Latest news with #UniversityOfAuckland
RNZ News
3 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Study finds whānau businesses offer path to economic success for Māori
Professor of Māori Business Management at the University of Auckland Jason Mika. Photo: Supplied/William Chea/University of Auckland A new study has found that whānau-led businesses could be one of the most immediate ways to improve livelihoods within Māori communities. Published in the book Te Ahunga atu ki ngā Ōhanga Oranga Māori: Towards Māori Economies of Wellbeing , the study on whānau enterprise is co-authored by Professor Jason Mika and PhD candidate Xiaoliang Niu of He Manga Tauhokohoko, University of Auckland's Business School. Mika said for the purposes of the study a Māori-led business is a business that was owned and operated by Māori for the benefit of whānau, hapū or community. "These are the businesses that are formed by Mum and Dad teams, but actually end up roping in the extended whānau as either co-owners or employees." Mika (Tūhoe, Whakatōhea, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa) said what distinguishes these from other Māori-led businesses such as iwi authorities and large pan-tribal entities such as Sealord is first scale, they tend to be small- to medium-sized, and second they tend to be formed around using business to serve the needs of the whānau. These whānau enterprises offer a promising path towards economic success for Māori, he said. "One of the most immediate ways to improve livelihoods and wellbeing for whānau is what the whānau can do for themselves, through enterprise." The Māori Economies of Wellbeing research draws on case studies, interviews, and long-term engagement with Māori-led businesses. The investigation found that whānau enterprises demonstrate: One case study was Whangārei based company North Drill, whose work includes utility instillation, renewable energy instillation and drainage. But Mika said their mission was intergenerational wealth and wellbeing for their whānau and that extends to te Tai Tokerau in general. It also reinvested profits into collective goals like housing, education, and leadership development. "What they're really concerned about is providing opportunities particularly for rangatahi... you know school is not where they want to be or they've got abilities, they've got good values, they've got good ethics but are just looking for an opportunity," he said. Mika said North Drill was providing more than just employment to rangatahi but also education on financial literacy. "And in that way they are really concerned about how do they give back to their community." Mika said the goal was that young Māori could see a pathway in business once they left school, a path that ended not just with a job but with business ownership. He is calling for investors to recognise the potential of whānau businesses and said there were various organisations which were currently working to raise the investor profile of whānau businesses, so investors knew what they were looking at and what the opportunities were. "I think there's still a bit of a disconnect, I think the access to capital problem for whānau enterprise and Māori enterprise in general is still a challenge to be solved." Mika said whānau businesses had a point of difference, they could draw on mātauranga and Māori values to do business in a different manner. "One of the major things that sets the whānau enterprise apart is our identity as Māori, our values, our reo, our tikanga, kaupapa, mātauranga Māori. All of those are assets, they are cultural assets which whānau have available to them." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
24-07-2025
- Science
- RNZ News
The University Of Auckland steps into Space
Last month the University Of Auckland launched it's own satellite TPA1. About the size of a loaf of bread it's now whizzing around the globe 500Km up - 15 times a day. The satellite will be available for staff and students to use in their projects. Dr Ben Taylor is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Auckland's Space Institute Photo: University Of Auckland
RNZ News
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
The new band that wasn't: AI created Velvet Sundown
This audio is not downloadable due to copyright restrictions. AI generated image Photo: Spotify When Velvet Sundown recently released its new album, it made a rapid rise through the Spotify charts and attracted nearly two million monthly listeners. Not bad for a band that didn't exist before June, and actually, doesn't really exist at all. Spotify has now changed the band's bio to confirm the music's been created using artificial intelligence, while "guided by human creative direction". "It's not a trick" - the bio states - "it's a mirror". So are we through the looking glass when it comes to how our creative content is generated, thanks to AI? Can we trust our ears? And where does it leave the artists whose work it's probably been trained on? Dr Joshua Yuvaraj has been considering this, he's a senior lecturer in the faculty of law at the University of Auckland. He also a co-director of the New Zealand Centre for Intellectual a musician himself.
RNZ News
03-07-2025
- Science
- RNZ News
Lost satellite cost NZ extra $3m because of delays
Artist rendering of MethaneSat. Photo: Supplied / Environmental Defence Fund A satellite that has been lost in space cost taxpayers $32 million, $3m more than originally planned, because of delays. The extra cost was to staff a mission control that will now never be used to drive the satellite. Leading scientists say too few questions were asked before deciding to invest in the mission, and red flags were missed. However New Zealand Space Agency and scientists who worked on the mission say New Zealand has gained valuable experience. The Space Agency, which sits inside the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE), says multiple delays to the satellite's launch meant University of Auckland needed more money to keep employing staff at its mission control centre. The agency says $26m of the total was spent on New Zealand-based organisations. Delays to the launch pushed out the date when the university was meant to take over the mission control. The handover was then delayed another six months when the satellite was handed back to its manufacturer to work on unspecified problems. The handover was finally due to happen in late June, when the satellite was lost. The final cost to the government included $6m to the MethaneSAT organisation for flight software and other items, $12m to Rocket Lab for scoping and establishing the mission control, which it ran for the first year after launch, $6m to the University of Auckland to operate the mission control centre after Rocket Lab handed it over, and $6m to Earth Sciences NZ (formerly NIWA) for a science programme to measure farming's emissions methane from space. The final $2m was for MBIE to manage the programme. Earth Sciences NZ says the agricultural science programme already has a wealth of data and will continue as planned. The lead scientist for MethaneSAT says there's very little chance the satellite will be recovered. The mission is a collaboration with the US-based Environmental Defense Fund. Its chief scientist and MethaneSAT mission lead Dr Steven Hamburg said they did not know what caused the satellite to lose power and become unresponsive on 20 June. "There's a very small chance, we were able to observe it by using another satellite to look at it and it does not currently have power. We are working it, we continue to work it, but we have to be realistic the probability of recovery is diminishing." Hamburg said a group was investigating the cause. RNZ has been asking about problems with the satellite since September and was previously told its issues were "teething problems" . Hamburg said the MethaneSAT had been transparent, and the Space Agency said the mission had kept people as informed "as possible." However University of Auckland physics professor Richard Easther said the space craft carrying the methane detector "seems to have had fairly persistent and deep-seated problems, pretty much from launch." He said for most of the year it had been in orbit, it was not functioning properly. Associate Professor Nicholas Rattenbury of the Department of Physics at University of Auckland said he sympathised with those involved in the mission, but the question needed to be asked of whether New Zealand should have taken a closer look "under the hood" before investing in MethaneSAT. Dr Rattenbury questioned who was asking questions on behalf of taxpayers about the mission design, satellite construction and testing before the government committed the money. He said the science sector had "very limited resources" to spend. Space Minister Judith Collins has declined to comment on the loss or whether the public had been adequately informed during the mission. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
02-07-2025
- Science
- RNZ News
Missing satellite cost NZ extra $3m because of delays
Artist rendering of MethaneSat. Photo: Supplied / Environmental Defence Fund A satellite that has gone missing in space cost taxpayers $32 million, $3m more than originally planned, because of delays. The extra cost was to staff a mission control that will now never be used to drive the satellite. Leading scientists say too few questions were asked before deciding to invest in the mission, and red flags were missed. However New Zealand Space Agency and scientists who worked on the mission say New Zealand has gained valuable experience. The Space Agency, which sits inside the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE), says multiple delays to the satellite's launch meant University of Auckland needed more money to keep employing staff at its mission control centre. The agency says $26m of the total was spent on New Zealand-based organisations. Delays to the launch pushed out the date when the university was meant to take over the mission control. The handover was then delayed another six months when the satellite was handed back to its manufacturer to work on unspecified problems. The handover was finally due to happen in late June, when the satellite was lost. The final cost to the government included $6m to the MethaneSAT organisation for flight software and other items, $12m to Rocket Lab for scoping and establishing the mission control, which it ran for the first year after launch, $6m to the University of Auckland to operate the mission control centre after Rocket Lab handed it over, and $6m to Earth Sciences NZ (formerly NIWA) for a science programme to measure farming's emissions methane from space. The final $2m was for MBIE to manage the programme. Earth Sciences NZ says the agricultural science programme already has a wealth of data and will continue as planned. The lead scientist for MethaneSAT says there's very little chance the satellite will be recovered. The mission is a collaboration with the US-based Environmental Defense Fund. Its chief scientist and MethaneSAT mission lead Dr Steven Hamburg said they did not know what caused the satellite to lose power and become unresponsive on 20 June. "There's a very small chance, we were able to observe it by using another satellite to look at it and it does not currently have power. We are working it, we continue to work it, but we have to be realistic the probability of recovery is diminishing." Hamburg said a group was investigating the cause. RNZ has been asking about problems with the satellite since September and was previously told its issues were "teething problems" . Hamburg said the MethaneSAT had been transparent, and the Space Agency said the mission had kept people as informed "as possible." However University of Auckland physics professor Richard Easther said the space craft carrying the methane detector "seems to have had fairly persistent and deep-seated problems, pretty much from launch." He said for most of the year it had been in orbit, it was not functioning properly. Associate Professor Nicholas Rattenbury of the Department of Physics at University of Auckland said he sympathised with those involved in the mission, but the question needed to be asked of whether New Zealand should have taken a closer look "under the hood" before investing in MethaneSAT. Dr Rattenbury questioned who was asking questions on behalf of taxpayers about the mission design, satellite construction and testing before the government committed the money. He said the science sector had "very limited resources" to spend. Space Minister Judith Collins has declined to comment on the loss or whether the public had been adequately informed during the mission.
