‘Taking the Pulse’Stakeholder Leader Interviews

Conducted on behalf of the WEL Energy Trust

Dr Nick Marsh

26-9-09

The Questions1. What are the priorities and needs of the Waikato -

economic competitiveness and community wellbeing?

2. What are your organisation’s strategies and projects - potential for partnership connections with Trust projects?

3. What suggestions do you have for the Trust?- possible focus and funding options in the future?

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LIVEABILITY

VISITABILITY

INVESTABILITY

WORKABILITY

THE ATTRACTION‘DIAMOND’ OFHAMILTON? Vision?

Present?

The Waikato and Hamilton- Upsides We got the V8’s and attracted the Tua fight Still a city with a can-do attitude Still small enough to deal with issues of traffic and access We have ‘secret places’- e.g. the Gardens The Innovation Park is adding value

Our Job Summit only produced a cycle track!

Hamilton City should be doing more with after hours night-school

City consenting is made far too hard 10 years ago it was hard to get people to move to Hamilton - now it is easier

Hamilton is perceived as much better than it used to be – the game has been lifted - more attractive as a place to live

You need things to see and do in a place that make you proud to live there. The Gardens Festival in September is great (and free)

‘We do need to sell ourselves to ourselves’ - We need to build more pride

Upsides 2 We are agriculture and farming based, a fairly wealthy city, with a lot of growth

e.g. the Base

Everything the Council does is about Economic Development!

This has to be the place that is ‘the leader for your field e.g. high tech agriculture’ Hamilton is at an interesting stage of development - used to be the rural country

town but now we are a Metro City

The Waikato and Hamilton- Downsides A lot of energy goes into the politicking

The Chinese cities are doing regional development really well, as are the development regions of NE England, but we have an unduly complicated approach in the Waikato

Hamilton is maturing - but it needs a visionary leader

It is a region that has not found itself - needs a marketing strategy and to be really positive - a new and ambitious attitude - need for people to be entrepreneurial

The city is in its ‘teenagerhood’ - coming of age

We don’t skite in the Waikato - there is always a cringe element in talking ourselves up – but we should be loud in letting the world know how good we are – with Innovation and Export.

A lot of bright people here, well intentioned, but still difficult to get a set of actions to do the ‘lift up’. This is also true for NZ - we have all this talent but we spend a lot of time on our processes and structures.

Downsides-2

The Waikato could demonstrate how to do it - ‘Waikato Inc’ needs a masterplan

We have high growth - and high indebtedness Needing to put big $ into infrastructure Not investing in social and cultural infrastructure e.g. Founders Theater is

outdated - and it doubles as our Town Hall - Museum tries to be all things but can’t do it. We therefore lack basic civic amenities

Our City Heart is dead - The Base has captured the shopping heartbeat - we need something that brings people into the city - but not everyone sees the CBD as ‘economic development’

Competition with other cities is about competing for talent - we need to deliver a modern, well rounded city - to be able to get the right people to come here to work

Waikato and Dairy The engine of pastoral agriculture - here in the Waikato (50% of the milk is

produced) - the really innovative farmers

Our point of difference is our ‘pastoral agric expertise’ –-‘free range milk’ – a competitive advantage

(6-12 months) - quite ugly from a farmer’s perspective - currency issue at 65 cents+ - tighten your belts-(1-3 years) the fundamentals are good - (Long term) - very positive - (World population growing by 80 million per year - health, welfare , nutrition needs)

Farmers will have to manage their business around more volatility in payouts

The big issue for us to stay out in front is ‘sustainability and the environment’ - - 50% of the NZ carbon footprint

Fonterra - 25% of NZ export earnings

Community Issues in the Waikato

‘Rurality’ – difficult to access services, transport issue, people are poor

Community organisations - plan how to be sustainable - get strategic - think more commercially!

Warmer homes make for healthier people We need more public art We need more bicycles! Putting a meal on the table – e.g. Foodbank - Housing- a roof over your head Parenting skills Youth at risk-‘We need them to have hope’. Major problem with kids having lack

of completion of their studies. We want to inspire kids and also parents. In our childhood kids thought about getting jobs in the public service, or banks etc

Health access

Community Issues in the Waikato 2

Sport has been undervalued by the city - there is a real disconnect for sport

95% of primary school teachers are women 45+ - they are not into sport, they don’t teach sport after school - we need kids to play for their school mid week, and for their club at the weekend

The Government can’t do everything in a small economy. We like charities where there are people working effectively and hard with a stack of supporters, and professional skills being applied.

Taxes can’t pay for everything - it is up to the community to provide the extra benefits

Community Funding is Reducing! Perry Foundation: gaming is 5% down on last year, on top of

10% down in the previous year WEL Trust -potentially reduced dividend from the company

Trust Waikato- they have lost a large % of their fund value

With Limited Funding- need to be more strategic?

Hamilton does have a philanthropic spirit but not the philanthropy capital in comparison to Southland. The wealth of the Southland Trust gets you the Invercargill Velodrome

The Trusts in central Waikato have different hats, different strategies - Who does it best? Invercargill Licensing Trust - have more money and less problems to spend it on

Need more collaboration and joint strategy from the Funders forum. The challenge of ‘public good’ is tremendous - people don’t know it’s there till it goes away

It is more effective to have planning for Major Projects 2-3 years ahead - maybe the Funders Forum could work on that?

Community Organisations need to be more cost-efficient

Amalgamate some of the smaller groups which duplicate services – e.g. multiple sclerosis - we did fund someone to mediate to bring two organisations into one

Too many sports clubs in Hamilton - we need mergers and amalgamations

Why not provide all the IT from one centre, why not organize one contract with Vodaphone for all - one strategy for Sport to go into the ‘Active Community’ - re-engineer the sector

Build a community hub - a place where all community groups are based, sharing services to reduce costs and increase synergy and cooperation

We like the ‘One Stop Shop’ Web idea and want to take it further

Suggestions for the Trust - ‘Funding Priorities’

Higher Community Split - People felt that the split should have a higher % for the community versus the discount

Consumer Choice Mechanism- It was recognized that some people desperately need 100% of the discount, but that others, including businesses, might prefer to see more money invested in ‘making a difference‘ for the Waikato

Suggestions for the Trust - ‘Think Strategically’

The Trust needs to think strategically about what their impact on the community should be - work backwards - list what you want to do: Get a series of worthy projects for say $3 million - that

would really add value to the place

Set up a Biz Development Fund Set up the Energy Efficiency budget Put a figure for the welfare side of things ‘Sell what you believe in’ to the community - they will buy

it if they can make some choice in the matter

Suggestions for the Trust - ‘Keynote Projects’ The River- we must do more to utilise the River as a feature - This is a pretty town

- but driving through you would not know about the River - could provide a focus - sense of pride, and cohesion

The Trust could focus on ’Youth’

Where’s the statue to Captain Hamilton - our founder? Stop bulldozing down our history - build up our heritage - WHERE IS OUR SOUL?

Larger placements in partnerships - working with who else passionately wants to see the Waikato grow?

We really need some decent sports courts - the Council have a sports courts plan in the LTCCP for $12 million - but bring the cost down

In the grant funding to groups there needs to be some money given as a loan - keep some skin in the game

Pull some bigger dollops of money together - do some big projects like the Velodrome in Invercargill