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.
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.