipline, whether it’s food innovation or Hollywood for special effects and post-production.

Josephson suggests an important model for growing companies and their revenues is building business and marketing

Call us on 0800 2 UNISON (0800 286 476) www.unison.co.nz

Napier-based FPG outfits restaurants and food stores worldwide

Backing up in the Bay With so-called ‘cloud’ technology it doesn’t matter where the supplier of software or services resides. So why isn’t Hawke’s Bay hosting more call centres, helpdesks, secure storage and back-up or business continuity, disaster recovery (BCDR) centres?

Hamish White at NOW is investing in infrastructure for off-site storage and back-up, on what he describes as

a “reasonably grand scale”, aware that businesses across the region and beyond carry a lot of critical data that’s at risk.

NOW is on “a massive growth trajectory” of 120-150% year on year, doubling its staff to 21 this year, largely poaching local business away from Telecom, Telstra Clear and Vodafone and now looking at neighbouring regions, believing its call centre can employ up to 150 staff within five years.

If NOW achieves its target, it will need to employ local staff and procure more local goods and services. “We could be the hub of an economy that could create another entire industry; perhaps even a software development community on the back of our success as a telecommunications company.”

The kind of diversification that can disrupt our descent into the economic doldrums requires entrepreneurial regional leadership, and a strategy backed by the wider community that identifies, supports and attracts businesses that think outside the paddock.

While we’re pondering on that one, there are some ‘back-to-basic’ issues that need addressing. For example high flyers who regularly commute, or event organisers hoping for a good turnout,

have come to resent the premium on airfares into and out of the Bay. Hal Josephson sees this is a major gating factor. He’d extend the runway to accept bigger planes and make a deal with Air New Zealand to get discounts on blocks of tickets for regular commuters.

Hamish White, clearly not averse to pinching business from outside the region, preaches to locals that they should buy local whether it’s wine for the social club cabinet, signwriters or telecommunications services. “We’ve got to support each other to make our own businesses work.”

Rachael Cornwall partly agrees.

“Instead of looking outside all the time for someone else to bring in a business to save the world, we’ve got to stand up and be accountable and do better ourselves.”

She suggests a regional campaign of doing everything 10% better; not only in revenue and productivity but thought leadership, operational functionality and unleashing some of the potential in existing businesses.

She’ll only buy local if it’s better than anywhere else. And if its 10% better, then perhaps that will also make an impact on how Hawke’s Bay is perceived in the wider world.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

capability around our best ideas and partnering or licensing with large companies looking for new product or product line enhancement.

And we do seem to have an edge on ultrafast broadband, accounting for 10% of the national uptake, which Josephson says delivers “one huge opportunity” for amplifying the ability of existing companies “to create new products and services or innovate around things they’re already doing.”

He says more young entrepreneurs need to get excited about broadband and the 24/7 supply chain. “It’s all about management and time to market; in general Hawke’s Bay doesn’t understand that and how to proactively make things happen around those principles.”

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Will a dam bring them back to the Bay? by ~ stuart nash

There is no doubt that a visionary economic development agenda is a must for Hawke’s Bay. Our high unemployment and social deprivation stats are a damning indictment of the province’s inability to attract new businesses and industries to replace those that have either significantly downsized or disappeared.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

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The Ruataniwha Water Storage scheme is being promoted by the HB Regional Council as the single biggest economic development project for decades. In terms of total spend, this is undoubtedly true. The question is, however, if given a choice as to how to spend $600 million driving economic development, is a dam the best use of scarce funds?

We all know the Hawke’s Bay economy is heavily dependent on primary industries. There is also no argument from me that controlling the ability to access water year round would improve economic output and financial viability of many of the farms located in the Tukituki catchment, especially in drought years.

The recent Prosperity Study noted that the region’s economy is heavily influenced by commodity prices, exchange rates and climate. It also noted that “across the HB economy there is a relatively large proportion of low-skilled and low-paid jobs. Many jobs are seasonal as they are related to the production cycle of the primary industries.”

In terms of jobs paying over $100,000, Napier, for example, is in the bottom 15% of all electorates while over 56% of people earn under $30,000. In fact, all the stats tell us that, by-and-large, Hawke’s Bay is a poor performing region in nearly every social and economic indicator.

We may have the sunshine, the wine, the Art Deco and the summer concerts, but for many, Hawke’s Bay is not the paradise marketed to outsiders in the glossy tourist brochures.

The Ruataniwha dam project will create employment, but it will largely be the type of jobs that are currently taken by seasonal labourers on the RSE scheme who come in to pick our fruit. As many will know, we have an immigrant workforce that comes into the Bay around November and leaves once the picking season is over. They are very efficient and the fruit growers love them due to their work ethic and reliability.

While I don’t doubt their efficiency, the problem is that nearly every dollar these workers earn is sent back to the homeland. Very little is spent in the local economy.

The Minister of Immigration says it is wonderful for our foreign aid programme. That may be the case, but it is dreadful for our local economy and struggling communities.

The jobs created by the development of the dam may well be the same. Many of the agricultural labouring jobs across the country these days are taken by Filipino workers. Again, because their work ethic is tremendous and they are prepared to work long hours for very little.

Low-skilled, low-waged forever?

But this begs the question: what sort of regional economy do we want to build going forward? Do we really want to be a low-skilled, low-waged region wholly dependent on agriculture and horticulture? Is the economic reality such that we have no hope of attracting the type of businesses and industries

that bring high-skilled and high-waged jobs? Are we really the epitome of what is happening in this country, where we train people in some of the best schools in NZ only for them to leave and never come back because ‘there aren’t the type of roles I do here’?

If I believed this I would pack up and leave, but I don’t buy into the argument that we are not in control of our own future and must remain reliant on commodity prices, the exchange rate and climate.

The Regional Council and the Government are about to spend $600 million of our money on improving what we have always done: farming and horticulture. We may become more efficient at doing the same, but we will still be reliant on the same variables that have seen our province’s performance nose-dive.

How to spend $600 million What is the solution? I don’t have all the answers, but I do have a lot of ideas about how I would drive economic development if I had a budget of $600 million, so here are just a few: 1. If I were Napier City Mayor I would use the city’s leasehold commercial land to attract businesses into the city.

For example, there is a high-profile section of undeveloped commercial leasehold land on Meeanee Quay that has been for lease ever since I have

NASH

“I would absolutely love to bring the kids back to the Bay mum, but there just isn’t the type of job I do in Napier.”

     

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been back in Hawke’s Bay. I would offer it at peppercorn rent to any developer who was prepared to build a five-story office block and tenant it with floors of professional people earning decent money.

3. If I were the Chair of the HB Regional Council I would commission a study to identify the expanding significant industry clusters and then ensure that we provided whatever it took to get them to locate to the Bay. If we had to provide the land for expansion or rating holidays or even build facilities that we could lease back, then it would be investigated with a view that we will do whatever it takes to secure the economic future of the Bay. 4. Most importantly, no matter what position I held, I would seek the advice of industry leaders, both within and outside the Bay, and then come up with innovative strategies necessary to drive a different type of economic growth in this region. But first of all,

We do have fantastic schools, a great climate and a reasonably good infrastructure. Given $600 million to invest, this place could be a high-end manufacturing hub, a financial services location, a centre for innovation, research and development, a site for industry clusters as they collectively take on the world from the Bay. The future is only limited by our imagination and ability to be bold and work damn hard towards implementing a vision for how we want Hawke’s Bay to look in 20, 50, 100 years time.

Maybe damming the Tukituki is the best use of over half a billion dollars of economic development money, but I would like to think we could do better. If your kids plan to leave the Bay after finishing secondary school or are already at university or living elsewhere earning decent dollars, then the odds are that this Ruataniwha dam project isn’t going to bring them back to the Bay. Give me $600 million to spend and I reckon in 10 years time I could get rid of the excuse: “I would absolutely love to bring the kids back to the Bay mum, but there just isn’t the type of job I do in Napier.”

  

                Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

2. If I were Minister of Economic Development I would work very closely with my ministry, the Napier City Council, Ray McKimm and the ICEHOUSE Business Incubator CEO Andy Hamilton to see what we could all do to ensure that the ICEHOUSE’s proposed Napier business incubator satellite was a total success.

I would ask Rod Drury what it would take to get the growing number of cloud-based companies to locate major operations in Napier, and then I would do whatever it took to get them here.

                                                       

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On DEATH & DYING by ~ mark sweet

tim.co.nz

ON DEATH & DYING

“All forms of life on this earth have their periods of birth, infancy, youth, maturity, and finally decay.” jim clayton, napier

End-of-Life Choice If Maryan Street’s End-of-Life Choice bill was law, the man I haven’t seen for 30 years, could gather his family and friends, say goodbye, and end his life with them by his side.

In the proposed law change, eligibility for medical assistance to die is strict. You must be of sound mind, and have an illness that two doctors think will kill you within a year.

Key triggers controversy And that stance was clearly demonstrated by palliative care professionals when John Key responded to End-of-Life Choice by telling Newstalk ZB: “I think there’s a lot of euthanasia that effectively happens in our hospitals.”

Australian and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine chairwoman Sinead Donnelly replied by saying: “We never practise euthanasia; euthanasia is the deliberate ending of life, and is illegal and unethical.”

And from Sandy Macleod, medical advisor to Hospice New Zealand: Continued on Page 22

»

Personal Choices

Amanda Jackson, Te Awanga “I think the discussion should be broader around a person’s right to choose to die when their quality of life is severely diminished. You know, when we’re old, and have multiple illnesses, like severe arthritis and other complications. Dementia might have started, and we’re taking huge amount of medication. Near the end of my life I definitely want the right to choice not to suffer and have my whānau suffer.”

Anna Archibald, Tukituki “I think we should have the right to choose to end our lives if we’re suffering incurable disease, but only if we’re of sound mind.

If we’re not of sound mind then that’s a whole different dimension. My father had Parkinson’s and the last ten years of his life were absolutely miserable. Having seen him suffering and seen friends die of cancer, I definitely want the right to choose to die if it happens to me.”

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

One of my grandfathers said he “wanted to die with his boots on.” And he did, while fixing his ‘63 Chrysler, at the ripe old age of 89.

My other grandfather survived Ypes and the Somme, and he would recite, “old soldiers never die, they simply fade away.”

True to his tune, he wore out and died in his sleep. He too was 89.

But many of us are not so fortunate, and our deaths can be preceded by a prolonged period of disability, often with pain and suffering.

That’s what is happening to my dad right now. He’s not in pain, and how much anguish he is suffering is hard to tell. Certainly he did not expect to require full-time nursing in his old age.

But he’s in the best possible care with other old people whose bodies and /or minds have worn out.

At first, the atmosphere of the rest home was disturbingly institutional, and seeing so many old folks all together was daunting. But soon I saw the level of care administered, and how that care is dispensed with respect and courtesy.

Now my heart is warmed when I see a group of our most vulnerable citizens, grooving as best they can to a three-piece band, or playing indoor bowls with all the determination they can muster.

On a recent visit I passed a door and recognised the name of a man I haven’t seen for 30 years. Later, a friend told me he had cancer, and would move to Cranford, ‘when the time comes.’

Most likely he will be hooked up to a diamorphine syringe-driver and soon lose consciousness. It is currently against the law to administer a fatal dose, and death can take some time when the cause is dehydration.

We will not be able to end our lives simply because we are old.

End-of-Life Choice is an appropriate name for Maryan Street’s bill because it frames the issue as a human right. It is saying, under certain circumstances, we can ask for assistance in ending our lives.

If drawn from the ballot this will be the third ‘assisted suicide’ bill to come before Parliament. And like those of Michael Laws (1993) and Bill Brown (1995), Maryan Street’s bill is a heart-felt attempt to help others circumvent the suffering they witnessed with dying loved ones.

End-of-Life Choice is a recognition that end-of-life can be so miserable we’d rather die prematurely.

Some believe we treat our pets with more dignity in death than we do ourselves.

After being diagnosed with terminal cancer, Dr John Pollock made an impassioned plea when he wrote: “Over the years our vet has put down several of our ailing, elderly pets, the latest a week ago. A contented, serene animal, surrounded by the people who have loved it for years, passed from life to death in a peaceful, painless minute. I have metastatic melanoma – how I wish that service was available to me. The law insists we must provide only ameliorative help while patients may reach the most appallingly wretched states, sometimes akin to those who died of starvation in Nazi concentration camps. Ironically if we allowed a cat or a dog or a horse to reach such a condition we would be breaking the law and risking a prison sentence …”

However many of Dr Pollock’s peers do not agree with him.

The Medical Association of New Zealand is “opposed to both the concept and practice of euthanasia and doctor assisted suicide.” Rather it “encourages the concept of death with dignity and comfort, and strongly supports the right of patients to decline treatment, or to request pain relief, and supports the right of access to appropriate palliative care.”

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Ray Davies, Havelock North “The last three months of my father’s life was awful for him, and I think if a quick death had been available he would’ve taken it up.

We discouraged people from seeing him in the last stages. Better to remember him how he was. Nobody should have to go through what happened to him. I think it’s great we’re talking about it and I hope it comes in.

I’d definitely do it if I needed to.”

ON DEATH & DYING

“In the proposed law change, eligibility for medical assistance to die is strict. You must be of sound mind, and have an illness that two doctors think will kill you within a year.”

Keith Cross, Waimarama “A lot of people who go into rest homes don’t have the chance of euthanasia because by the time they get there they’ve got dementia and wouldn’t qualify.

I would definitely do it, rather than lose dignity. When there’s no chance of getting better, you’re better being remembered how you were. Who wants to put their family through the suffering of seeing you suffer? I’ve always supported euthanasia.

When it came in in the New Territories in Australia, I thought, ‘that’s what I’ll do if I have to. You could stop off in Surfers Paradise on the way, have a good time, one last time, then sign out.”

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

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Kris Bower, Havelock North “I’m a bit concerned about the age of 18, but other than that I support the bill. I’d definitely consider it. I wouldn’t want to put my partner through seeing me die badly, but she said she wouldn’t do it, which surprised me. I think everybody has the right to make that choice. We’ve all seen situations of people who want to die but aren’t allowed to. And nobody should be made criminally responsible for helping someone die who’s really suffering. That’s happening at the moment. People have gone to jail. It’s a no brainer for me.”

“It appears the Prime Minister has confused the ceasing of curative treatments with ending a person’s life. In situations like this people are in fact dying from an advanced disease, not from the withdrawal of treatment.”

He said: “Palliative care provides comprehensive management of physical, psychological, spiritual and existential needs of a person facing a life limiting illness. As sickness progresses towards death, the focus of care is on minimising suffering. To minimise suffering it is not necessary to kill the sufferer.”

Is palliative care adequate?

The argument seems to be that palliative care in New Zealand is adequate for coping with those dying from incurable disease.

One of Hawke’s Bay’s most experienced palliative care doctors disagrees.

Libby Smales was Medical Director of Cranford Hospice for 15 years.

“I don’t agree with those doctors who say we have everything we need right now, because it’s so obvious we don’t,” says Dr Smales. “If we did why did Sean Davison get five months home detention for helping his mother die, and Evans Mott have to go through the hell of leaving his wife to die alone?”

Dr Smales is referring to two high profile police prosecutions, for while it is not illegal to commit suicide – the law was changed in 1961 – it is illegal to assist in suicide.

Sean Davison, a micro-biologist lecturing at the University of Cape Town, returned to New Zealand to spend time with his mother, Pat, a medical professional with an honours degree in physics from London University. She was dying of cancer that had spread to her lungs, liver, and brain.

After a few weeks of stability, Pat Davison’s health rapidly deteriorated, and she began what she termed her ‘Bobby Sands’ diet, after the IRA member, who in 1981 starved himself to death in Maze Prison, Belfast.

Thirty-one days into her water-only regime, Sean Davison wrote that his mother was “falling to bits”. Her tongue seemed to be completely decayed and her bedsores made him wince. His mother pleaded with him to help her end her life. And he did, saying later: “I did the compassionate thing by helping my mother to her death. I believe any humane person would have done the same thing. I ask myself how in a civilised society we can allow this to happen.’’

On the strength of his ‘confession’ Sean Davison was charged with ‘procuring and inciting’ suicide. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five months home detention.

Rosie Mott suffered an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis, a degenerative condition for which there is no cure.

“It’s incurable, untreatable and degenerative. It does everything but bloody kill you, it’s hideous. Rosie waited four years to see if there was some way to turn it around. But she was not prepared to lose control. That wasn’t a life she wanted,” said her husband Evans.

Evans Mott agreed to help research suicide methods and assemble a kit with which Rosie could kill herself. So not to implicate him, she made a video stating her intentions. “I’m making this movie so that nobody is under the illusion that I’ve been coerced into what I’ve done,” she said.

On the morning Rosie was ready to end her life, she asked her husband to leave her alone in their Auckland home. He returned several hours later to find her dead.

Making legal judgments Evans Mott was charged, but in her judgement Justice Courtney said: “I think the consequences of a conviction would be out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending … You acted out of love and your motivation was to support your wife in the decision she made.” And she discharged Mr Motts without conviction.

Before jumping to the conclusion the courts are taking a more lenient attitude towards assisted suicide it’s important to consider the last paragraph of Justice Courtney’s judgement. “I emphasise,” she said, “that this decision represents the very particular circumstances of your case, which are at the lower end of the spectrum from any other case decided in this area.”

How End-of-Life Choice is legally framed is a most important aspect of the bill.

“I remember years ago in England,” says Libby Smales, “when I was doing medicine and my brother was doing law, I was absolutely horrified at how death

ON DEATH & DYING

and dying was managed, and we had the same discussion then, as we’re having now. He said then, ‘we’re too thick to draft the legislation; we’re not capable, not willing to address the issue legally.’

That’s why I admire Maryan Street for giving it a go.”

Jurisdictions that have ‘given it a go’ seem to have successfully overcome the legal barriers, and it’s interesting to note that in Oregon (population 3.5 million), whose law End-of-Life Choice most emulates, of the 935 prescriptions written for lethal medication since the law was passed in 1997, 596 patients have died

from taking the medication.

That 37% did not take the medication indicates some patients make the choice as a reassurance, giving themselves an option, which makes their suffering more bearable.

As Libby Smales points out, “I recall a comment from a motor neurons sufferer who died last year. She said, ‘I can’t enjoy the now because I’m so terrified about the then. If only I knew that when I can’t bear this any more, I could end my life, I would be able to have so much more enjoyment of life in the now.’”

Suffering in the death stage of our lives is not only about pain. Fear, anxiety, dread, and apprehension all come into play, and how comforting it would be to know that at any time, we could pass on, with our loved ones by our side.

Outside the rest home I meet a friend who has visited the man painfully dying of cancer. She tells me he “wants to be set free”. Sadly, he has more suffering in store before his wish is granted, because, let’s face it, sometimes we treat our pets more humanely than we do our fellow humans.

Inside the home, the old folks are being entertained with music and games, and I reflect how important it is to distinguish between these vulnerable, worn-out bodies and minds, with the man suffering a painful death from aggressive and incurable disease.

What the public thinks

Horizon Research conducted an End-of-Life Choices survey of 2,969 adult New Zealanders in July 2012, based on provisions likely to be in the Street bill.

The survey found 16% of adults, or about 519,740 people, currently know someone whose medical or mental condition is terminal, irreversible and making their life unbearable.

Further, 63% support entitling all mentally competent adults in New Zealand to receive medical assistance in ending their life if they are suffering from a terminal illness or an irreversible physical or mental medical condition that in their view renders their life unbearable.

Only 12% oppose this, while 16% are neutral and 9% are not sure.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

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ON DEATH & DYING

Where assisted suicide is legal Netherlands (2002) Belgium (2006) Luxembourg (2008) With minor differences in protocol the three Benelux countries have legalised assisted suicide under the following conditions: • The patient’s suffering is unbearable with no prospect of improvement.

• The patient’s request must be voluntary and persist over time.

• The patient must be fully aware of their condition, prospects and options.

• There must be consultation with at least one other independent doctor who needs to confirm the conditions mentioned above.

tim.co.nz

Interestingly, Swiss law also states that the “permissibility of altruistic assisted suicide cannot be overridden by a duty to save life”.

This safeguards those assisting in the suicide, as long as the motivation is altruistic.

Oregon (1997) Washington State (2006)

• The death must be carried out in a medically appropriate fashion by the doctor or patient.

With minor variations, two US states allow for assisted suicide when:

Switzerland

• There is a diagnosis of terminal illness that will kill the patient within six months.

Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland since the 1940s. As such it is “a crime if and only if the motive is selfish”. What is important in Switzerland is motive, not intent. All assisted suicides in Switzerland are videotaped. Once a death is reported to the police, the police, an officer from the coroner’s department and a doctor all attend the death. At this time family and friends are interviewed. If a selfish motive cannot be established, there is no crime. By all reports these deaths are open-and-shut cases.

• The patient requests, in writing, from his or her doctor, a prescription for a lethal dose of medication for the purpose of ending their life.

• The request must be confirmed by two witnesses, at least one of whom is not related to the patient, and is not entitled to any portion of the patient’s estate.

• After the request is made, another doctor must examine the patient’s medical records and confirm the diagnosis.

• The patient must be determined to be of sound mind.

• If the request is authorized, the patient must wait at least 15 days and make a second oral request before the prescription may be written.

Montana (2009) Unlike Oregon and Washington State, Montana has not codified assisted suicide.

The change came as a result of a court case, when a group of doctors, on behalf of Robert Baxter, a 76-year-old truck driver who was dying of leukaemia, asked the court to establish a constitutional right “to receive aid in dying”. The state argued that “the Constitution confers no right to aid in ending one’s life”, but Judge Dorothy McCarter, of Montana’s First Judicial District Court, ruled in favour of the plaintiffs, stating that the “constitutional rights of individual privacy and human dignity, taken together, encompass the right of a competent terminally-ill patient to die with dignity”, thus protecting doctors from

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

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Treens Chambers, Waimarama “I don’t want to go through pain and suffering in death, and I don’t want the people around me to have to go through that. When there’s no hope of a cure, nothing to look forward to but a miserable death, it’s humane to be allowed to die.

Look how we treat our animals. When they’re old, incontinent, can hardly walk – it’s not about you – it’s about being kind to your loved pet. If we treated our pets like some people are treated in death we’d be prosecuted for cruelty.”

Garon Buczynski, Napier “I can see problems when depression comes into it, which is common when we get ill or disabled. Stuff has to be put in place around that. But if you’re suffering and your disease is terminal, I think the choice to die when you get to a certain point is your right – a basic human right.

With a disease like Alzheimer’s you’re ok in the beginning but I’ve seen some scary stuff. And then there’s the religious view, ‘your life belongs to God’. It’s going to be hard, but we have to talk about it.

Harriet Kight, Havelock North “Terminally ill people will continue to suicide, so if you can make it safe, and manageable for them, and make it a peaceful, pleasant thing, I think that’s important. But we have to be so careful about the legislation. It’s okay to say, yep, you can make your own choice if you want to die, but it’s the legislation around who can do it, and who makes the decision.

I wouldn’t like to see people make the choice to die because they felt they were a burden.”

ON DEATH & DYING

Henry Mildon, Hastings “If I was starting on the terminal road, you know, starting that trek to being bedridden with life sucked out of you, I’d definitely want to go. I want to die with dignity.

Why go through that awful process and have your family and friends suffer. And I certainly don’t want to be one of those people sitting around a table with other stuffed old people in a rest home.”

Michael Mullins, Porangahou “Fundamentally, on religious grounds, I don’t agree with it for myself. On the other hand I can see merit in the idea for people with terminal illness. The only thing that worries me is how the bill is going to control unscrupulous people pressuring the elderly. We can’t have people terminated simply because they’re old and sick.”

Ann Gwillim, Waipukurau “Personally, I would consider it, but I don’t know if I’d have the guts to go through with it. I don’t have any moral qualms about it. Generally I think it’s your right – your human right – if you’re suffering and everyone around you is suffering, yes, I think it’s your choice. Interestingly, I would never have had an abortion even if I knew my baby was going to be born disabled.”

NZ prosecutions for assisting suicide April 1999 John Karnon Sentenced to two years supervision after pleading guilty to a charge of manslaughter over the death of his ill wife.

October 2001 Dr Chris Simpson

to assist her mother to die in 1999. She served nine months of a 15-month sentence and subsequently failed in two appeals to have her conviction overturned.

July 2008 Ian Crutchley Found guilty of the attempted murder of his elderly, terminally ill mother. He was sentenced to six months community detention and 150 hours community work.

August 2002 Rex Law

September 2009 Barry Sutch

Sentenced to 18-month jail term with the option of home detention for the death of his ill wife. He ultimately served nine months in prison.

Charged in relation to a suicide pact with his wife. Both were suffering terminal diseases.

He was found dead in his home before he could be bought to trial.

April 2004 Lesley Martin

November 2011 Michael Palairet

Convicted of attempted murder after saying in her book, To Die Like a Dog, she twice tried

Found not guilty of aiding and abetting the suicide of his wife. He researched suicide

November 2011 Sean Davison Sentenced to five months home detention for aiding the death of his terminally ill mother.

Police prosecuted on the strength of his admission in his book, Before We Say Goodbye.

September 2012 Evans Mott Discharged without conviction for assisting his wife’s suicide. Rosie Mott suffered an aggressive form of multiple sclerosis, a degenerative condition for which there is no cure. Her husband agreed to help research suicide methods and assemble a kit with which she could kill herself. So not to implicate him, she made a video stating her intentions, and she asked her husband to leave her alone in their Auckland home. He returned several hours later to find her dead.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

Convicted of manslaughter after his terminally ill mother was found dead. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment.

methods on her behalf, but was not with her when she tried to take her life.

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tim.co.nz

IN SUPPORT OF END OF LIFE CHOICE by ~ DR LIBBY SMALES

tim.co.nz

As a physician working in hospice, I focused on maximising all the differences good palliative care can and does make to patients, their families and friends. In most cases it was possible to manage a way of dying acceptable to each one.

This involved taking time to listen, to work out what and who were important, to make accurate diagnoses, to deal with pain, nausea, vomiting, anxiety, grief, fear,

suffering and complex family dynamics and to make a safe space for addressing whatever needs were still left unmet.

Rarely, sedation was the only way to manage the situation; this is seen, in this context, as symptom control rather than euthanasia.

Now, working outside hospice, I recognise that there are still people who die ‘bad deaths’. The differences between a ‘good death’ and a ‘bad one’ are many.

In some cases the suffering is so dreadful, that the individual and or family members are desperate and courageous enough to intervene to end the suffering, adding the fear of a court case.

Consider the big, young, previously fit farmer, dying of motor neurone disease, who tried to kill himself on his mobility scooter. He failed, and added fractured ribs to his problems. Later, immobile, unable to speak or swallow, he was

SMALES

Views abroad It is important to note that in societies where aid-in-dying is legal – The Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the American states of Oregon, Montana and Washington – this change has resulted in improved hospice/palliative care services, and has not resulted in either abuse of the vulnerable, manipulation of the law or an avalanche of cases.

Prof Sam Ahmedzai, Professor of Palliative Medicine, University of Sheffield Medical School talks eloquently, in a letter to the editor of the BMJ (British Medical Journal) about his experience in Oregon. He has radically shifted his position on aid-in-dying, and supports the move to encourage doctors’ professional organisations to take a neutral stance on assisted dying.

“It is patronising to say that a few people should suffer unbearable

distress and indignity because palliative care preaches that it values all lives – regardless of how meaningless they have become to their owners. It is inconsistent for Palliative Care to boast how it enables people to face the reality of dying and decide the place of care but then deny choice for timing of death. Moreover it is hypocritical to deny competent patients who are acknowledged to be dying, the right to die in the manner of their choosing, while allowing doctors and nurses to choose when to put them on a so called care pathway, which often entails increasing sedation and withdrawing fluids – unintentionally leading to a protracted form of assisted dying, but one that is medically determined”.

Dr. David Leaf, a lecturer at the University of New South Wales, also in a letter to the editor of the BMJ, reports his research, his conclusion is that “Safe laws are working worldwide”. He also says that “opponents of voluntary euthanasia often muddy the waters with words and concepts that evoke really bad connotations. They are wilful misrepresentations of the facts.”

Dr Phillipa Malpas, University of Auckland, and Helen Yensen, have written a series of carefully researched and well-reasoned articles, which have been published in GreyPower magazine.

Their conclusions are the same.

They also point out that: “PAD (physician-assisted dying) is available in NZ, despite the fact that it is illegal. Where PAD remains illegal, there are no safeguards or controls, no accountability, no monitoring or supervision, and no specialised training or support for physicians who assist a patient to die, which may lead to bungled attempts to end a life. The status quo is unsafe, unfair and risky.

Keeping PAD illegal will not protect patients from abuse.”

NZ opinion Recent research conducted in NZ (Horizon Research July 2012) explored a wide sample of opinions from patients and families to doctors, nurses and MPs, and confirmed majority support for legislative change. It was found that 16.2% of adults or about 519,740 people currently know someone whose medical or mental condition is making their life unbearable.

The research indicates that five times more adults support than oppose entitling people aged 18+ to apply for medical assistance to end their lives in certain circumstances.

“The purpose of MP Maryan Street’s

“Sometimes, the owner of the life absolutely wishes to end it.

The challenge is to make the best decisions for each of us.” dr libby smales

End of Life Choice Bill is to allow all New Zealand citizens or permanent residents aged 18 years or over to obtain medical assistance to end their life in certain specified circumstances. The request may be made in person or by means of a registered end of life directive.”

This issue is one that will not go away while the suffering continues and people and/or their friends and families are driven to the desperate measures that frequently make headlines.

On a personal level, I, like many New Zealanders, prefer to be able to make my own decisions. The way we choose to live and the way we choose to die are intensely personal choices. I remain committed to good palliative/ hospice care and end of life choice, and do not believe that the two concepts need be mutually exclusive. In Belgium the two services have been successfully integrated. And, I absolutely do not want to suffer unbearable distress and indignity when I am dying, simply because someone else says I must.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

persuaded to accept a PEG, (a feeding tube, directly into his stomach) which neither he nor his wife wanted, but which they felt unable to refuse. This prolonged his suffering for weeks. His widow feels voluntary euthanasia would have been a much better choice.

Consider the man with prostate cancer, who had been in severe pain for months, with painful tumours in many of his bones; who struggled into hospice one day, pleading with us to kill him. We fixed his pain. He changed his mind.

We continued to manage his pain and other problems until he died.

The process and objectives in palliative care and voluntary euthanasia are the same, to mitigate suffering, to make the most of each precious life, retain dignity, demonstrate compassion and honour patient autonomy. Advances in medical care mean that many more interventions are possible. Sometimes these are wonderful, life-saving or life preserving. Sometimes, they merely get in the way of someone’s dying and prolong suffering. Sometimes, the owner of the life absolutely wishes to end it. The challenge is to make the best decisions for each of us.

Of course we have concerns about ensuring that any change in current legislation is clear enough to prevent abuse and broad enough to cover the harrowing situations that currently have no legal solution. Wide public debate is necessary. Thirty years ago we were engaged in very similar discussions as we worked to establish hospice/palliative care in NZ.

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Hawke’s Bay

Urban Futures City v2.0

Caption, caption, caption

“Modern life demands, and is waiting for, a new kind of plan, both for the house and for the city.”

Le Corbusier, 1931 One of the modern era’s greatest architects Eighty years on, modern life is even more demanding, and the need for a ‘new kind of plan’ more urgent. By 2050, 70% of the world’s population, or over 6.4 billion people, will live in cities – the ‘urban revolution’.

Coincident with threats to energy supply and the environment, the urban revolution

is a catalyst for a new way of thinking about cities and how we occupy and use them. We are living in a time of massive change, yet it is still possible to understand and derive a path based on knowledge, intuition, tools at hand and perhaps a little dreaming. That is what designers do every day.

What does this urban future mean for Hawke’s Bay? To some extent I am a refugee from the GFC and the Auckland housing crisis, in the Bay for the last two years, my connections here via genetic memory. With kids in tow, mum and dad seek refuge from the challenging elements of big city living, bursting with experience and enthusiasm for the promised-land and the opportunities

it might afford – open space, big sky, no traffic, affordable housing, good schools, fresh produce, friendly people, less stress.

The new California, ripe for and welcoming of new talent and ideas to help deliver a better future to a culturally rich, diverse region growing to be confidant of its place in national and global affairs. Go the Bay! For those not tied to the land through birth, the provincial experience is perceived as being a lifestyle choice.

Especially so when viewed through the marketing material foisted by travel and real estate agents. The Bay is coincident with a ‘unique lifestyle’. The vineyard experience and the opportunity for

What does a billboard advertising the Bay look like to a passenger on the tube on a grey London morning in thirty years time?

How does it stand against the competition as a beacon for capital and talent?

Designer and urbanist Anthony Vile argues we need to filter all decisions around our built environment in Hawke’s Bay through that image.

DIY Urbanism : 2030 Urban Plan, Almere Oosterworld / ©MVRDV healthy active living – think beautiful people, dude on a push bike, surf board under arm, a gentle roll down the hill to a right hand point break, back home to crayfish, chardonnay, children happily playing in the vines with a puppy. Fantastic.

Beyond the image I feel I can now see beyond that marketing image, attractive as it is, to the reality of the Bay and what in essence are some trends troubling and antithetical to the promise. For now I may still have the luxury of fresh eyes capable of seeing the opportunities sitting at the doorstep, waiting only for the right catalyst.

Without a common vision it is unclear how the region can develop and compete for national and global capital and talent, while offering a sustainable lifestyle and pathway for our people now and in the future. Fragmentation and disconnection evident in the political ecology is glaringly obvious as manifested in the built environment. We have a very clear correlation of spatial location with income and social issues, better forgotten than confronted … out of sight, out of mind. Scattered around the Bay various settlements reach out to each other with sinuous asphalt arms, reliance on the automobile creating a ‘could be anywhere’ scenario.

Thankfully, the key attributes of sustainable city-making are coincident with the key elements of high-value urban environments. Compact, adaptable, walkable, connected, legible, diverse, easy to get around, conducive to the exchange of ideas, dollars and stories.

Think Barcelona not Botany Downs. Cities around the world are rethinking the postwar auto-centric model and transforming, not necessarily because they want to, but because in order to remain competitive over the long term, they must.

Therein lies a great opportunity for the Bay. In reconsidering how and where we build, we also need to reassess the value architecture and urban design plays in

URBAN FUTURES

DIY Urbanism : 2030 Urban Plan, Almere Oosterworld / ©MVRDV

creating value in our built environment and lifestyles. With better design, underperformance in all four bottom lines could simultaneously be addressed.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

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Needed: design intelligence Rob Adams, Dirctor of City Design, City of Melbourne said in The Age in 2009: “We have reached an interesting time when the drivers of sustainable cities are the same as the drivers of livable cities …

When these characteristics come together as they do in Barcelona, they provide an alchemy of sustainability, social benefit and economic vitality. These cities reduce their need for car travel, reduce energy consumption and emissions, use local materials, support local businesses and create identifiable communities.”

Design intelligence needs to be applied as a mechanism to create quality, innovation and value. This is especially true of those areas and communities most at social risk. Opportunities to future proof the housing stock based on best practice in communities such as Maraenui are being missed. Instead, planning processes enable the development of places with no clear identity … based on the preconceptions of politicians, bureaucrats and contracted drafts people with perhaps the best intentions, but without the right training and little or no connection to place.

The Napier Art Deco resource of architecture and design obviously creates value for the city as a clearly identifiable brand. That opportunity was created eighty years ago. Decisions made today have the potential to create value long into the future, and need to be taken against a vision of what that future could

be. What is the billboard lifestyle we want to sell to our great-grand children?

In order to leverage its unique potential, it is imperative that design is enabled at all levels of city-building and development in the Bay. Three councils in the region serving a population of 150,000 and not one architect or urban design specialist on council staff to advise what spatial and design opportunities exist or to add value to property development initiatives, whether public or private. What opportunities are we missing by this void in knowledge? The old adage “we don’t know what we don’t know” springs to mind.

Design panels have been used with some success in Ahuriri; they are talked about in Hastings, but seldom actioned. They are standard fare in maturing cities where it has been realised that, without the input of design professionals, there is a risk that the built future of the region may in fact prove to be a tax rather than a value-adding proposition. Heritage is as much about what we create today as what we protect for tomorrow. Based on current trends, what would a “2012 Design Appreciation Weekend” inspire in eighty years?

What are the processes to enable a collective vision for the future Bay? The issues are understood to some degree.

‘Sustainability’ and ‘place-based planning’ are bandied about as notions of merit between the various councils and decisionmakers. HDC with its catch phrase “great living for a sustainable future” ticks the box, but is actually unclear in meaning.

There is no regional clarity of vision other than perhaps agreement that economic growth is desirable, water is important, consultation is legally required, and China is where the money is. A vision

and pathways to achieving it need to be extricated from a three-year political cycle masquerading as a long-term plan.

Globally there exists a vast amount of research and best practice examples of sustainable city-making, sustainable transportation models, sustainable housing, sustainable lifestyles. The speed of global communication enables research and ideas to grow.

The city is open source. Geographic isolation no longer equals cultural isolation. Geography is no longer an excuse for mediocrity. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel … just understand, based on local and global knowledge, what wheel works best here.

One of the great advantages of the regions, compared to a behemoth like Auckland, is a relative nimbleness and resilience based on scale. A nimbleness that could perhaps overcome inertia and prove adaptable, analogous to a coastal tender compared to a super-tanker. More of a ‘just do it’ approach rather than the convoluted processes and energy demands involved with changing the course of a super-tanker.

The opportunities visible through my specific design-world spectacles, and global point of reference, might seem pretty obvious and might sound like a one-liner lifted from a marketing pamphlet, but I think the Bay could create its point of difference through its attitude to architecture, urban design and place-making as a celebration of our unique climate, geography and culture.

Our wine is famously a unique product of our climate and geography; why not our buildings, John Scott and a few other local luminaries aside?

Our urban design opportunities Napier, with its deco cloak a symbol of rejuvenation and newness, is now in danger of becoming purely nostalgic, less willing to invoke the wand of newness.

What if Napier continued to embrace ‘newness’ as it did post-earthquake?

How much more of a tourist attraction could it become?

In a response to these times what if deco city was also eco city? There is an opportunity now, as the earthquake-prone building issues are addressed, to reembrace the idea of new and rejuvenation.

It is possible for historic ways of thinking to sit beside new ideas comfortably. Carbon fibre and brick.

Hastings, with its urban grid and railway marks time in denial, while its potential bubbles just below the surface. What if the artificial constraints placed on its natural ecology were lifted and water

URBAN FUTURES

“We have reached an interesting time when the drivers of sustainable cities are the same as the drivers of livable cities.” rob adams once again flowed … as did the crowds on Heretaunga Street? Hastings, once known as Christchurch of the North, appears destined by political process and nostalgia to be an under-performing retail main street and parking area?

What if it had a river again? It wouldn’t be the first city in the world to realise what once was considered a liability was perhaps actually the city’s greatest asset.

What if its natural ecology over time was the basis for its renaissance as a leader in ecological urbanism?

What if the opportunity of connecting the two main urban centres via the key strategic asset known as the railway corridor was taken? What if freight traffic was pushed out of Hastings central and off the Napier Parade as was first mooted in 1965?

What if the advantageous exposure to solar energy was used to its maximum effect reducing the tax on households as well as

the tenuous link to the national grid?

What if the burgeoning population of baby boomers embraced inner-city living, and valuable land taken up by rest-homes and suburban expansion was given back to food production or nature?

What if parking became simply park?

What if real constraints on suburban development enabled people to re-inhabit the city centres drained of retail space whose tenants require only a URL to trade these days?

In lieu of low natural population growth and a rapidly ageing population, what if we more actively sought immigrants?

What if the dynamic nature of the seismic, alluvial and coastal landscape was celebrated, rather than feared? What if the biodiversity and ecological uniqueness of the region was regenerated in balance with the needs and growing demand of crop production?

What if Mãori heritage was celebrated “as a living spirituality, a living mana moving through generations” manifested and “brought to life through relationships between people and place” (The Mãori Heritage Council Statement on Mãori Heritage).

There is no denying the challenges faced by the Bay in a changing world. Challenges with a regional focus, but also global.

One hopes the measures put in place to

mitigate future issues are well-considered, as previously acceptable lifestyle choices become no longer so.

As guardians of the future, present decision-makers should offer urban futures based on more than car park numbers. They need to enable sustainable lifestyles and resilience through clarity of vision, leadership and design. Giving value to design does not need to be limited to big cities and big budgets.

Design was clearly on the public radar in the Bay eighty years ago. Like then, we need again to start with a dream and let those with the passion and the knowledge negotiate that future, be it a house or a city.

Go the Bay … “ the beauty of which can only be seen through the eyes of a Hawk”. Here is hoping design and spatial intelligence just might again unlock some of that beauty and add value to our region.

Anthony Vile, a regular contributor to Architecture NZ, is a designer and urbanist.

His work ranges from residential architecture, public art and urban design to urban planning and cultural analysis.

Completed formal architecture and urban design education in New York. Has taught design at Univ of Auckland School of Architecture and Planning and Unitec.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

Simply, the Best

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Best Travel 104 Market Street South, Hastings www.besttravel.co.nz

(06) 876 5111

Announcing the Napier/Gisborne Railway Party by ~ TIM GILBERTSON

Talk about getting the wrong end of the stick, barking up the wrong tree and branching off into red herring territory! The Gisborne/Napier railway line has it all.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

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For a start, the debate is predicated on the issue of whether or not the line is profitable. Of course it is not profitable. It never was and it never will be. Like every railroad and airline in the world, it will always run at a loss and always require some level of subsidy to remain open.

No country in the world has an open skies policy. Air New Zealand is continuously subsidised by the taxpayer through the control of landing rights, reciprocal and restricting access to competitors. And intermittently supported through billion dollar recapitalisations when it periodically goes belly up.

But you haven’t seen Gerry Brownlee and Bill English presenting a report to Cabinet suggesting we mothball the 747 fleet, have you?

Similarly, urban rail and buses have always been subsidised by central and local government to the tune of endless millions over countless decades. Once again, you haven’t heard Gerry and Bill telling the capital city commuters to dust off their roller skates, and round up their horses because Cabinet has decided to use

their trains as anchor ballast and turn the network into a cycle way for the tourism industry. Funny that.

The same goes for Auckland. Prime Minister Key, who lives in the city of sails, unexploded volcanoes and eighty parliamentary seats, is negotiating with Mayor Brown as to how many tens of millions Mr Brown wants for his trains, trams, cross-harbour tunnels and new motorways, none of which will make a difference to the commuters or add one iota to the bottom line of NZ Inc. For a nation borrowing $300 million a week to pay for the groceries this is very unclever.

But if you ferret round the Cabinet Room on a rainy afternoon looking for the report entitled Auckland: Sorry, You Don’t Stack Up, you won’t find it. If it ever existed, it was swiftly replaced by the one titled Napier/ Gisborne: A Chance to Blame KiwiRail, Risk Only Two Seats, and Look Like We’re Saving Money.

Because the closure of the line has precious little to do with economics and everything to do with politics, the cost of repairing the line is $4 million.

An absolute pittance in the great scheme of things. The operating costs are not high compared to all the other subsidies, whether they be road, rail or air. The Napier/Gisborne line will never pay its way, but with a small amount of money and a large amount of common sense it could come close to breakeven.

If Kiwirail had 1000th of the advertising budget of Air New Zealand, a properly managed and run scenic and passenger service could be established that would bring serious revenue to the East Coast.

There is a wall of wood waiting up the coast that will need marketing and shifting within the next decade. There are thousands of hectares of pastoral and arable land that can produce enough freight to make the line seriously less marginal over the long term.

Single link risky What Cabinet has also seriously failed to consider is the long-term implication of having a single link to the coast. And the possibility, some would say the probability, of a huge spike, temporary or permanent,

Original photo courtesy of Steve McElney

It’s up to us In summary, Wellington doesn’t care about the railway line. Mãori leadership is similarly unconcerned. Despite the fact that the affected population is predominately Mãori, neither Hone Harawira, Pita

Sharples nor Winston Peters has hit the headlines calling for the line to be a classified as a Taonga under the Treaty.

Ngati Porou doesn’t carry much political clout in Wellington, but that’s a lame excuse for inactivity.

Our local MPs are bound by cabinet responsibility to support the decision, however much they may privately abhor it.

Cabinet will not reverse a decision over the fate of two parliamentary seats, gambling that in two years time the line will be forgotten and the election will be fought on other issues.

Which suggests the solution.

Take them on at their own game. If an independent single issue Napier/Gisborne Railway Party selected credible candidates with realistic funding to stand in the four affected seats, Cabinet would quickly reverse the decision.

Closing the line is a foolish mistake.

It is based on a theory, which applied nationally, would see the closure of every railway line, bus service and airline in New Zealand.

It is a cheap shot fired at the most

“If Kiwirail had 1000th of the advertising budget of Air New Zealand, a properly managed and run scenic and passenger service could be established that would bring serious revenue to the East Coast.” vulnerable and least able to defend themselves, using Jim Quinn and Kiwirail as the fall guys.

Hawke’s Bay and Gisborne need to take a stand. If the East Coast played its cards right, Wellington would be shown to be bluffing. Then with great pleasure we could run The minister of transport out of town on a rail, all the way to Ngatapa and back on the smart new revitalised Poverty Bay Express, with whistles blowing and bunting flying, waving at every passing whale on the way.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

in fuel prices. It seems strange that the planned $100 million Telegraph Gully Highway past Kapiti, which has a costbenefit ratio of nil, is going ahead largely because it will provide a second link to and from Wellington in the event of State Highway One closing through natural disaster. The same argument, it seems, doesn’t seem to apply to Gisborne.

When the road is closed, they can catch a passing whale, walk or swim.

And it is more than likely that some time soon, some Middle Eastern Despot will start behaving badly enough to close the straits of Hormuz or similar, which would quite easily triple the price of diesel. Without rail and with fuel at five dollars a litre or more, the Coaster would definitely need a bicycle, horse or swimming togs to get around … and Gisborne would slowly die.

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Sponsoring insight into the future of education in Hawke’s Bay.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

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Going without in the fruit bowl BY ~ JESSICA SOUTAR BARRON

Hawke’s Bay is a food basket of New Zealand. Down most of our rural arterials you will find roadside fruit and vege shops. We have bustling farmers’ markets.

We produce milk and honey, meat and eggs. For those who know how to fish it up there’s white bait in our rivers and kahawai in our bay. But every day there are children in Hawke’s Bay going hungry.

Receiving much publicity nationwide is KidsCan’s mission to feed all those children who need food in low decile schools. Alongside this is Labour leader David Shearer’s ambitious plan to feed all children in all low-decile schools (primary and intermediate) whether they need it (want it) or not.

So, what is the situation in Hawke’s Bay? How many children need more food than they’re getting at home?

And, can we, in the Fruit Bowl of New Zealand, fix the problem?

Mouths to feed First, the numbers: Often quoted are the 230,000 children across New Zealand who fall below the poverty line. Focus in: There are 35,880 children (those under 15) living in Hawke’s Bay. Of those, statistically, 20% fall below the poverty line, that’s over 7,000. In terms of the food debate, 9,000 Hawke’s Bay children attend low-decile primary and intermediate schools.

EDUCATION IN HAWKE’S BAY

KidsCan is the national organisation that has taken on the task of feeding hungry kids through schools. The charity works with over 200 schools nationwide and has another 100 on its waiting list.

Julie Chapman is KidsCan’s chief executive: “We operate on an estimate of one in every ten children in low-decile schools require our help.” But in reality Chapman believes the rate is higher.

“I would suggest it’s probably more like one child in every five or six needs assistance.”

In Hawke’s Bay that means 900 children at a conservative guesstimate.

But the number could be as high as 1800. KidsCan is currently feeding 120 Hawke’s Bay children every school day.

“We provide a framework and it’s not a cookie cutter approach. Some schools have a kai basket, some have food available for children in the office, some do lunch box checks and top up food from that point,” says Chapman.

Chapman also explains that a few schools don’t want to be charged with feeding their students. “Some schools don’t feel they can fill that role. Some principals don’t want to feed their kids, they don’t see that as part of their job.”

Food skills “How do we grow healthy kids? First, our kids should be eating regularly – three meals a day and two snacks – but also kids need lots of water and exercise.

Those are the basics.”

Lucinda Sherratt is a Hawke’s Bay based clinical nutritionist who works specifically with families and children.

“When a child lacks nutrients they get sick because their body doesn’t have all the good stuff it needs to grow and be healthy.” says Sherratt. “On top of that hungry kids find it difficult to

“We are the fruit bowl of New Zealand: what happens to the apples that aren’t picked and the veges that aren’t sold?

With the amount of food we grow here we must have enough to feed our hungry kids.” lucinda sherratt, nutritionist concentrate, and they are often anxious and fidgety.”

Julie Chapman agrees and believes the impact of a lack of food is far reaching: “Hungry children get sick more often, they are more susceptible to cold and flu, to skin and respiratory infections.”

But she also knows hunger can lead to nutrient and vitamin deficiencies, issues with brain development, social issues, bullying and anti-social behaviours, like stealing food, all effects that can impact those people in adulthood.

For Lucinda Sherratt, starting good eating habits early is the key to ensuring children maintain those habits throughout their lives.

“Sometimes it is a money thing but I really think it is also an education thing.

How you teach your kids about food in the first place is really important,” says Sherratt, who advocates for education around where food originally comes from. “We have to show our children that food doesn’t just come from supermarkets. I’m a great believer in vegetable gardens.”

The vegetable garden squeezed into the average suburban backyard is not the only option, with two community garden initiatives in particular aiming to feed some of Hawke’s Bay’s most in need families. Te Aranga Marae in Flaxmere and Aunty’s Garden at Waipatu are both excellent examples of a place where families can go to pick their own veges for a small koha.

Lucinda Sherratt believes strongly in teaching the process of garden to kitchen to table. “It gives kids healthy food skills and a sense of pride when they eat things they’ve grown themselves.”

“It is vital we educate all our children Continued on Page 38

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Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

Hungry Hawk’s Bay KidsCan currently supplies food to 14 schools in our region, one of those is Flaxmere Primary.

Principal Robyn Isaacson says the school uses KidsCan contributions in its existing schemes such as its breakfast club. In the decile 1a school with its roll of 462, about 10-12 children a day access the programme and the school keeps a list of who attends. In that way they can monitor who is requiring food and how often. If there are concerns, a social worker connected to the school makes contact with the family.

“I have never struck a parent who doesn’t care,” says Isaacson. “It is other factors at play. In the minority of cases it may be issues with budgeting, and sometimes we are talking about quite big families with lots of children of different ages.”

Providing a meal at school also helps teach children what good nutrition means, and it helps build a foundation of healthy eating through life and making good choices about food.

“Breakfast is a really social time here,” says Isaacson. “We put out table cloths and cutlery, we do it properly. The kids enjoy the social interaction. And fundamentally they need to know that we care enough to feed them,” says Isaacson.

Targeted Robyn Isaacson doesn’t believe there is a stigma around accessing food through school, something backed up by research.

Julie Chapman from KidsCan: “Research out of Massey University in 2007 and 2010 tells us there’s no stigma attached to food programmes. It doesn’t create a sub-class and that’s one of the reasons it works so well. It provides food when a child needs it, and it’s a very adaptable programme that schools can adjust to suit their particular needs.”

KidsCan is very clear on its objectives: “This is a targeted group and we offer a targeted programme. The aim is not to feed every child attending low-decile schools, just those who need it,” says Chapman.

Isaacson feels that although there is certainly a place for food in schools, it’s right to target the response.

“We have a lot of families at our school who are more than capable and very caring, and if you feed their kids for them you are taking away a responsibility that they are enormously proud of.”

“We will feed any kid who walks through our gates hungry, but that is never all that’s going on,” Isaacson says.

“I feel very strongly that if you have kids who are hungry you have to look at what is happening in the family and at home.”

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EDUCATION IN HAWKE’S BAY

“What we need is someone to help in the family at a family level, because so often to just feed people is not enough.” robyn isaacson about food because it’s as if we have missed a generation of that kind of knowledge – growing food and what that means,” Sherratt says.

Robyn Isaacson is permeating her school culture with the same ethos: “I think part of it is, for some it’s easier to serve up junk than a good meal. People are busy and money is tight. But we have kids in our school who can cook really well and we are teaching our kids more and more food skills. In terms of our technology programme for example, we say ‘Let’s teach technology they can do something with’.”

Local action Although KidsCan and the government’s Fruit in Schools initiative are both helpful programmes at a national level, a more direct local response is also required.

“One thing I have found is that we’ve got a lot of people calling us wanting to help,” says Isaacson, who admits to being, at first, overwhelmed by the generosity.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

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“We get people calling with excess fruit, we go to bakeries and get bread to distribute in our community. Recently we had a couple of farmers who have come down from Waikato who want to help us. But what it really needs is someone to coordinate it.”

Isaacson suggests that may be an issue for local government and questions the role of councillors, who she feels could perhaps lend a hand in a very practical way: facilitating and liaising with donors and recipients.

“There are two clear reasons why coordinating donations of food would be beneficial other than the obvious of providing people with a meal: It would give locals an opportunity to contribute to their own community, and none of us likes to see waste,” Isaacson says.

Connecting people can also help create a culture where healthy food is embraced: “I am totally astounded at how great the majority of our families are; however there is a minority of kids who aren’t connected to anybody, no Nan, no family, no one to teach them skills. Wider whãnau is all-important, as long as it’s well functioning whãnau.”

Isaacson feels her school is getting good quality support from initiatives such as KidsCan, but there are still holes.

“What we need is someone to help in the family at a family level, because so often to just feed people is not enough.”

KidsCan claims they can feed all 16,000 hungry children in New Zealand with $4 million per annum ($250 per child).

Robyn Isaacson When you consider that every year New Zealanders send $100 million overseas to feed hungry children that sum doesn’t seem too great a hill to climb.

Julie Chapman: “I think people are becoming more aware that there is real poverty in New Zealand. I personally feel that yes, we should feed kids, because whichever side of the debate you sit on there are still hungry children. Meeting the immediate need is easy for us to do. Then we can let the government get on with addressing the underlying issues.”

Tiffin & Bento Even for the most aware parent, filling a lunchbox (or three) every school morning year after year can become a chore soon lacking in inspiration and fresh thinking.

Nutritionist Lucinda Sherratt suggests we should be looking to other cultures to populate and invigorate our lunchboxes.

“There are lots of cultures in New Zealand and they have lots to offer us in terms of flavours and ideas around food,” says Sherratt.

“We have to look outside the sandwich box for inspiration. Fresh healthy food isn’t just sandwiches, it could be dahl and rice, sushi or Vietnamese spring rolls, or tortilla.”

For this story Lucinda prepared a sample weekly lunch menu with a budget of about $2 a day.

MONDAY • Chicken drumstick • Banana Bran Muffin • Apple • Celery and carrot sticks

63c 80c 35c 5c-15c

TUESDAY • Sandwich (bread, lettuce, grated carrot, egg) • Yoghurt with berries • Orange and banana

$1.20 50c 30c

WEDNESDAY • Wrap (lettuce, carrot, leftover mince) • Banana • Celery • Cheese

$1.50 15c 5c 30c

THURSDAY • Rice paper roll (rice paper, vermicelli, chicken, carrot, lettuce) 85c • Homemade birdseed bar (butter, honey, seeds and nuts) 43c • Apple 35c • Banana 15c • Celery 5c

FRIDAY • Sushi balls (rice, ham/chicken/tuna) • Muesli slice • Orange • Carrot sticks

80c 80c 15c 15c

We want to hear from you

Lunchtime is fun time at Flaxmere Primary Much of this requires home baking and bulk buying, and Sherratt advocates for eating seasonally and buying locally, or better still eating from your own garden. Involving children in the preparation of lunchbox contents can be beneficial, but it’s still vital parents keep control to ensure a balanced diet.

“Incorporating kids into the equation when it comes to what they eat is really helpful. But also, the more choices you give them the harder it is for them to make healthy decisions,” says Sherratt.

“If you let them choose between fruit and cake it’s tough for them to make good food choices.”

Another lunchbox dilemma is this: Do many of us really know what should be in lunch boxes in terms of nutritional content?

When Campbell Live infamously opened lunchboxes in decile 1 and decile 10 classrooms (TV3, August 2012), the nation was appalled to find very little for lunch in the decile 1 school. But in the decile 10 classroom, although the boxes were full and there was plenty of fruit, there was also an abundance of white bread, processed foods and refined sugar, in a myriad of forms.

0800 22 55 348 www.eit.ac.nz

“There are lots of cultures in New Zealand and they have lots to offer us in terms of flavours and ideas around food.” lucinda sherratt Ministry of Health guidelines suggest children (aged 2-12) eat the following daily: • 3 servings of vegetables • 2 servings of fruit • 5 servings of breads and cereals, including pasta, rice and noodles • 2-3 servings of milk and milk products • One serving a day of protein, such as meat, eggs, nuts, seeds and legumes.

In those terms lunch becomes a big part of the day, believes Lucinda Sherratt.

“If you really care what goes in to the lunchbox it’s going to take time, preparation and thought,” believes Sherratt, but she adds that it doesn’t have to take a great deal of money to ensure kids are eating healthy lunches every day.

Strong Future Relies On Children by ~ jessica soutar barron

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Future Prosperity of the Hawke’s Bay Region – the infamous August 2012 ‘Winder Report’ – has become the mirror we are currently holding up to the face of our community to see where opportunities exist and challenges lie. In the document we are graded by the authors, as if we were a child still growing, full of untapped potential but shaky on our feet, and a little wide-eyed to the ways of the grown-up world.

Translating the region’s performance over the last decade into a report card, the overall message would probably be “has significant natural talent, but does not yet use it all effectively” and “could do better”.

It is not a huge leap to propose that much of our natural talent, our ability to use it effectively and the necessity to do better in the future really does lie with our children.

Local control In Hawke’s Bay, the very group we will all rely on so heavily in the future is the one currently getting the rawest deal.

Children’s Commissioner Russell Wills is a Hawke’s Bay-based paediatrician,

and in his dual role sees the hard-nose of the situation, as well as the governance umbrella of policy and political debate.

He says: “A newborn baby in Hawke’s Bay today is the workforce in 20 years. When we retire, this generation, being born now, will be the ones caring for us. It’s in the best interests of all of us to make sure they’re healthy and well-educated. If this current generation of newborns has the same outcomes as kids leaving school now we’ll be in real trouble.”

The fact is Hawke’s Bay has one of the poorest populations of children of any DHB in the country. Nearly 60% are living in the poorest deciles.

“Poverty is a real issue for Hawke’s

Bay and we have high rates of povertyrelated illnesses such as acute chest and skin infections, rheumatic fever and pneumonia,” says Wills.

Mãori children in Hawke’s Bay are statistically poorer than the national average and have poorer health outcomes.

Mãori and Pacific, and the very young, are over-represented in statistics: 75% of those in the children’s ward at any one time are Mãori and Pacific and 75% of those are under five.

Russell Wills believes very strongly that our priority, at a community and a decision-making level, needs to be our under-fives, because that is when brain development is at its most crucial and longterm damage can be done. At the moment support and policies are focused in the wrong direction.

“For example,” says Wills, “look at current income support. It’s geared to small families and older kids and that’s not the best way to help our most vulnerable children. That’s $2 billion not targeted at the poorest or the youngest which is where it’d get the biggest outcome.”

In his role as Children’s Commissioner, Wills has led the preparation of an Expert Advisory Group Issues and Options paper tasked with finding solutions to child

POOR KIDS

Pots of money Back to the current mirror we are using to assess opportunity and need. The Winder Report summarises the spend currently entering Hawke’s Bay from central government:

• The Hawke’s Bay District Health Board received $392.9 million from the government in 2010/11.

• NZTA’s strategy for the region for 2009 to 2012 planned total expenditure of $214.1m (around $70 million per annum).

• The Eastern Institute of Technology received $36 million of government funding in 2010-11.

• Estimated expenditure on primary and secondary school education within Hawke’s Bay is in the order of $178 million per annum.

• In addition to these the government funds substantial welfare payments and a wide range of other services.

The report clearly states that Hawke’s Bay’s success lies within Hawke’s Bay itself: “One of the critical success factors for the future will be the region’s ability to work with government to secure decisions that work in the best interests of Hawke’s Bay.” A project currently bubbling in Hastings is ‘Henare’s Houses’. Councillor Henare O’Keefe is leading an initiative to take local control of state housing in Flaxmere.

Lawrence Yule calls the idea a microcosm of the larger need.

“If Hawke’s Bay wants to be successful then it’s got to start looking after itself.

We’ve got to change the way we think.

We’ve got to be upfront about the issues.”

Russell Wills agrees that housing is key to bettering the lives of children.

His paper says: “One of the major issues facing children living in poverty is poor quality and unaffordable housing. Too many children live in damp, cold, overcrowded houses.”

He goes further, explaining that in housing he finds an example of an issue that plagues much of our social commitment to vulnerable communities: policies and procedures that fail to address the needs of children. “Housing is New Zealand’s biggest asset, but it’s not in the

“One of the major issues facing children living in poverty is poor quality and unaffordable housing.

Too many children live in damp, cold, overcrowded houses.” dr russell wills

national infrastructure plan, which does include things like roads and airports.

Housing New Zealand used to provide ‘a home for life’ but that has now been reworded to say ‘for the duration of their need’. I think that has the potential to increase transience and children moving from school to school.”

But Housing New Zealand acts as landlord for only a fraction of our poorest children. Seventy percent of children living in poverty are in rented accommodation – extrapolate that out: 20% are in ‘state houses’ and 50% are in private rentals.

“I am told that the real poverty is not found in state houses, it’s in privatelyContinued on Page 42

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poverty. Solutions posited are required to be “realistic, pragmatic, effective and take into consideration current and likely future fiscal constraints.”

The paper takes a child-centric view of tax and income, health and education, and housing, and focuses specifically on Mãori and Pacific needs. It proposes new ways to spend old budgets – reshuffling existing funds being a key approach to ensuring any potential fix falls within “future fiscal constraints”.

Russell Wills: “We have to choose to prioritise needs and we have to make some big decisions. But there are many things we can do right now that will require no new money at all. However, they will require some hard choices.”

Hastings District Mayor Lawrence Yule agrees money is often failing to get where it is most needed and solutions will take bold moves.

“We have hugely fragmented resources, but the issue of child poverty won’t go away until we start having some very grown-up conversations,” says Yule. “There are people in Hawke’s Bay who are willing to change the status quo and do something about it, and I am one of them.”

Yule’s bold proposal is to take local control of central government spend coming into the region.

“This region getting hold of government resources would make change, and that includes taking control of health, education, welfare, policing and council spend, then maximising the value of that money at a really local level,” says Yule.

“We’re in difficult times, there is no more money so we’ve got to make sure what money there is is maximised.”

41

POOR KIDS

“Families are struggling with money for food, power, rent, and the children end up being the losers in the equation.” lawrence yule

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

42

owned properties and there it’s harder to monitor,” says Yule.

In the current climate, decisions on social wellbeing are predominantly coming from Wellington, whereas local government is being told to stick to their ‘core functions’ of dogs, roads and rubbish.

Funds and resourcing priorities are also being set centrally.

“There is a lot of central government money coming in to our region for various initiatives including air quality, health initiatives, insulating homes, employment.

But none of it is joined up. Everyone worries about their own patch,” says Yule.

“The further away you go from the community itself, the harder it is to get a solution.”

Yule does warn that making such a sea-change will take education and understanding.

“At the moment it’s the seed of an idea, an acorn, but everybody knows there is a problem and it’ll take some blue-sky thinking to address it.”

Vibrant contributors Lawrence Yule is careful to point out that although negative statistics favour Mãori and Pacific, the issues those statistics signal will affect our entire community.

“We are looking at children now who will either be an active workforce or an added burden, so this issue will affect white, educated, moneyed, and their children,”

he says. “The ‘Haves’ are getting more and the ‘Have Nots’ are getting less – the divide is getting bigger.”

Mãori and Pacific population growth is greater than that of other groups, due mainly to higher birth rates. Looking into the future: Pacific and Mãori populations will average annual growth of 2.4% and 1.4%, respectively. In comparison, Statistics New Zealand’s ‘European or Other’ category will increase by an average of 0.3% a year. (Statistics New Zealand: National Ethnic Population Projections 20062026) “Inferior social, health and welfare status in Mãori and Pasifika communities is over-represented,” says Yule. But he also feels positive about the future. “If we can fix this there’s a great opportunity for those communities to become healthy vibrant contributors.”

Russell Wills is also optimistic about the opportunities that exist if we can begin to improve the lives of children living in poverty. He prefaces his Expert Advisory Group’s Issues and Options paper by saying: “New Zealand has a distinct advantage over other OECD countries; we have one of the highest proportions of the population who are children. Like other OECD countries, our population is ageing and the number of people of earning age per retiree is falling. If we look after our children well, particularly while they are very young, we will be in a much stronger economic position than countries with fewer children. We are also a small country

by OECD standards; and we know who the children who need extra assistance are. It should be straightforward to ensure they have the resources they need to thrive, belong and achieve.”

Alison Prins

Plunket babies Russell Wills, Children’s Commissioner and Hawke’s Bay paediatrician cites Hawke’s Bay’s new Plunket Hub in Onekawa as a great example of providing improved services to our most vulnerable people, at a very local level.

Although Plunket is not mandatory, of the 2,000 babies born in Hawke’s Bay every year, 80-90% of those are ‘Plunket babies’. A Plunket nurse will visit a family in the first three months of a baby’s life, and if necessary will go doorknocking to make sure families aren’t falling through the gap.

“Hawke’s Bay is a good place to be a baby. We have a great environment and a stable well-child workforce,” says Sarah Mulcahy, Plunket Hawke’s Bay’s area manager. “But we do have poverty and there are some very vulnerable children here.”

Building skills and confidence are

POOR KIDS

the country.

The Hub combines antenatal, midwifery, postnatal, support and wellbeing initiatives focusing on babies, their parents, carers and wider families. There’s a baby-clothes op-shop, and car-seat and toy hire. Future plans include a community cafe.

Environment and policy In terms of vulnerability there are two major things at work outside the family unit that influence the situation: the environment and the policies that have enabled that environment.

“There’s the situation a child is born into, that may be a cold, damp house for example,” explains Mulcahy. “And there’s the central government policies that have made that situation possible.”

Where changes to environment and policy are currently left at a government level, Plunket is a key agency left to pick up the pieces. They do, however, take an active role in lobbying and informing government decision-making where policy directly affects the lives of children.

Plunket Hub’s focus on co-location of resources and services means new parents have everything they need in one place.

Children’s Commissioner Russell Wills is so positive about the place he wants to see another 20 such centres around

alison prins plunket area chair people – all kinds of people, for projects, staffing, and at a governance and lobbying level.”

Bequests are another important part of ensuring the sustainability of Plunket services.

“That is something you can practically do for children in the future. Particularly if you were a Plunket baby … that is a great way of continuing the Plunket story,” says Prins.

Future families Imagining a future Hawke’s Bay populated by the Plunket babies of today, Mulcahy and Prins are relatively upbeat.

“If we talk about families with good support: those families will have babies who grow up connected to community, empowered to make decisions and choices about their own lives,” says Mulcahy. “They’re more likely to have engaged with early childhood education, to have finished school, to have better more stable relationships. And they are more likely to become excellent parents themselves.”

Prins extends the thought to say the wellbeing of us all depends on engaged, connected, well-supported individuals: “In Hawke’s Bay everyone has the same vision of what a great place our community can be, and our children are vital to that vision.”

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Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

two vital ways Plunket can support even the most at risk families to feel positive and empowered.

“When we talk about low socioeconomic we can’t necessarily say those children are vulnerable. The nature of poverty is much more complex and multifaceted than that,” says Mulcahy. “Changes in family dynamics can occur and sometimes when they do, in poorer families, that can be much more catastrophic.”

Alison Prins, Plunket HB area board chair, agrees: “If stress kicks in and there’s other things happening in the house, then that can be a real issue.”

Volunteer driven The work carried out by Plunket has not changed dramatically since 1907 when it was established by Sir Frederic Truby King. Plunket is still often the first point of contact for mothers with newborns.

“Outwardly we have changed considerably from the Plunket rooms of the 1950s, but Plunket at its heart has always been a social innovator, staying relevant to the needs of the community,” says Alison Prins.

Sarah Mulcahy suggests that today, in some ways, Plunket is filling a need created by modern life. “People are more transient, life is complex, parents and grandparents work a lot more.”

“Plunket can provide mother-to-mother, peer support, those people with kids already have a whole lot of knowledge to share,” says Mulcahy. “Some families are doing that already but other people just aren’t connected in those ways.”

Much of the work carried out by Plunket is done by volunteers.

“Volunteers are what makes Plunket unique,” explains Prins. “Plunket links the clinical component of early childhood with a volunteer workforce.”

Volunteers take on many varied roles including toy library and play group facilitation. Although the volunteer workforce is active and growing, Plunket is always looking for new additions.

Prins: “We could do a huge amount of stuff with more volunteers. Plunket needs

“Valuing children is something everyone can do ”

43

Winder Report Delivers Bay’s Report Card by ~ tom belford

After an agonizing birthing ordeal, in September our councils presented the muchawaited Winder Report to Hawke’s Bay. The Report examines our region’s lagging socioeconomic performance, the role local government plays in those issues (and how well), and recommends ways to move forward.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

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The Winder Report indeed documented what most observers already knew … Hawke’s Bay is drifting sideways in economic and social terms, and in many ways the situation for the worst-off of our citizens is deteriorating. Still, the Report is replete with current statistics on the Bay’s status, and for that alone provides an important reference point for future planning.

But does the Report push decisionmakers in any new or unexpected directions?

Not really. Its ‘initiatives’ have pretty much all been suggested before. But that shouldn’t come as a surprise. Peter Winder is a government bureaucrat, not an expert in economic development or social policy. He’s served as chief executive of Local Government NZ and as chief executive of the Auckland Regional Council, and is now into management consulting.

That said, several important themes are sounded by Winder, who does have the relevant experience to advise on how local government fits into the performance equation – what influence can local government have on regional economic and social development, and how?

But first, how does the Report size up our region? Here’s the summary.

Performance and solutions After interviewing about 60 community leaders and reviewing heaps of existing studies and data, the Report summarises the situation.

“The review team has reached the following conclusions: • The region has a significant natural resource base including large areas of land suited to intensive agriculture or horticulture, and considerable flexibility in the production systems that can be used.

• Over the last decade the region has performed below average in the New Zealand context and given its resource base it could do significantly better.

• The Hawke’s Bay economy is driven by primary production, but is home to those sectors of New Zealand’s agri-business complex that have been amongst the poorest performers over the last decade.

• The region’s economy is thin and vulnerable to external factors, including drought, global commodity prices, exchange rates and interest rates.

• The region’s primary production is currently limited because of limits to the availability and security of supply of irrigation water.

• The region faces future challenges with a rapidly aging labour-force, high levels of unemployment, lower than average levels of educational achievement and a sizable group of the current labour force not effectively engaged in the formal economy.

• The region has social challenges and particular areas of deprivation and poverty that reflect historic and continuing high levels of unemployment and limited opportunities to find meaningful employment.

• The region has considerable public sector resources that can and should be put to better use to foster the

development of the region.

• There are a range of concerns over the local government sector in the region, however, the most serious issues relate to the capability and capacity of Wairoa and Central Hawke’s Bay District Councils to deal with the range and complexity of the issues that their communities face, and to contribute to the sorts of initiatives that are required in order to improve the performance of the region.”

What should we do?

“The Hawke’s Bay will be more prosperous if it is able to: • Diversify and significantly deepen its economy.

• Insulate itself to some degree from the cyclical nature of primary production.

• Find ways to both produce more and add and capture greater value from what it produces.

• Create and maintain a larger proportion of jobs with higher skills and higher remuneration.

• Provide increased employment opportunities and greater depth in the labour market, and in particular increased opportunities for young people.

• Provide clear pathways for success that provide an incentive for people to stay and build their future in the region.

• Remove unnecessary barriers or impediments to making the changes that are necessary.

• Address the poverty and disadvantage within the region.

• Build communities that have pride, a real sense of inclusion, connection and achievement.

• Help people to have a real stake in the future and contribute meaningfully to their community.

• Sustain the leadership that is necessary to harness the resources of the region and galvanise the actions of people, businesses and communities to work together for a better future.”

WINDER REPORT

I was momentarily excited when I read the first recommendation – diversify.

Especially when this was coupled with recognition that the region needs more jobs that involve higher skills with higher incomes. But then disappointed when the Report’s economic development advice seemed ‘same old, same old’ – simply continue to build upon a low-wage primary production sector. Build a dam and hope some higher-wage jobs will somehow be generated.

But, as noted above, when Winder talked about the role of government, things got more interesting.

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Divided and puny Another key ‘governance’ point made by the Report involves the relationship between local and central government.

Winder notes that nearly $1 billion comes into Hawke’s Bay to deal with social issues – health, education, public safety – and more still for income support and jobs programs.

These are the programs with the most direct bearing on the social and economic wellbeing of Hawke’s Bay residents. Says the Report: “Whether it is the future of the region’s State Highways, or of the railway, or the future of schools and funding for tertiary education, or the future of healthcare and the ability of the region’s people to access it, or relevant research and development that could benefit the region, or the framework of welfare and assistance to those in need, these key decisions rest with central government.”

“Given the importance to the region of government decisions one of the critical success factors for its future will be its ability to work with government and to secure decisions that work in the best interests of Hawke’s Bay. A continuing challenge for both the government and the region will be to get alignment between government agencies and local authorities to ensure that the total government effort delivers credible and coherent results.”

Local elected officials have virtually no say in how central government programs and funds are deployed. The result is gaps in accountability and coordination, mis-matching of resources to needs … and ultimately poor effectiveness at getting the job done. Says the Report: “The ability to deliver a seamless approach across housing, job seeking, financial assistance and training were noted as essential components of a successful response to the social issues facing parts of the region.”

Proponents of reorganisation like myself believe that having a single focus of leadership in the Bay is the necessary precursor to winning more local authority over the priorities and direction of central government initiatives in our region that

affect our socioeconomic wellbeing. Those championing ‘democracy’ should want more of that authority and accountability located here in the Bay. The alternative is to remain divided and puny, able to plan our parking spaces (“Yea democracy”), but not our economic future (“Woe is us”).

Says the Report: “One of the challenges that small provincial councils have faced for a long time is how to engage effectively with government and get government attention on the particular issues facing their district.

Successive governments have also struggled with this issue and have tended to want to work with regions (groups of councils) rather than with individual territorial authorities … it is a challenge for individual territorial authorities, and even for regional groupings of councils to be heard by government…”

Winder is now preparing a ‘Phase 2’ report on structural reorganisation options, including full amalgamation of the region’s five councils. That report is due at the end of November … and will certainly spark some spirited conversations over the holiday season! ®

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Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

Leadership Winder effectively kicked the reorganisation issue into touch, noting our local debate, but leaving an examination of structural changes to ‘phase two’ of his consulting assignment, as requested by the five councils.

And while he discussed the savings that might come from reorganisation (his top estimate was $25 million per year), his main point was about the enabling role of local government: “Improving the performance of local government is also considered critical – not so much because of the potential for savings or efficiencies as because leadership and the resources of the local authorities are required as an enabler of the other critical initiatives.”

And on leadership: “Overall, the project team has concluded that across all of the issues and opportunities that the region faces the most important critical success factor is leadership and vision. The region has many skilled and capable people. It has access to capital and has a local authority sector that has immediate access to significant financial resources. What it does

not have is a clear sense of vision, or the leadership to harness the resources of the region to make a difference.”

Winder says leadership in the Bay is “currently fragmented” and observes that the debate over amalgamation impedes collaboration. One senses a consultant walking a tightrope between reporting the dysfunction he’s observed and being mindful of his paymaster (in this case, the Regional Council, whose leadership opposes reorganisation).

45

Sponsoring insight into smart farming in Hawke’s Bay

by ~ Phyllis Tichinin Biological Agriculture Consultant

Dragon f lies in the tractor radiator ... a good sign Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

46

Which would you rather eat ... A soft, bland dullcoloured apple or a crunchy, sweet, brightskinned apple with lightup-your-tongue flavour?

Roger Curtis of Shiloh Orchards in Hastings knows how to produce the second type of apple and he’s convinced it all starts in the soil. He’s into his fifth season of using biological approaches to apple growing and after 30 years of orcharding experience he’s convinced he’s on to the secret to true fruit quality.

He relates how he started experimenting with a bit of this and that – some seaweed spray, a different spray for colour – but he says it wasn’t until he went to an Arden Andersen biological soils course that he was able to ‘connect the dots’ and then he was in boots and all.

For him that means an Abron microbeactive, composted calcium blend, biology-friendly phosphorous in the form of guano, sodium, sulphur and other key trace elements. He applies foliar nutrition sprays throughout the growing season to boost photosynthesis and nourish the important beneficial microbes on the leaf surfaces.

His fertiliser bill is half what it was before and his fruit quality is stunning.

He notes other changes as well. His orchard sward used to be rough ‘Tryffid’ weeds that climbed up into the fruit zone and needed double strength herbicide to control them. There were few worms and no sign of soil fungal activity. Four years on, he has lower growing, soft weeds and grasses, with practically no mallow.

When he stopped using glyphosate he stopped having signs of manganese deficiency in his apple leaves. “If you get your soil minerals in balance, especially good levels of calcium, the weeds change and aren’t really an issue. The biological activity in the soil goes way up when you stop herbicides.” Roger knows his orchard soils are doing a good job of nutrient recycling because his green drop apples disappear quickly and become food for the tree and the crop.

He can go to a conventional orchard and still see tiny apples undigested on the surface for weeks.

Roger’s wife Rachel consistently samples throughout the season to chart the Brix levels in the apple leaves. Brix levels record the percentage of sugars and minerals in fruit or leaf sap and are powerful indicators of flavour as well. Rachel’s four years

A GOOD SIGN

“The biological activity in the soil goes way up when you stop herbicides.”

LEGEND

SUNSHINE HOURS OCT—MARCH

08-09

1083.4

09-10

1098.8

10-11

1240.4

11-12

1010

08-09 09-10 10-11 11-12

OCT—MARCH

2008—2009 10.36—13.71 2009—2010 11.57—18.17 2010—2011

13.05—14.13

2011—2012

15.67—16.57

L and wanted

roger curtis on lime. The remaining 20% of fertiliser is sprayed onto the leaves. Roger has seen the advantages of setting up a good foundation of balanced soil mineralisation that drives full plant nutrition from the ground up.

He sees the leaf sprays being more effective when the soil nutrition is right and he uses sprays only for tailoring or topping up during the season. He is pleased that there is a wide range of high-tech, effective biological sprays available to him.

The result of the emphasis on this 80% soil correctives is the great flavour, storability and eye appeal of his apples.

His focus is on direct marketing to the increasing number of people who are concerned about health, flavour and full nutrition.

Producing highest quality fruit underpins all that Roger does in the orchard. He’s concerned that agriculture focuses so much on producing volume instead of producing quality … with the consumer losing out. He firmly believes that it is his duty to produce nutrient-dense food that nourishes people and restores health.

His advice to other growers? “Focus on quality. The science is there on this stuff and you need to hear the whole story of why and the basics of how so you can get started. It’s not a fairy tale. You don’t need all the answers at the beginning – just get the ABCs of the minerals right and look after your microbes. The complexity kicks in of its own accord then and you’re away.”

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Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

Busting myths In the last four seasons, Roger has seen two major apple myths busted through use of smart biological farming.

First myth is that you have to spray with lots of calcium to avoid bitter pip and second, that powdery mildew and fireblight will always be with us. Putting the BRIX LEVEL calcium directly into the soil with complex BRIX humic acids and traces has resulted in 20 LEGEND LEGEND SUNSHINE SUNSHINE HOURSHOURS good calcium levels in the fruit without OCT—MARCH OCT—MARCH the need for calcium sprays. Roger no 08-09 08-09 18 08-09 08-09 1083.4 1083.4 longer has issues with powdery mildew or 09-10 09-10 fireblight. He figures it’s because he has his 16 09-10 09-10 1098.8 1098.8 10-11 10-11 soil minerals right and that helps support 10-11 10-11 1240.4 1240.4 14 beneficial soil and leaf surface microbes 11-12 11-12 that compete with the bad guys for food 11-12 11-12 1010 1010 12 and space.

He acknowledges that he still has issues 10 with black spot and uses fungicides to combat it, especially in times of high OCT MARCH humidity or rain. His take on why black LEGEND OCT—MARCH OCT—MARCH NE HOURS spot is still an issue for him is that the trees —MARCH 08-09 2008—2009 these days are less genetically resistant 2008—2009 10.36—13.71 10.36—13.71 1083.4 to spot and the fungus itself has gotten 09-10 2009—2010 2009—2010 11.57—18.17 11.57—18.17 stronger. He is concerned that all the black 1098.8 10-11 2010—2011 2010—2011 13.05—14.13 13.05—14.13 spot fungicides are now developed to only 1240.4 affect the black spot fungus in one single 11-12 2011—2012 2011—2012 15.67—16.57 15.67—16.57 way, which makes it easier for the black 1010 spot fungus to develop resistance. He has been using a foliar fertiliser product that Why contented? Because they have the prompts an immune system response full range of minerals available to them from the plant when challenged with for building their cells and for doing their a disease. These hormone type sprays job of making complex foods available OCT—MARCH also help the tree combat fireblight and to the tree. And because fewer ‘cides’ are 08—2009 10.36—13.71 MARCH MARCH powdery mildew. He cites this flexibility to being applied in the orchard, it helps to use chemical sprays, if necessary, as a big keep a productive soil microbe population 09—2010 11.57—18.17 advantage to biological agriculture. going. Not just the microscopic critters are 10—2011 13.05—14.13 Most apple orchards put pretty much all happy and abundant. Roger says in his 30 of their fertiliser onto the tree leaf during years of orcharding he has never before 11—2012 15.67—16.57 the growing season. At Shiloh Orchards seen dragon flies stuck in the radiator of the approach is to spread 80% of the year’s his tractor. He figures it’s a good sign for fertiliser directly on soil with an emphasis predators and orchard biodiversity. of sampling has resulted in a chart that documents how Brix levels at the beginning of the season have been higher each year.

This means the trees are getting healthier and the leaves are better nourished from the balanced mineral applications and from contented soil microbes.

47

Getting inspired by ~ claire hague, EIT Deputy Chief Executive

Khoa Do

I’ve been news-fasting recently. For those of you who haven’t heard the term, it’s a deliberate decision to not listen to, watch or read any media for a while based on the premise that it’s always skewed towards doom, disaster and destruction.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

48

The upside is you miss out on the endless photographs of road crashes on the front page of our daily newspaper, the inane stories about reality TV stars on our main television news channels, and the latest round of depressing job cuts across New Zealand’s public and private sectors.

The downside (and I would argue there isn’t one) is that you can be accused of hiding from reality, being brainwashed by the mindfulness meditation course you went to recently (it was fantastic), or – my husband’s personal favourite – going all menopausal.

Mind you, he would say that. How else to explain my public and ‘irrational’ attacks on the relevance of his mathematics teaching in this magazine?

Anyway, irrational or not, it was a privilege to attend a conference in Adelaide recently for senior tertiary education managers from New Zealand, Australia and Papua New Guinea, and to have the opportunity to ditch the local doom and disaster and take a helicopter view of tertiary education trends and challenges across Australasia.

Three speakers in particular provided inspiration for the more world-weary of us, and it’s their key messages that I want

to focus on here, as I believe they have resonance for all of us in Hawke’s Bay. Story-teller in action The opening keynote speaker was Khoa Do – film director, screenwriter, philanthropist and Young Australian of the Year 2005. A Vietnamese refugee, he was nearly dropped into the sea by pirates when he travelled to Australia in a leaky boat as a baby with his family. Now only 33, he has achieved international renown in the film industry, particularly in choosing underprivileged young people from the wrong side of the tracks to help make and star in his films. In so doing, he has transformed many lives, with many of his teams going on to make and star in international films, and many also taking up second chance tertiary education. He was a fantastic speaker – a real story-teller in action.

Three key messages from Do have direct relevance in my view to the challenges many of our communities face at this time.

“In great obstacles lie great opportunities.”

Do’s point was, of course, that his obstacles and those of the young people he works with are seemingly

insurmountable, but can be addressed with vision and determination. He always did things that people said he could or should not do because of his ethnicity, his background, and his small stature, including aspiring to playing rugby for his school’s 1st XV! In addition, he exhorted us to “focus on what you have, not on what you have not got.” Instead of bemoaning his poverty, and life as a refugee, he focused on what he had to get him to the heights he has achieved – family support, determination, vision, passion for film (as opposed to the law which he originally trained for) and a real sense of mission – to make life better for others who have also experienced being marginalised by various societies.

Finally (and this point will go down well with those enamoured of costcutting measures to bring New Zealand’s balance account back into the black) he emphasised that “You don’t need a lot of money to achieve great things.” Do’s first film with disadvantaged youth was made on a pittance scraped together – it won accolades and the young stars trod the red carpet with likes of Cate Blanchett.

Again Do made the most of what he and his team had, not what they lacked.

Wilful stupity By this time, I was starting to feel energised again, and things only got better. For those of us who appreciate wry, witty and occasionally vicious humour, Phillip Adams – broadcaster, filmmaker, author, archaeologist and

GETTING INSPIRED

“The role of higher education is to slow the march of the hordes of the stupid.”

Adam Spencer

phillip adams

Phillip Adams instead of more clever.

So how can higher education help?

Adams started with two apparently contradictory statements: “The situation is hopeless” countered by “We must take the next step”. He argued that the fight against stupidity has to be taken one day at a time, a conversation at a time. It’s important to get engaged in issues. Crisis can create communities that will fight against stupidity. In some cases, the only choice is to fight or surrender – and we as individuals, and higher education in general, have a duty to fight.

Against the odds geek The third hero of the conference from my perspective was Adam Spencer. Adam is now a media personality in Australia who grew up on the wrong side of town in Sydney, but who loved mathematics with a passion and cultivated himself as a self-confessed “geek” against the odds to achieve a PhD in his discipline.

As the first in his family to attend university, tertiary education transformed

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

controversialist - was a delight. He is considered an Australian national treasure, and runs a national late-night radio show – a thinking person’s radio show.

Adams’ main theme was that the role of higher education is to “slow the march of the hordes of the stupid.” His view is that the wilful stupidity of huge numbers of people these days is terrifying. His examples included the conspiracy theorists re 9/11; the climate change sceptics; the bigots; the anti-evolutionists – all delivered with dry and searing wit. The stupid, according to Adams, do not listen to science, or reasoned argument – they are wilful in their stupidity which heightens their danger to society. He cited the USA as arguably the most educated country in history, which is now rejecting evolution in favour of fundamentalist religious teaching in many schools. Where once we had evolution – ape to standing thinking man – in Adams’ view we now have begun devolution – people getting more stupid

his life. He pointed out that it was critical that all of us in education keep an eye out for people like him and cultivate their potential. He gave some superb examples of the technology revolution – young people taking advantage of university environments to create amazing technological advances in science, medicine, and other disciplines, some of which cost hardly anything to then use in real world situations.

This was a feel good presentation about the power of a passion (maths) and the mentoring and inspiration provided by the tertiary education system and its people to immerse himself in that passion for its own sake, and utilise what he learned for the greater good.

The point of all this? [And remember, I’m currently apparently irrational.] It’s great to be inspired sometimes. Our passion for what we do can sometimes be lost in the day-to-day busyness of our lives.

Not everything of value in education can be counted, graphed, and analysed.

There are some amazing people in Australia doing some wonderful things; and there are some equally amazing people in Hawke’s Bay doing equally wonderful things. Let’s read, hear, and see more of them in our media.

And finally, there’s another person on the planet apart from my long-suffering husband who is passionate about maths.

Who would have thought it?

49

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TechFocus

Local lifestyle, global dominion for Bay’s hi-tech ambassador Keith Newman chats with Rod Drury about his hi-tech townhouse, Xero’s billion dollar vision and Hawke’s Bay as kids’ capital and a haven for top executives.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

50

Software supremo Rod Drury has visions of turning Xero, his financial software company, into a multibillion dollar global enterprise run from his fibre connected hi-tech Havelock North townhouse.

Xero, developed by Drury and his software team over a number of years, is a back-office financial accounting software, designed to take the dreariness out of business administration, allegedly even making number crunching ‘fun’.

Hawke’s Bay’s unofficial hi-tech ambassador doubled his customer base from 50,000 to 100,000 in the ten months to September, making his short-to-medium term goal of a million look plausible.

Xero has offices in San Francisco, Austin (Texas), London, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Wellington employing 280 staff — 100 added this year alone. “We’re building a multibillion dollar business that is important globally and already have market capital of half a billion so we’re well on the way.”

Drury who grew up in Hawke’s Bay pined for the life of surf, sand, barbeques and long hot summers when he left to go to university and later grew a succession of hi-tech businesses in Wellington. He returned four years ago and finally in mid-2012, he and his wife Anna and their young family moved into their purpose built townhouse on the lower approaches to Te Mata Peak.

Fast forward, play From his new home he’s a virtual CEO of his global empire, a video conference away from the action, and linked directly to the Ultrafast broadband fibre network because he fast forwarded Unison’s rollout plans.

Rather than waiting for another two years, he paid the company to pull cable to his door to accommodate his ‘fibre lifestyle’ and along the way sponsored a

connection to neighbouring Hereworth School. Now Unison are continuing the roll out along Te Mata Rd where other schools and businesses can take advantage of the light speed capabilities.

“Connecting to the fibre was fundamental to allow me to work from here. There was a business case and I was happy to pay for it ... that’s what entrepreneurs do,” says Drury. Complementing the cable is a broadband wireless (NOW) connection.

With trusted senior executives as the face of Xero in the US and UK, Drury is freed up for big picture thinking. “It’s always a sprint, but being in the Bay and being fibre-connected makes this more sustainable.” He just makes sure he blocks out time for a mountain bike ride up Te Mata Peak, taking the kids to school, a trip to the beach or simply for kicking a ball around.

To most of us, however, Drury’s life would still be considered manic, even though he’s increased the number of at-home days from two or three to around four a week. It’s a 27 x 7 business constantly checking emails, working late at night and early in the morning, something Drury has done for 20-something years.

The globetrotting fibre evangelist takes his iPhone and iPad with him wherever he goes and uses a MacBook Pro Retina in his office along with HD video conferencing, Skype, and Go2 teleconferencing tools. He’s just an extension number away from his colleagues and says Yammer, the private social network for corporates is his most important tool for building a global Xero culture.

“Over summer I might be doing a conference call to New York and just flip around and I’m already in my board shorts and ready to head down to the beach with the kids to make a sandcastle.

It’s awesome.”

Content controversy For home entertainment his three children, one pre-school and two preteens, have their own tablet computers and there’s a big ultra-thin TV hooked up to Apple TV with a US iTunes account so they can watch US TV shows direct.

“Apple TV over fibre is fantastic. You can watch movies in high-definition, although it’s not quite the experience it is in the US. You have to wait for on-demand movies to buffer before you start watching. It’s like having cable TV.” While the family has Sky TV, it’s used less frequently these days, which segues into the ongoing controversy around how that network appears to be holding the country to ransom over access to content.

Drury says the Government’s Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) network, which plans to bring fibre optic cable to the door of most New Zealanders over the next five or so years, is a complex integrated system which hasn’t been properly thought through.

“That’s why the uptake of UFB so far has been pathetic. There’s no reason to have it; there has to be some alternative content.”

He says people are not going to spend $60$70 a month on Sky and the same amount again on broadband – they will want to pay $99 for the lot.

“Either we’ll have to regulate Sky and provide that content over broadband or find new content pools like Apple TV, Netflix or Amazon Prime so people at home can see some value.”

He’s hoping that Prime Minister John Key’s recent trip to the US to meet with the big Hollywood studios will have a positive impact not only in having more movies made here but freeing up access to their content.

The other mainstream use of UFB will be domestic video conferencing, but that’ll only increase as the economy is transformed. As far as business goes, he says, fibre is pivotal for Hawke’s Bay’s economic growth.

HI-TECH AMBASSADOR

High fibre diet risk While some may suggest the failure of the $400 million Pacific Fibre venture in which he was a leading shareholder was a major career glitch, Drury is unfazed and undeterred from the goal of achieving an alternative direct undersea fibre optic cable between Auckland, Sydney and Los Angeles.

The cable, in competition to Southern Cross, majority owned by Telecom, would

high-level services to build relationships and add value to its client base.

Drury has considered relocating his Wellington head office to Hawke’s Bay, but there were few takers. “It would be unrealistic. There’s such a diversity of people and a concentration of those in their 20s and 30s who’re not interested in Hawke’s Bay at this stage of their life, although they may be once they’ve had a few kids.”

“We’re building a multibillion dollar business that is important globally and already have market capital of half a billion so we’re well on the way.” rod drury

Rod Drury at home command centre

tim.co.nz

Head in the cloud As Xero becomes more resourced and influential, he’s hopeful the next attempt may be taken more seriously. “Rather than going to the Government and saying ‘please sir can you help us’ it will be more of a win-win peer relationship ... maybe we can pull the Government along with us.”

Xero continues to beef up its servers, storage capacity and high performance infrastructure and develop a range of

To achieve its projected growth curve Xero will need 1000 staff internationally, including around 300 in the call centre which may be a better fit for Hawke’s Bay. In fact, he says, many cloud-based companies like Xero now represent big opportunities for provincial areas that develop strategies to attract this kind of business.

Sadly, part of the reasoning is Kiwi workers cost less than 60% of their Australian counterparts; even then, skilled helpdesk or troubleshooting staff can earn relatively high wages.

These are the jobs of the future, paying up to $45,000-$90,000 for people who understand software, are good at product management or product assurance, and have some understanding of business.

These new call centres end up being the face of the company, reflecting customer satisfaction and sales, says Drury.

Forces of attraction In his default role as Hawke’s Bay hi-tech ambassador, Drury believes great benefits can be realised by attracting senior executives from the country’s largest companies to relocate. Once they’re hooked they’ll spend their money here and actively promote the area to their own networks.

He has arranged conferences for the hi-tech sector at Black Barn and created events that help people build relationships with the Bay, which he believes can become “a really connected place”.

It’s often outsiders, or those who had been away, who bring fresh ideas. For example Drury has been engaging with a group over the past six months to re-imagine Marine Parade and re-brand Hawke’s Bay as a kids’ capital.

The old Marineland could be a ‘cable ski park’ with an artificial wave project with neighbouring developments including a BMX jump park, learners bike riding and water recreation. “We’ve already had approaches from private sector operators who’d love to invest.”

Drury reckons kids desiring “authentic action sports” will beg their parents to take them to Hawke’s Bay for a holiday like they used to in the original Marineland days.

It’s in his nature to get people to rethink things. “Sometimes you just need to do a reset from the politically correct, consultative, go-slow approach, put a vision forward and see if people come alive to it ... As an entrepreneur it’s hard to sit back and watch things not happen.”

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

have removed bandwidth bottlenecks, the need for data caps, reduced communications costs for Kiwi exporters and made more sense of the $1.35 billion UFB rollout.

Despite Pacific Fibre’s high profile partners it was unable to find the full funding. Drury personally dropped about a million dollars.

Some of the obstacles were political.

The US resisted an offer of full funding from China and the New Zealand Government was “apathetic”, failing to engage or support the proposal when it could have saved the day.

He says it should now be clear to the Government that these kinds of projects cannot be achieved solely by the private sector; so he’s pulling together a publicprivate partnership to pick up the threads.

51

tim.co.nz

THE BEST YEARS OF

OUR LIVES

by ~ KAY BAZZARD

Happiness in the Third Age

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

52

It seems that we in the Western world are obsessed with happiness.

Social scientists in universities around the world are trawling through data to present their conclusions about the ‘keys to happiness’.

One of the findings showing up amongst the research is the ‘U-bend’ phenomenon. The theory goes like this. As young adults we are striving and optimistic, expecting a great future, full of energy, looking for fun and love.

It’s downhill from there in the middle years until we hit the mid-life crisis at the average age of 46. Then, after 50 life seems to get easier as we accept what we have made of our lives.

Middle-aged adults experience frustrations, anxieties and disappointments over career goals,

relationships, building financial security and maintaining status. Older people typically have made their peace with life’s accomplishments and failures and want to live peacefully.

In a recent study from Stanford University, Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor and director of the Stanford Centre on Longevity, writes, “As people get older, they’re more aware of mortality, so when they see or experience moments of wonderful things, that often comes with the realization that life is fragile and will come to an end. But that’s a good thing.” It focuses the mind.

Older people may have lost their beauty and gained some wrinkles, but they have gained optimism and a feast of rosy memories to sustain them, finding the elusive thing that is happiness they have been searching for all their lives.

Studies also show that on no account should older people act their age. As the saying goes, ‘you are as young as you feel’. What is seen as appropriate behaviour for older people is seriously limiting; if you think you’re old, you will be ‘old’ and with that comes the certainty that it is too late to start something new.

Engage the brain with something new When I found myself unable to find satisfying work a few years ago I decided

to give myself permission to live on my savings for a few years until the pension came into view.

Living frugally, I took myself off to art school at EIT in Taradale, and then built a studio because I needed a designated workspace. The art training gave me a kick start and my art practice developed from there. My interest was in creating ceramic figures that expressed the subtleties of human mood and movement. By repeatedly working at it, fresh ideas emerged leading onto the next piece.

Making art is serious fun and I admit that I am obsessed. I frequently awake with possibilities bubbling away in my head and I can’t wait to get into the studio to try them out. The time disappears and next minute it’s after 2 and I’m starving hungry.

Being good at something doesn’t just happen. It requires practice and a desire to keep on practising, not expecting a masterpiece the first time round and keeping an open mind to possibilities and new learning.

It is still early days but my work is selling in a few galleries and art exhibitions. To see them, visit: www.kaybazzard.co.nz Other passions, love after 60 For some of my contemporaries a new relationship is the source of renewed purpose and happiness. They have

THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES

“Life is calmer. And, believe it or not, sex is better, possibly because we have more time for it.” fiona

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

found second-time-round partners after age 60 through the internet or introduction by their friends.

At this age it is not easy to meet someone interested in finding a partner.

It requires commitment to the matchmaking process, overcoming prejudices and engaging in some radical shifts in thinking.

In the case of Fiona and Deborah this came after long periods of ‘recovery’ from former relationships – although we note that men usually move on much more quickly than do women.

Fiona married her internet suitor and they now live in Napier. Deborah has fallen in love with a man who lives in another city. They talk every night before sleep, regularly visit each other and ultimately, have plans to live together.

Both women had dabbled with internet dating sites with little success.

However, when Alan contacted Fiona and they met, she had a strong feeling of recognition and realized the relationship could work. The first date lasted 13 days!

Fiona: “At our age you don’t mess around - and a few months later we were married. It seems to me that the ‘love’ one feels as an older person is tempered by experience, which tends to revise expectations [held as a younger adult].

Living with another person is also easier.

In our case we are retired, so don’t have the pressures of jobs. We have fewer outside commitments, more financial independence and security, more tolerance for personal idiosyncrasies, and so on.

We are, in many ways, very different from each other, but can pursue our personal interests and even travel alone without the other partner feeling neglected or abandoned. Life is calmer.

And, believe it or not, sex is better, possibly because we have more time for it.”

By contrast, it was important for Deborah to take time in getting to know her new man.

Deborah: “I didn’t want to rush into anything. I felt we needed to spend time just getting to know each other by being exposed to different situations, respecting the fact that he has his point of view and that I have mine and accepting that.

It was important to me that my adult children approved – but I just knew they would. Richard and I have similar values, sense of humour and enjoy the same things. It had to be someone who would fit well into my life; it makes the relationship easier. When you’re 60 there’s no time to work through a lot of problems, you don’t have the energy.

It’s about finding the right one, and also, it’s about you being the right one.

Sex moves the relationship forward.

Trust takes time to establish – we talk every day and see each other when we can. Through good communication comes intimacy which takes the relationship to a totally new level.”

Other couples may choose not to live together, instead, maintaining their own homes, getting together at weekends, taking holidays and outings, maintaining a romantic or companionable liaison not made routine by over-familiarity.

Then there are the individuals who are happily single after a long marriage ending in divorce or death. Their happiness comes from making a new life for themselves while rosying up the memories, valuing freedom of choice and self-expression, freedom from compromise and being answerable to no one.

I note from research that a long marriage grown dull from routine can be rejuvenated – by holding hands, gazing into each other’s eyes and changing habits. Well and good if it works for you, but happiness is what you make out of your life and it is never too late to change.

Happiness is an elusive notion.

The word is too simple to cover the multiplicity of feelings and causes.

However, one thing is certain: you are more likely to describe yourself as happy when you are over 50.

53

Facts and figures to get you thinking, prepare you for party conversations, or simply provoke shock and awe!

Poor Kids

GE Free Hawke’s Bay

KidsCan claims they can feed all 16,000 hungry children in New Zealand with $4 million per annum ($250 per child). Every year New Zealanders send $100 million overseas to feed hungry children.

Pure Hawke’s Bay recently commissioned a representative sample survey in the region on the GMO issue, which found that 84% of respondents say “Hawke’s Bay should remain a GE free food producing region”. The same percentage agree that “Being a GE free food region gives Hawke’s Bay food exports a competitive advantage”. And 73% of respondents believe GE free status allows HB food exporters to earn higher prices for their exports.

9,000 Hawke’s Bay children attend low-decile primary and intermediate schools.

In Hawke’s Bay a conservative estimate is that 900 children need food help. But the number could be as high as 1,800. KidsCan is currently feeding 120 Hawke’s Bay children every school day.

Nearly 60% of Hawke’s Bay kids live in the poorest deciles.

Farming

75% of those in the HB Hospital’s children’s ward at any one time are Mãori and Pacific and 75% of those are under five.

According to the Ministry for Primary Industries, farm debt, now at $48 billion, is only $200 million off its 2010 peak, and rising again.

Right to Die

The primary production sector accounts for 21% of HB businesses. Another 1.8% of businesses process food, beverages and forest products. These businesses directly contribute $1.84 billion (or 28%) of the region’s GDP, and 25% of its employment.

Recent research in New Zealand indicates that 16.2% of adults or about 519,740 people currently know someone whose medical or mental condition is making their life unbearable. And further, that five times more adults support than oppose entitling people aged 18+ to apply for medical assistance to end their lives in certain circumstances.

The Government’s Business Growth Agenda (has been 3%) has given the sector a growth target of 7% a year, which translates to $62 billion of ag exports by 2025. Ag exports were $32 billion for the year ended June 2012.

$$$ from Wellington

Hawke’s Bay Biz

HB receives nearly $1 billion in central govt funding for health, education, transportation, public safety. Plus 10% of our population received a benefit in 2011; 15% eligible for superannuation.

There are 18,000 businesses across Hawke’s Bay; 62% comprise the self-employed and only 234 companies employ more than 50 staff. Current employment is 77,128, down 4% from 2005 peak.

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What’s art without an audience? by ~ lizzie russell

Earlier in the year I was fortunate enough to attend Creative New Zealand’s 21st Century Arts Conference 2012 in Wellington. The theme was ‘building audience capital’.

The audience and their needs and wants were at the centre of it all.

AUDIENCE FOR ART

What does our audience say?

In my article in the last edition I made the point that art is not reaching its potential if it’s not being interacted with, experienced, spoken about. Continuing with this idea, I’ve been speaking with audience members about the Hawke’s Bay arts scene – what’s going well, what we’re lacking, what some of the highlights of the last 12 months have been for them.

Napier’s Peter Meyer comments that the arts here are in good shape, with plenty to see and do, and with top talent. He names some favourite artists whose work he follows closely – Ricks Terstappen, William Jameson, Ruth McLean, Jacob Scott. For a longer, though not exhaustive list, see Roy Dunningham’s article on EAST, the new regional exhibition.

Laura Morris (pictured) moved to Hawke’s Bay almost two years ago, having lived in the Bay of Plenty, Wellington, the UK and Melbourne. A keen traveller, Laura investigates what artistic activities, exhibitions, performances, festivals will be on where she’s heading, and often these pursuits will form the agenda for her holidays and adventures. This was the same when she made the move to Hawkes’s Bay in late 2010 with her partner for his work. She hunted out the art galleries and venues that would become her locals, and set about finding more ways to get involved.

Laura is a keen and talented writer, and has been able to further that since her move here. She credits the local arts scene for helping her settle in to a new place.

“Less-promoted groups like the writers group at Keirunga and the Hawke’s Bay Live Poets have been so beneficial for me. And why they are not better-known is a mystery to me, especially the Live Poets who have been going for 20 years.

Along with the local talent – poets who read original work each month – the group also brings a New Zealand poet to Hawke’s Bay every eight weeks. If you’re someone who needs to have arts and literature in your life, this kind of thing is essential. Plus, they’re a great bunch of people.”

Laura also regularly visits Hastings City Art Gallery, Paperworks, Black Barn Gallery, and accesses a lot of galleries around the rest of the country online. Part of this is her travel planning, part is looking to buy work to grow her modest collection.

She’s not alone in using the internet to get her art fix – the CNZ study tells us that online engagement with the arts continues to increase rapidly. Last year 51% of us watched a performance or viewed visual art online, while only 38% did in 2008.

“Getting to know people in order to remain informed seems to be more necessary outside the bigger cities.” laura morris Laura Morris at home

Two HCAG shows in the last year feature on Laura’s highlight list – the touring exhibition of Pat Hanly’s work, BLAST! and HB-born, Las Vegas-based Matthew Couper’s autobiographical show, Thirty-three. She also rates Napier Operatic Society’s production of Chicago highly, and comments that NOS stands out to her as the bright light in the performing arts here.

Her other highlight is the arrival of Pecha Kucha in Hawke’s Bay. Laura did a great job speaking about New Zealand poetry at the October session, but before that had already come to see Pecha Kucha as “a great alternative cultural feast, where the social networking element – getting to know and understand people in the community better – is just as valuable as the presentations. Social networking, I think, is even more important in the provinces. Getting to know people in order to remain informed seems to be more necessary outside the bigger cities.”

So much, but hard to find I spoke to Sarah Whiten and John Schiff, who arrived in HB three years ago and who are two of the most active and engaged arts audience members I’ve encountered.

In the last year or so, they’ve attended pretty much everything they’ve had time for. From HCAG exhibition openings

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

Marketing and promotions strategies were explored, funding and philanthropy discussed, audience segmentation explained, and hundreds of great ideas were thrown around for getting the arts into the lives of more New Zealanders, and in more meaningful ways. This was exciting stuff – sharing audiences across genres and art forms, combining marketing resources, growing the online presence.

One major point I took from the conference was the need for arts organisations and venues to stop thinking of neighbouring or related groups and events as rivals, but instead to work together to grow the overall arts audience.

Here in Hawke’s Bay, we already see some of this happening. Creative Napier and Creative Hastings list upcoming events for a wide range of groups online or on paper, brochures promoting the activities of groups are distributed from other venues, and social media makes it easy to share news of say, an art gallery with the audience of a music venue.

This is all a good start, and something to work from towards a cohesive way of sharing what’s happening in the arts in the region.

CNZ also reported back to us the results of their triennial survey – New Zealanders and the arts: attitudes, attendance and participation in 2011.

Mostly it was positive news. I was pleasantly surprised to hear that 85% of New Zealanders have engaged with the arts in the last year – either by attending or being actively involved. This is only marginally lower involvement than in 2008 (86%), and this small decrease has been attributed to the Christchurch earthquakes.

Speaking of Christchurch, the study also showed that 94% of the Garden City’s residents believe that “it’s important that Christchurch is recognised as a place that supports excellence in the arts”. 90% of Christchurch-based respondents also agreed that culture and the arts have a vital role to play in the rebuilding of the city. A couple more stats you may find interesting: 73% agree that the arts contribute in a positive way to the economy, while 80% agree that the arts help us to define who we are as New Zealanders.

The study is not broken down into regions, but I’d like to think that we’d have a similar response here in Hawke’s Bay, especially given the depth and breadth of artistic pursuits on offer here.

57

AUDIENCE FOR ART The audience at Hastings City Art Gallery

“Wouldn’t it be great ... to have one website where all the cultural, artistic and community events were listed together, and that was updated continuously?” john schiff of mouth, or very consciously hunt them out. This information has often been difficult to find, they tell me. “Wouldn’t it be great,” John says, “to have one website where all the cultural, artistic and community events were listed together, and that was updated continuously?”

Speaking with them was a great reminder of just how vast and fertile the arts landscape in Hawke’s Bay is, so long as you know your way around it. While the one-stop-shop website remains but an idea, John and Sarah have found that the key to staying informed and therefore managing to see and do as much as they do is getting onto the mailing lists of as many arts organisations as possible.

Hastings City Art Gallery has an active relationship with its database, regularly updating its audience on exhibitions, events and the work of other galleries, and Hawke’s Bay Tourism also sends out events listings for what’s coming up around the region. Other groups do this too, but we do suffer, as John says, from the lack of a centralised news and information hub for the arts.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

58

and floor talks to Pecha Kucha, the NZ Film Festival, the Royal New Zealand Ballet and New Zealand Symphony Orchestra performances at Napier Municipal Theatre (and the floor talks that proceed), to Oruawharo Opera (magical and seemingly under-promoted opera beneath the stars in the beautiful homestead garden near Otane), the list goes on.

A lecture from the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts, the World Press Photography exhibition at the Photographers Gallery in Napier, the fabulous Black Grace dance company at Lindisfarne College’s auditorium, Ian McKellen at the Opera House, popup shows in Birdwood Gallery’s new conservatory exhibition space, local jazz at Clearview and that the Havelock North Community Arts Centre. Phew!

And from all of that richness and diversity, John and Sarah managed to pick their highlights. The premiere screening of local filmmaker Josh Neilson’s film Transcendence at Hastings City Art Gallery made their list. HCAG shows Game On and Multiply also made an appearance, for their edginess and outward-looking attitudes. And although it was a bit over a year ago, last April’s literary festival which featured Annie Proulx alongside major New Zealand writers was a hit for them too. (Preparations are in progress for next June’s HB Readers and Writers Festival, so keep an ear out).

While Sarah and John have delighted in the array of artistic activities on offer here in Hawke’s Bay, they both made the comment that in order to engage in as much as they do, they’ve had to either hear about these events through word

Still more to come Hawke’s Bay Museum and Art Gallery also promotes the activities of other organisations, and everyone I spoke to is looking forward to the re-opening in August 2013. As Peter Meyer remarks, “Douglas (Lloyd Jenkins, director) has done lots of neat stuff and is trying to build a national following, so I’m looking forward to it being finished and seeing what pops out of the cake.”

With the new and improved HBMAG, and Hastings City Art Gallery to get a probable upgrade as part of Hastings District Council’s Civic Square Redevelopment project, the future of both these major art institutions looks bright for audiences.

But of course there is always room for improvement, and for imagining Hawke’s Bay as the best version of itself.

In that scenario, Laura Morris sees us with two or three new, cutting edge dealer galleries, which not only lift the offerings for those of us here, but also for

AUDIENCE FOR ART Fane Flaws gives a floor talk at the Game On exhibition spaces. It would be another way of art becoming more integrated into the wider activities of our towns and cities.

Laura’s other hope for improving the arts scene in Hawke’s Bay comes straight back to us, the audience, “I think audiences, the public, need to take more of a leap of faith, get more into a habit of going to things, visiting exhibitions, attending talks and events.

Art is supposed to challenge us, and I think we should be taking on the challenge of supporting and engaging with the arts as much as we can, because if we don’t, I can only imagine that some of these things are just going to cease to exist. On the other hand, the more of us that get along to shows and plays and talks and everything else, the more the arts will flourish and we’ll have even more to do and see and choose from!”

Taking in Rita Angus’s Lawrence Baigent (1938-39/1943) at HCAG

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

those further afield. “Plenty of Hawke’s Bay businesses are doing well nationally and even globally – why not art? Art as investment is intriguing, and catches so many people’s imaginations. A lot more is possible with the digital age we’re living in. I’d love to see the rise of ‘art as business’ with all the legitimacy that comes with that, rather than art being simply a community pursuit. I think there is room for both.”

Sarah and John agree that there is room for more commercial art activity in the region, broadening to show not only what is produced here, but work from the rest of the country and overseas too.

Also passionate about sculpture, Sarah comments that it would be wonderful to see more 3D work around, perhaps in commercial settings – wineries and restaurants, and more in our public

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FOOD Future Prosperity of the Hawke’s Bay Region – Issues and Options

The White Paper for Vulnerable Children

GM Free Food Producing Hawke’s Bay

Ministry for Social Development

Submission to Hastings Council by Pure Hawke’s Bay

McGredy Winder & Co.

A Call to Arms: A Contribution to a New Zealand Agri-Food Strategy

Our Land, Our Environment And Our Economy – Transiting To Where?

Average Is Over Tom Friedman, New York Times Re need to be above-average to compete today

Gareth Morgan

The Riddet Institute

Why Teachers Are Furious (And Parents Are Curious)

Solutions to Child Poverty in New Zealand

New Zealand Herald Re school standards

Expert Advisory Group Office of the Children’s Commissioner

John Pearce

No Right To Profit By Tramping Over Others Gareth Morgan Re farmers and recent Environment Court decision

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Hey Tiki - Rua by Tony Harrington

YES, ART HAPPENS

SOUTH OF THE

BOMBAY

HILLS BY ~ ROY DUNNINGHAM

show was unwanted and there was a feeling that The Invitational was a closed shop and difficult for new artists to break into.

After much consultation, the Hastings City Art Gallery has returned to using an outside selector for East 2012. This time, however, the format provides for a thorough dialogue over a period of time between the curator and the artists rather than the ‘hit or miss’ system of old. Some projects were even accepted as proposals to be completed for this show.

Applications were open to any artists with Hawke’s Bay connections.

As for the name East 2012, it marks the start of a strategy, in co-operation with Whanganui and Taranaki, to lift the profile of artists across the middle North Island. Just thumb through copies of our two major art periodicals and you will see how art appears to stop happening south of the Bombay Hills and re-appears again around Porirua.

So, has it worked? Well, yes. There really are some fresh faces included and a reappearance of some seemingly forgotten artists. Sure, there are a few works that are a bit lightweight for my tastes, but that will always happen and the curator, the respected Bill Milbank, makes a convincing case in his catalogue essay to support his inclusions.

I am disappointed not to see work from a number of very good artists who were not selected but that is the way that these things go. Remember when the Wine Country Gallery staged a Salon des Refuses from the Hawke’s Bay Review? You could

assemble quite a decent show from the artists not in East 2012, but perhaps that reflects a growing strength in the local art scene.

As for the exhibition itself, there is a consistency shown which keeps it tightknit and helps viewers to relate to each succeeding work as they move around.

Curiously, for all of its Hawke’s Bay connections, this show presents a wider, outward-looking view of the world than did its predecessors.

David Trubridge may have used Manuka as the genesis of his work, but the values of proportion and intellectual engagement with viewers are universal and, for all its high-tech manufacture, the harmony between art and nature is timeless.

Matthew Couper may be locally born and bred, but he has found his milieu in the rich symbolism of the Spanish Colonial artists of America. Using this narrative tradition, he looks at the human need for beliefs and symbols on which to hang hopes and fears and laces them with autobiographical events.

There is plenty for viewers to do here too. You can ask yourself if Helen Kerridge’s upset wine glass is simply an exquisitely rendered piece of close observation or is it significant of wider trends and events in the world around us.

There is a clue in the title.

I like the unselfconscious cross culturism of the show. Milbank points to Prakesh Patel, “an Indian born in New Zealand, educated in Hawke’s Bay …. and vibrantly references his inherited

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

East 2012, the major art event on the Hastings City Art Gallery’s calendar appears, at first, to have revived the old Hawke’s Bay Review format of a guest selector. The resemblance is only superficial, though, and there is a huge difference between the two. The gestation of East 2012 and its evolution from The Review has been long and involved and is worth looking at.

Until 2007 the Hawke’s Bay Review was the major showcase for local artists who submitted work for consideration and a guest selector decided who was in and who was not. Sadly, the selections became increasingly erratic. To be fair, it is often difficult to assess unfamiliar artists on just one or two works and to tune in to what they are doing (or not doing).

Increasingly sub-standard work appeared in the show and many established artists stopped supporting it.

In response, Creative Hawke’s Bay initiated a new format: the Hawke’s Bay Invitational, using an expert panel to invite the most appropriate artists to exhibit. This brought a great improvement but the problems weren’t over yet. Freed of a curatorial presence, some artists were less than rigorous in vetting the quality of their submissions and there were the attendant problems of a large and disparate selection panel.

The process was again improved by introducing a guest curator to monitor the submissions but some criticism still remained. Invited artists sometimes found that major work they had completed for the

63

EAST 2012

“There is a healthy presence of the interaction between Mãori and European traditions.”

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

64

relationship with India”. In comparison, Patrick Tyman is an Englishman, born in India but lives in Hawke’s Bay. His painting tells that story with a dense tableau of cultural icons that have informed him, set against a background of Hawke’s Bay hills.

There is a healthy presence of the interaction between Mãori and European traditions that has vitalised so much of our art. Walter Dewes’ Kaitiakitanga is especially striking. This guardian is scary and manic as it carries past and present symbols of life and death, land clearance, monetarism and more. See how many you can identify. The scale and agitated line amplifies the nervous energy of the work.

You can find relief from tension in the cerebral coolness of Peter Baker’s This, That and the Others, a cryptic work that invites contemplation. So too, does Jeffrey Drabble’s photograph Text De Sending which can be enjoyed for its intricate formal structure or as a disquieting insight into urban alienation. Just as impressive, in a different way is Richard Brimer’s Untitled landscape photograph.

There are no tricks here, nothing overtly clever; it is just evocative and beautiful.

One thing about this exhibition that especially warms my old heart is the abundance of good painting which seems almost unfashionable these days. Wellesley Binding’s The Works is an epic achievement even by his high standards. This parable of corporate and global structures insidiously growing and crumbling, channelling our lives is in a grand tradition of allegorical painting with antecedents in late Gothic masters such as Bosch and Breugel. It is a fascinating and disturbing world of secrecy and duplicity painted with consummate skill. Even the “accidental” elements like the splashes and dribbles do exactly the right things as Binding layers and orchestrates his colours. This is terrific painting.

There is so much more to enjoy here from the installation of the uncompromising David Guerin to Nicole Sanders-O’Shea’s intimate fragments of domestic life, to the joyous kitsch of Jo Blogg and the ephemeral delicacy of Kathy Boyle’s Terra Flora.

The more I looked at this show, the more I liked it.

The Works by Wellesley Binding

Kaitiakitanga by Walter Dewes

EAST 2012 Text De Sending by Jeffrey Drabble

Bryan Dew Exhibition at Quay Gallery

Sketch for Ten Guitars by Para Matchitt

Bryan Dew is not well-known now, but he is one of the most interesting artists to emerge from Hawke’s Bay. After graduating from Elam Art School in 1961 he returned to work in Hawke’s Bay and produced a remarkable series of paintings taking a satirical view of the social mores of that time. While the rest of us were painting rolling hills in a modernist light Dew was looking at the mid-century social world of formal speeches, weddings and beauty contests with all the their attendant dourness and posturing. Our models were the French and British Modernists; his were, unfashionably, the more savagely-brushed German Expressionists and the American social realists.

He then left New Zealand to study design in London and America and he worked as a graphic designer in New York for the next 39 years. In the 1990s he began painting again, viewing Americana with an acid eye from close up. His last works re-visited themes from the Hastings of his youth: royal visits, movies, teenage dates, suburbia etc.

These works were not so much satirical as quizzical, the ex-patriot wondering about his own identity and origins.

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

Manuka by David Trubridge

Sadly, he died suddenly in 2006.

However, the Quay Gallery in Ahuriri is showing some of his work in an exhibition starting on the 16th November; presenting a rare chance to see paintings by this unique, local artist.

65

SOLO EXHIBITION Bryan Dew

Stylish Professional Innovative Framing

November 16 – 30

Original prints from local and NZ artists

Forest God by Bryan Dew Oil & Alkyd on canvas 120cm

EXPERIENCE THE DIFFERENCE Open 7 Days 10am – 5pm 14 West Quay Ahuriri info@quaygallery.co.nz p. 06 835 4637 www.quaygallery.co.nz

BRENDAN WEBB

Marking time

Bee in the know ~ nov/ dec 2012

66

He watched from the shelter of a shop doorway as the car slowly drove past.

The driver, a young woman, had circled the block several times looking for a space in the 30-minute parking zone just outside the central city metered area. She stopped and quickly reversed into a vacated space.

He remained motionless as she walked around to the rear door of her car. She bent over, undid the safety harness on the car seat and extracted a toddler.

A second child scrambled out and stood on the footpath. After a few minutes, with the toddler now wedged in a pushchair, the trio headed into the stream of pedestrians.

He didn’t follow them.

He waited until they were half a block away before he made his move. Six quick paces and he was in front of the car. He didn’t need to check the zone’s time limit. He knew the city’s parking and metered zones by heart. Almost imperceptibly, he slid a piece of yellow chalk from his pocket. He deliberately chose yellow. The others always used white but he liked to add his individual touch. A casual glance along the street and then his practised crouch, hold and swipe technique, leaving a small yellow chalk slash across the sidewall of the front left tyre.

He would give it 29 minutes and 52 seconds, enough to stroll six blocks and still be back in time to write the ticket. She would late getting back. She would probably say she thought it was a 60-minute parking zone, or hadn’t seen the 30-minute sign or that she had been distracted by her children. She would look imploringly at him, searching his face for some understanding, desperately hoping he would let her off this time.

They all tried that. It never worked.

He had read somewhere that parking meter revenue only covered the cost of maintaining the meters and the wages of the meter wardens. So he figured non-payers and parking overstayers were effectively threatening his job.

There could be no concessions, no warnings, no latitude. This wasn’t a job for amateurs. He was a professional, cold and calculating under pressure.

He didn’t talk about his job to others.

He’d made that mistake at a dinner party once and suddenly found the entire room had gone silent. Nobody would

A message from your local council ... or is it revenge?

pass him the new potatoes, the salad stayed at the far end of the table until only a few wilted leaves lying in a wet puddle in the bottom of the bowl were left. He had to make do with half a steak and no dressing.

But when he’d made some excuse and left early, he’d made a note of the other guests’ car registration numbers. Like his dinner, revenge would be a dish best served cold.

He hadn’t set out to be a parking warden. When he was growing up he had wanted to be a motorbike traffic cop. He admired their smart black uniforms with their shiny silver buttons, their peaked helmets, their brown corduroy trousers, big motorbike gauntlets and motorbike boots that came almost up to their knees.

And of course, those silver Triumph 650 twins that they rode, accelerating past traffic with siren blaring and bringing speeding Zephyrs and hurtling Humber 80s to an ashamed stop on the side of the road with the wave of a hand.

But damn politicians had ended his dream when they merged the police and traffic because he’d been too tubby to clamber through pipes and too short to scale six foot walls. He had mixed feelings about his present job because while it allowed him to punish parking evil-doers, he had to do it discreetly.

He’d had a couple of tricky moments early in his career, including the time he’d ticketed a Mongrel Mobster’s black SUV, only to be slammed face-down on the vehicle’s bonnet and have the ticket

inserted more or less in his back pocket.

He liked to read spy novels. He had a first edition copy of Ian Fleming’s James Bond thriller, Dr No. He kept his ticket book in a leather pouch slung under his left armpit like a shoulder holster. He practised whipping it out in front of a mirror in his small flat. Spy books had taught him street craft, how to blend seamlessly into a crowd, how to tail a suspect, how to use shop windows to observe an almost-expired meter across the street. He prided himself in the fact that he had now written out more than 300 tickets without the errant motorists ever seeing him.

Suddenly he stopped and crouched behind a mobility scooter outside a chemist’s shop.

The man getting out of a shiny latemodel BMW 7 series looked familiar. The man said something to his wife, glanced scornfully at a parking meter and the pair walked away.

As the warden stared after them, the memory flooded back. It was Fatty Fletcher from Form 3, the school bully who’d put his head down the loo and flushed it in front of his laughing mates.

Half a century had not dimmed the humiliation of that dunking. Even now, he had flashbacks every time he stood in front of a toilet bowl.

He whistled a few bars of the James Bond theme under his breath as he slid his ticket book from inside his jacket. A cruel smile played on his lips. Goldfinger Fletcher would never know what hit him.

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