Waikato Business News August/September 2021

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16 WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS August/September 2021 The only constant in life is change - especially with NZ immigration! At Pathways, we see first-hand the almost daily changes in the immigration space. Given that we have difficulty keeping up to date, we can only imagine how exasperating and confusing this must be for employers. Level 2 586 Victoria Street Hamilton 3204 More than ever, employers need clear and simple messaging to understand what all these changes mean for their business, and for their migrant employees. So what do you need to know? The mandatory employer accreditation, scheduled to be introduced on 1 November 2021, has been deferred, possibly to mid-2022 and employers should simply forget about this for now. The median payrate was increased to $27 ph from 19 July. This means that Essential skills work visa (ESWV) applicants who are paid at or above the median payrate can be issued 3-year work visas, and those paid below the median will be issued two year “lowskilled” work visas. For applicants holding ANY type of work visa who are applying for an ESWV to continue working in the exact same employment, then no job advertising or employment agreement is required, and applicants are not required to provide updated police and medical reports. Employers need to be mindful where the employee has accompanying family members as a person on a low-skilled work visa cannot normally support their partner for a work visa. However, if the partner is holding any work visa they can now directly apply for their own ESWV to continue working in their existing employment role. Dependent children are eligible for domestic student visas up until completion of secondary school providing one parent, or both parents in combination, who are holding ESWVs, are earning at least $43,322.76 pa. Applications for the previous employer accreditation, and for the renewal of existing employer accreditation, ceased on 30 June 2021. Consequently, existing accredited employers should be proactive in transitioning their eligible employees (those paid at least $79,560 pa) onto work-to-residence work visas BEFORE their existing accreditation expires – and before 31 October 2021 when this visa category is forecast to close. NB: existing employees who are holding work-to-residence visas, based on their employer’s previous accreditation, can still Level 3 50 Manners Street Wellington 6011 07 834 9222 enquiries@pathwaysnz.com pathwaysnz.com Richard Howard lodge their residence application if otherwise eligible to do so. Expressions of Interest pursuant to the Skilled Migrant residence category which have been suspended since April 2020 are expected to resume soon, but with changed eligibility criteria. Border entry exceptions remain possible for very specialised critical workers – but the threshold is high! While the Greek philosopher Heraclitus was right about the constant of change, all you really need to know is that while change is always a constant in the immigration space the answers can always be found with our team here at Pathways! Waikato researchers receive massive boost for environmental projects Researchers from the University of Waikato will now be able to advance projects to model the ecosystems of New Zealand’s 3820 lakes, seek keys to climate change in our deepest caves and bring nature back to our cities and towns. These projects will be made possible by funding of over $12 million recently awarded by the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) Endeavour Fund. Professor Bruce Clarkson has received $10 million in funding over five years to help bring nature back to New Zealand’s cities and towns by restoring and incorporating indigenous biodiversity. Aotearoa’s indigenous biodiversity is at crisis point with more than 4000 of our species either threatened or at risk. More than 4 million New Zealanders live in our urban centres and while that represents only five percent of New Zealand’s land area the ecological impact is far greater. “Nature is essential to our existence. Plants, animals, land, water, and humans are all part of our living, working ecosystem. If our biodiversity is in crisis, then our human health and livelihoods are at risk too. This project will help bring nature into our urban backyards and in the process help to restore Aotearoa’s biodiversity,” said Professor Clarkson. Professor Clarkson has been working for nearly two decades with organisations, including 14 councils, national agencies, and local community groups. The project will provide guidance on how they can best incorporate biodiversity bringing more greenspace and nature back to urban centres. Dr Deniz Özkundakci has received $1 million over three years for a Smart Ideas project to build a platform modelling the ecosystems of New Zealand's 3820 lakes using supercomputing to manage already available data, alongside satellite remote sensing providing water quality information. Government freshwater policy requires management of sediment and nutrient runoff to keep New Zealand’s lakes healthy. Many of New Zealand’s lakes already suffer toxic algal blooms every summer as a result of excessively high nutrient loads. The models Dr Özkundakci and his colleagues will develop will allow organisations to see how New Zealand’s lakes respond to different management approaches, ensuring the health of their ecosystems and water quality. “There are currently only 24 lakes in New Zealand that have been modelled, costing around $80,000 each and 300 hours to model. Using current methods, it could cost more than $15 million to model just 5 percent of New Zealand's lakes,” said Dr Özkundakci. “The new models will be scalable to all lakes and allow that money to be directed into managing the health Professor Bruce Clarkson Dr Adam Hartland of our lakes. It will provide a platform for iwi, councils, and communities to engage with the health of their lakes. It also has the potential to be used as a framework worldwide,” Dr Özkundakci said. Dr Adam Hartland also received $1 million for a Smart Ideas project. Dr Hartland and his team of researchers have been venturing into New Zealand and the Pacific’s deepest caves to unlock keys to climate change hidden in cave formations known as speleothems. As water trickles through the earth, it drips into caves depositing minerals that create speleothems, including the familiar stalactites and stalagmites. These deposits are unique because they are made by flowing water, a property that the research team will harness to quantify past rainfall in New Zealand. Dr Hartland said the increase in extreme weather events had highlighted New Zealand’s susceptibility to changes in rainfall. “Because people have been Dr Deniz Özkundakci recording rainfall for less than 200 years, we have a very limited picture of how rainfall patterns change when global climate transitions happen. Reconstruction of past rainfall in New Zealand will be a key tool to guide predictions of the effects of climate change on New Zealand. Our results will be critical to validating climate projections and models used by the Government for planning and adaptation at all levels of society,” said Dr Hartland.
CONFERENCE AND EVENTS WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS August/September 2021 17 Comedy Cellar, New Zealand’s Best ‘Interactive’ Team Building Event Comedy Cellar, New Zealand largest (team) wine tasting competition provides a level of participation and engagement nearly unmatched in the events sector, says brainchild and director of Strike Events (owner of Comedy Cellar), Scott Palmer. Consumers are demanding a higher level of participation and hands-on experience in events they attend. “Fewer and fewer Michele A’Çourt (one of NZ’s top comedians/entertainers) and Bob Campbell (wine connoisseur and expert) co-host of New Zealand’s largest wine tasting competition. people want to be an audience to an event as opposed to being part of the event and fully engaged with what’s going on around them. It’s all about the experience,” says Palmer. Comedy Cellar has been a hit from day one due to the level of engagement and team building the event provides. “Good leaders recognise that Comedy Cellar isn’t just a great night out and a bloody good laugh. As an event, it allows teams to engage, debate and compete all the while being ‘part’ of the event and not just an audience to it”, said Palmer. “Comedy Cellar is a great leveller because wine and a good laugh (comedy) are universally appreciated so our audience and attendees are extremely broad”, said Palmer. “As an example, on a table, companies can mix up their teams so they have several different employees engaging and debating over what might be the correct answer to a question. It’s a great way for companies to bond internally and allow members on different levels to be introduced to each other in a very social and fun setting”. And the fact they are a team competing against other teams provides a unique comradery and bonding that only team competition can provide. When larger companies take multiple tables (each table is a team) that also normally creates some great internal banter and takes on a life of its own as normal day to day colleagues are paired off against each other for the night. “The celebration and gloating can go on for weeks, sometimes months inside a business!” Says Palmer. “Then around the event venue is a whole different set of dynamics. We might have a table of lawyers or accountants sitting right next to a table of used car sales guys or a hairdressing salon. Or we might have two building companies or real estate companies who normally compete on a day to day basis but now have the chance to square off on something completely different like wine. Comedy Cellar not only brings companies together for team building but allows very diverse businesses within the community to engage with one another in a competitive yet fun way when they would never normally cross paths. It allows businesses to reflect some personality to the other companies on the night and reveal a bit of character. “We also find a bit of business is done post-event says Palmer; companies can raise their profile and reflect the character of their organisation and some of the people in it. “Heck, those lawyers were actually a lot of fun! I might pay them a visit next week, or that lady was great, I might look her up to sell my house”. Then there is the knowledge and learning piece. “Our co-host Bob Campbell is literally and is qualified as one of the most knowledgeable people on earth when it comes to wine. And in his own special way, Bob imparts information about each wine tasted on the evening, so everyone learns a thing or two as well”. Palmer also stresses that you do not need to be a wine expert to take part. “We ask about seven questions per wine, tables (teams) agree on one answer per question. So it’s all about perspective and good discussion to get your team answer”. In addition, the particular unique twist of Comedy Cellar is that in the end, it pulls all of these diverse people, teams and businesses together as one big team. The average score across all of the teams on the evening is calculated and can be compared to other parts of New Zealand as Comedy Cellar rolls out. So while teams are competing against each other on the night, they’re actually one big team competing against other regions around New Zealand to see what region has the most knowledgeable wine drinkers! The Comedy Cellar website (www.comedycellar. co.nz) allows you to track team and regional progress and has a full leader board.
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Waikato Business News August/September 2021

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