Mayor welcomes projected growth

A rural Waikato council has been told to prepare for an influx of new residents if it wants to keep one step ahead of growth predictions.

There was a record increase in dwelling consents issued in the Matamata-Piako District in the past year, and house prices are climbing.

Infometrics, an economics consultancy, was engaged by the council to confirm or update recommended growth scenarios.

The council wasn’t required to review population projections until 2022/23, as it adopted the median projection in 2020, but a lot has changed since then.

Population, dwelling and house prices were up, but district mayor Ash Tanner said it’s a good problem to have.

‘‘We want thriving towns, businesses have been suffering. We want this, but we just need to identify and manage it,’’ Tanner told Stuff.

Council agreed with Infometrics’ recommendation and adopted the high growth predictions.

‘‘I expected this would happen, it’s obvious we’re facing huge growth numbers,’’ Tanner said.

‘‘It won’t slow up either. We’ve seen what’s happening in Auckland, people are getting weary of lockdowns.’’

The Matamata-Piako district had a record increase of nearly 100 additional dwelling consents in the past year and, if growth continued at its current rate, the population could reach 51,000 by 2045.

The district’s population in 2020 was 36,000.

‘‘We’re facing huge growth,’’ Tanner said, ‘‘and with that come challenges, but it’s all about how we manage it.’’

‘‘We’ve increased the number of staff on building controls. But if we’re putting more houses in, we need to think about what these longterm projections mean for things like parking and water supply.’’

House prices were up, with both Matamata and Morrinsville leading the growth.

In October 2021, the district’s median price hit a record high of $711,000, up 20.5 per cent from last year’s $590,000.

Tanner said it’s getting out of control, affordable homes are a thing of the past.

Deputy Mayor and Morrinsville councillor Neil Goodger said a lot of the growth in Morrinsville is based around the Lockerbie Estate subdivision.

First home buyers, young families and retirees, for example, are shifting from Hamilton, Auckland and Tauranga to snap up property at the under-construction estate. Once complete, the 79ha development between Studholme St, Taukoro Rd and Stirling Dr will feature 700 residential homes on 350-800sqm sections.

Matamata is standing strong and continues to attract people from Tauranga, he added. Goodger, also a sales consultant for Harcourts Morrinsville, said Te Aroha wasn’t experiencing the same demand because of lack of supply.

‘‘We haven’t zoned enough residential sites that are suitable, it’s a bit more flood-prone by Waihou River and restricted by Mt Te Aroha.’’

Te Aroha remained less than half the size of Matamata and Morrinsville, the report read.

‘‘We want thriving towns, businesses have been suffering’’

Mayor Ash Tanner

A survey of Kiwi workers shows they value their workmates but not so much their managers.

Culture coach Shane Green doesn’t mince words on where New Zealand businesses are going wrong after his survey of 800 Kiwi workers found a worryingly high proportion were unhappy and had a low opinion of their managers.

He says the heavy reliance on migrant labour has made many Kiwi employers lazy about investing in their employees – they need to better recognise good workers and deal with those ‘‘who don’t give a damn’’.

Green’s survey, carried out in September, showed almost 40 per cent of workers were ‘‘disengaged’’, which by his reckoning meant our biggest private sector companies alone had more than 6500 employees talking poorly about them and underperforming.

American analytics company Gallup has estimated that disengaged workers cost their employers the equivalent of 18 per cent of their annual salary, and Green says the potential impact is huge when that figure is applied to the small businesses that make up the vast majority of New Zealand enterprises.

‘‘With up to four employees per company underperforming, this can seriously strain the ability of small businesses to be successful and even survive.

‘‘We have to think about the cost of someone who’s not happy: it’s mistakes, it’s lack of customers.’’

The pandemic brought Green and his family back to New Zealand after 20 years in the United States, where he had established a niche as a business and culture coach working with the likes of the National Basketball Association, BMW and United Airlines.

His book Culture Hacker describes how to improve employee engagement and retention by making small but important changes, and he is now creating a small business guide due for release next year.

The good news from the September survey covering a range of industries was that more than threequarters of Kiwi workers valued their colleagues and enjoyed being part of a team. But the verdict on the quality of managers was far less complimentary, with more than 70 per cent claiming their bosses lacked management skills.

Green says that indicates too many New Zealand companies fail to invest in developing people before promoting them to leadership positions.

‘‘There’s still that old school attitude where managers think their people work for them, not the other way around where managers work for their people.’’

Pre-pandemic, the availability of migrant labour had made New Zealand a ‘‘seasonal work paradise’’ and as a result some employers had become lazy, says Green. ‘‘It means you’re used to turning people over, and not used to investing in their growth and development, not giving them feedback because they will leave you after six to nine months.’’

Young migrants here on shortterm visas were prepared to work hard because the pay-off was that they then got to tour New Zealand for six months, but that was not the case for domestic workers.

‘‘New Zealand workers are going, ‘Hey wait up, what’s the incentive for me, I don’t want to go into a place that turns and burns me’.’’

Green says a lot of companies mistakenly believe career development carries a hefty cost from sending staff on training courses, but that is not necessarily the case.

‘‘The number one thing an employee looks for is a manager who shares their expertise and experience. That costs the company nothing, yet many managers guard that expertise because they don’t want somebody taking over their job.’’

Cross-training on a variety of positions is another way to upskill staff, and it also means small businesses have someone to step in if another employee falls ill.

Green says recognising and rewarding high achievers is vital because it gives others an incentive to follow their example, but there must also be consequences for those doing a bad job.

The survey also revealed 40 per cent of workers did not trust the businesses that employed them because they were not transparent and honest about future plans and reasons for change.

Iwas lucky enough to spend a few days in the South Island last week, ferrying an old car from Timaru to Wellington. As well as being able to enjoy some of the South Island’s God-given macadam in a 40-year-old GT car, it gave me the chance to pop in on some old mates. One of these was Dion, an old family friend who lives in a retirement village outside Christchurch.

Dion led an active life, spending 50 years farming in Canterbury and the high country. He’s a good horseman and even better fisherman, which is what he did for the following 20 years.

From the salmon of the Rakaia to the monster trout of Benmore and whitebait runs in Haast, he outlived two wives and ended up having to move to a retirement village a couple of years ago aged 88 and suffering from spinal pain and arthritis as a result of his physical life.

But what he really found tough was losing his independence. He made a poor invalid. This resulted in him suffering panic attacks and hypertension. With the help of some professionals he tried a variety of antipsychotic drugs. But they didn’t seem to work, and the side-effects were tough.

Earlier this year he suffered a panic attack while being visited by a couple of younger friends. One of them took cannabidiol (CBD) to help her sleep, and offered Dion an eyedropper of the olive-oil like compound.

While Dion had always enjoyed Speight’s and the odd bottle of Highland Park, he’d never tried cannabis (in any form) in his life. But he thought ‘‘what the hell’’ and put the dropper full under his tongue.

Within minutes he started to calm down and got his breathing under control. He reckons it was like the scary fog parting and the sunlight coming through.

Dion then set about getting himself a supply of CBD oil. The rest home was circumspect and uniformed. So he went to his doctor. She, too, was cautious, having never prescribed any before.

She was in good company. According to the New Zealand Medical Journal, 79 per cent of GPs in New Zealand have concerns about prescribing medical cannabis. And it’s not surprising.

Doctors have had little solid research on the benefits of CBD oil (or tinctures or creams) and have a legal and ethical obligation to do no harm.

Dion then spoke to the local chemist. He was surprised to find the chemist was happy to supply it, having found an approved supplier soon after the Medicinal Cannabis Scheme came into effect in April last year.

An old hippy neighbour at the rest home told Dion she could hook him up with the local ‘‘green fairy’’, but that sounded dodgy. And Dion is not a dodgy man.

He ended up finding a Wellington doctor who was among the 21 per cent of doctors who are happy to provide medicinal cannabis to

He’s no dopehead, but dear old Dion reckons the stuff works. And he’s not the only one.

patients, and specifically felt CBD oil could help Dion and would not react negatively with the other medication he was on.

A Zoom consultation then resulted in the CBD doctor writing to Dion’s doctor and the rest home supporting an initial 25ml bottle. And finally, Dion got his bottle of dope.

The great news is that he reckons it’s working and with no side-effects. The bad news is that this process took the best part of three months.

That’s bad for patients and it’s bad for a fledgling local industry where 40-odd companies are trying to get off the ground.

So, if you or someone you know reckons CBD oil could help with pain management, mental health or insomnia, what’s the best approach? From what I’ve been able to find out, there are four basic steps.

First, do your research. Find some solid proof that CBD (in some format) has been found to address the symptoms or the cause of the ailment. Likewise, talk to local pharmacies to confirm that they have access to the products.

Local medicinal cannabis company Ora Pharm provides an online portal which is useful to help reach evidence-based decisions around using medicinal cannabis. There’s also a pretty handy app on integrating CBD oil into your broader healthcare.

Second, email your GP with the finding of your research and your wish to trial the medication. Note the fact that for a year now medicinal cannabis in the form of CBD has been able to be prescribed for medical conditions. Make clear that you are not after products containing THC.

Third, book yourself an appointment with that GP to make your case. Probably a double appointment so that the discussion isn’t rushed. All going well, they will agree to a small trial so see how it goes.

If your GP is unconvinced that it’s in your best interests, then find yourself another GP. Currently there is no website that I can find that does this for you, so you will need to do a bit of searching online or chat to the Medicinal Cannabis Council.

He’s no dopehead, but dear old Dion reckons the stuff works. And he’s not the only one.

Now the system just needs to normalise to ensure patients receive the benefits and the fledgling local industry can go ahead and flourish.

Mike ‘‘MOD’’ O’Donnell is a professional director, writer and facilitator. His Twitter handle is @modsta and he also prefers Highland Park to Hooter.

One of the chicken and egg aspects to heritage conservation is that you have to have evidence to establish the heritage significance of a historic building or structure, but an absence of evidence doesn’t mean that the significance is not there. While a great deal of my day job is concerned with frolicking around the internet finding out nifty historic information, the ultimate destination for some of what I do is the Environment Court. So, the frolicking has to be tempered with the thought that evidence must be carefully compiled and heritage assessments need to be robust and consistent.

In the Waikato one of the challenges of the process of heritage identification and assessment is that the region doesn’t often feature in publications about New Zealand’s history and heritage. From Peter Shaw’s essential history of New Zealand architecture to online reference sources like the ‘100 New Zealand Places’ feature currently headlining on the New Zealand History website, the Waikato gets barely a mention.

Only two Waikato places (at Pirongia) are included in the latter list and, while that’s not necessarily cause for a pity party, it does make it difficult to measure Hamilton and the region’s heritage resources against those in other places that have been written about time and time again.

That’s one of the things that makes the Waikato Architecture Guide so terrific, because it sets the context for a consideration of the Waikato’s architectural heritage, which is an important but not exclusive part of the region’s taonga. Produced in 2020 by Andrew Barrie and Jade Shum, the guide includes historic and modern buildings, some of which are already recognised as having heritage value and some that should undoubtedly be protected in future.

One of the latter is the former Chesterman building in Rostrevor St. Built in 1992 to the design of leading New Zealand architect and former Hamiltonian Roger Walker, the office building was commissioned by former Hamilton Deputy Mayor Gordon Chesterman for his advertising agency. In typical Post-Modern fashion, the building references the additive nature and humble materials of colonial vernacular architecture. It was purchased by the Waikato River Authority in 2013 and is one of the city’s hidden gems, much like the Modernist houses that are tucked away within Hamilton’s gully system.

The following web link will take you to both the Waikato Architecture Guide and a host of others that might lend some purpose to a summer road trip or provide useful reference material to inform the new history curriculum being introduced next year. https://www.andrewbarrielab. com/block

Produced under the umbrella of Block: The Broadsheet of the Auckland Branch of the New Zealand Institute of Architects the guides are concise and authoritative and feature a ‘must-see’ selection of buildings.

CAMERA OBSCURA

The Waikato guide not only includes buildings in Hamilton but also in the greater Waikato area, from Putaruru and Te Awamutu in the south to Huntly, Te Kauwhata and Te Aroha in the north. Enjoy.