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Waikato Business News August/September 2021

Waikato Business News has for a quarter of a century been the voice of the region’s business community, a business community with a very real commitment to innovation and an ethos of co-operation.

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10 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS <strong>August</strong>/<strong>September</strong> <strong>2021</strong><br />

Three Waters,<br />

Amalgamation,<br />

Centralisation,<br />

and Collaboration<br />

Information on the Three<br />

Waters proposal is rolling<br />

out and the more those that<br />

support and those that<br />

oppose present their<br />

arguments, the greater the<br />

feeling is that Government<br />

will impose the changes.<br />

The problems besetting local government<br />

include an inability to<br />

raise the necessary capital to<br />

fund, and how to spread the costs of the<br />

infrastructure that our burgeoning population<br />

requires.<br />

Indeed, the requirements from central<br />

government for greater residential<br />

intensification are compounding the<br />

cost for local councils.<br />

Forgotten in the recent weeks of debate<br />

are the past failures of local councils<br />

in water infrastructure. The high<br />

profile sewerage leaks in Wellington,<br />

the water quality failures across the<br />

country and especially in the Hawkes<br />

Bay, and the water issues in Auckland<br />

have all been put to one side as councillors<br />

defend the assets that have been<br />

paid for by their ratepayers.<br />

If both sides can see past parochialism<br />

and centralisation then we may get<br />

some sensible options for the public to<br />

debate.<br />

Certainly there is sense in the Three<br />

Waters being looked after by larger regional<br />

bodies. Equally, we should ask<br />

ourselves do we need ever larger water<br />

assets when individual buildings could<br />

begin to look after the Three Waters requirements<br />

of its occupants at a fraction<br />

of the cost to publicly held assets.<br />

Overseas we are seeing greener<br />

and greener buildings that grow vegetation<br />

on their sides and indeed vegetables<br />

on the roof. Buildings that capture<br />

and recycle water, with centralised<br />

By Don Good, CEO of <strong>Waikato</strong><br />

Chamber of Commerce.<br />

water services as a back-up, is a growing<br />

trend. Large waterworks with huge<br />

underground pipe networks may not be<br />

a smart future.<br />

This is where part of the debate<br />

should focus. Can individual buildings<br />

become self-sufficient and central water<br />

assets simply be a back-up?<br />

There is also a temptation in central<br />

government to believe that only they<br />

know best, when in truth the locals<br />

usually have smart solutions for their<br />

smaller patch.<br />

Equally there is a strong scent of<br />

childish sandpit scrapping as some local<br />

politicians focus on holding onto their<br />

toys, rather than focussing on smart<br />

solutions for our future.<br />

This debate is too important for business<br />

people to avoid. You need to understand<br />

and form a view. You will be<br />

paying more for water, it is a question<br />

of which is better for the longer term.<br />

Either way compulsion, and potentially<br />

amalgamation, is on the horizon.<br />

Celebrating 30 years<br />

of new frontiers: Te<br />

Piringa Faculty of Law<br />

In 1991, when Te Piringa - Faculty of Law at the University of<br />

<strong>Waikato</strong> opened its doors, it was the beginning of a new approach<br />

to legal education in New Zealand.<br />

Founded on three core<br />

principles - professionalism,<br />

biculturalism and the<br />

study of law in context - over<br />

the past three decades, Te Piringa<br />

has become one of New<br />

Zealand’s leading law schools.<br />

This year, Te Piringa - Faculty<br />

of Law celebrates its 30th anniversary<br />

by looking back at its<br />

history and towards the future<br />

with the tagline: celebrating<br />

new frontiers.<br />

Te Piringa - Faculty of Law<br />

Dean, Professor Alpana Roy,<br />

says the 30th anniversary is a<br />

good time to reflect on the past<br />

and celebrate all that has been<br />

achieved.<br />

“The 30th is an opportunity<br />

to remind people about Te Piringa<br />

and all the amazing graduates<br />

we have produced. Our relevance<br />

has continued to grow<br />

over the past 30 years.”<br />

Since its first graduation<br />

in 1994, with 134 graduates,<br />

Te Piringa - Faculty of Law<br />

has now seen more than 4000<br />

students graduate, many who<br />

have become judges, partners,<br />

in-house lawyers, and working<br />

in the top levels of public service,<br />

government and business<br />

throughout the world.<br />

The impetus for starting a<br />

law faculty at the University of<br />

<strong>Waikato</strong> came from many different<br />

directions, recalls founding<br />

Dean of Law, Emeritus Professor<br />

Margaret Wilson.<br />

There was demand from students,<br />

but the push came from<br />

a group of Hamilton lawyers,<br />

backed by <strong>Waikato</strong>-Tainui and<br />

the late Sir Robert Mahuta.<br />

“They all believed there<br />

should be an opportunity to<br />

study law at <strong>Waikato</strong>, and they<br />

were a very effective lobby<br />

group,” recalls Professor Wilson,<br />

who was Dean from 1990<br />

to 1994.<br />

“There was also a feeling<br />

from inside the judiciary, and<br />

[former High Court judge]<br />

the late Sir Ivor Richardson,<br />

that it was time for a different<br />

approach to legal education.”<br />

With around 1000 student<br />

applications before the Faculty<br />

of Law had even opened, “there<br />

was a genuine need at the time,”<br />

not only from the <strong>Waikato</strong><br />

and Bay of Plenty region,<br />

but further afield including<br />

Tairāwhiti (Gisborne) and north<br />

of Auckland.<br />

“The University provided<br />

Margaret Wilson<br />

Alpana Roy<br />

students with the opportunity<br />

to study law that wouldn’t have<br />

been available but for setting<br />

it up,” says Professor Wilson.<br />

“That was the most important<br />

thing for me. For many students<br />

going to Auckland, Victoria,<br />

Otago or Canterbury wasn’t a<br />

practical option.”<br />

The central university campus,<br />

with its on-site accommodation<br />

and supportive culture,<br />

was appealing to those from<br />

smaller towns and Māori and<br />

Pacific communities.<br />

The name Te Piringa was<br />

gifted to the Faculty by the late<br />

Māori Queen, Te Arikinui Dame<br />

Te Atairangikaahu. It translates<br />

as “the coming together of peoples<br />

and cultures”.<br />

Being a new school gave<br />

them the license to be creative<br />

and innovative.<br />

“We had enormous freedom,<br />

and we had a very different<br />

approach. We placed an emphasis<br />

on the quality of teaching.<br />

We were the first law school to<br />

have a computer lab.”<br />

The three pillars were<br />

important to the shape<br />

and direction of the law<br />

school in 1991.<br />

“Because we were new, we<br />

had the opportunity to set out<br />

what our foundation principles<br />

would be,” says Professor Wilson.<br />

“Firstly, professionalism.<br />

We knew we had to produce<br />

good lawyers who understood<br />

the legal system and legal rules<br />

so they could practice law.<br />

“Secondly, we had a<br />

commitment to a bicultural<br />

approach to legal education.<br />

We were the first law school to<br />

introduce into our mainstream<br />

legal programmes, a Māori perspective.”<br />

This bicultural approach to<br />

law education, and a supportive<br />

environment at <strong>Waikato</strong>,<br />

attracted a large number of<br />

Māori and Pacific students to<br />

Te Piringa.<br />

“Since those early days,<br />

Māori and Pacific students have<br />

been very important to Te Piringa,<br />

reflected in the graduates,<br />

alumni and research in these<br />

communities from the University,”<br />

says Professor Wilson.<br />

The third pillar - teaching<br />

law in context - “was a distinguishing<br />

feature of <strong>Waikato</strong>”,<br />

she adds.<br />

“Subsequently, I think some<br />

other law schools have incorporated<br />

some of what we were<br />

initiating at that time.”<br />

Professor Wilson said that<br />

Te Piringa - Faculty of Law<br />

led the way from the very start,<br />

not only with its bicultural<br />

approach, but in pioneering dispute<br />

resolution and other topics.<br />

Today, that brave, visionary<br />

approach to legal education<br />

continues, says Professor Roy,<br />

who moved from Sydney, Australia<br />

to take up the role of Dean<br />

of Law last February.<br />

“Those founding principles<br />

from 30 years ago continue to<br />

be deeply embedded in all of<br />

our law programmes, and will<br />

continue into the future,” says<br />

Professor Roy.<br />

“<strong>Waikato</strong> led with a kaupapa<br />

Māori approach to teaching<br />

law, long before other universities<br />

followed suit, and it continues<br />

to be a leader in Māori<br />

and Indigenous legal systems<br />

in Aotearoa New Zealand and<br />

throughout the world,” says<br />

Professor Roy.<br />

Today <strong>Waikato</strong>’s Te Piringa<br />

- Faculty of Law is a leader, not<br />

only in Māori and Indigenous<br />

law, but in environmental law,<br />

international law, public law,<br />

and law and technology.<br />

“The new frontier is law and<br />

technology,” says Professor<br />

Roy. “Our Faculty embraces<br />

technology in its teaching,<br />

because we are seeing the<br />

increased use of digital tools<br />

and the internet as a key part of<br />

the future of law.”<br />

<strong>Waikato</strong> University will host<br />

an international Virtual Outer<br />

Space Law Conference on Friday<br />

<strong>September</strong> 3.<br />

“Once again, we are pushing<br />

the frontiers of law and technology.<br />

That’s what we were<br />

doing 30 years ago, and that<br />

is what we will continue to do<br />

today and into the future,” says<br />

Professor Roy.

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