Latest news with #UniversityofWaikato
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
New med school to save $50m a year, govt claims
Nearly $2billion could be saved by 2042 if a new medical school to train rural doctors is created in Hamilton, the detailed business case for the project says. Made public at 6.45pm yesterday, a document dump including the business case reveals the cost of producing GPs at a new medical school at the University of Waikato would be $50million a year cheaper than doing it through existing medical schools. It was announced on Monday the government had decided to approve the country's third medical school, to be built in Hamilton. Over 16 years from 2026 to 2042 the total cost of medical education at Waikato, including capital costs that include building a new school, would be $9.1b, it says. It would cost $10.9b over the same period to increase the intake of students at existing medical schools and $10.2b if a new medical training programme focused on rural health, jointly run by the universities of Otago and Auckland was established. The Waikato option would also be the cheapest for the Crown in terms of its ongoing contribution to operating costs at $37.2m a year, compared with $45.5m a year for increasing intake at existing medical schools. But there are concerns the actual costs are still unknown. Green MP Francisco Hernandez said the government's decision to "dump" the business case after work hours on a Friday was "deeply insulting to the public". "This is not the actions of a government that is confident in the business case — and judging from what I've read so far they're right to not be," he said. Rather than engaging in good faith with Otago and Auckland universities and running an open process for a new graduate programme, the government had "deliberately stacked the deck to produce the outcome they want". "The cost benefit analysis also assumes no further cost escalations — and with the Minister [of Health] refusing to rule out further funding — we just don't know how deep the government's blank cheque will extend to back this flawed proposal," Mr Hernandez said. "Finally, the cost benefit analysis fails to even consider the issue of [the] benefits of training more Māori or Pasifika doctors — perhaps because [Waikato University] vice-chancellor [Neil] Quigley has reportedly ruled out a programme like [Māori and Pacific Admission Scheme] to boost Māori and Pasifika doctors and the government has failed to make that a condition of this handout." Dunedin MP Rachel Brooking said the Waikato medical school was pitched to the National Party as a "present" to them when in office. "Decisions about the future of New Zealand's medical workforce should be made on more robust grounds," she said. "It's important we take the time to analyse the business case before commenting, which we will do in due course." Taieri MP Ingrid Leary said she was not surprised information was redacted from the business case. "I've got numerous official information documents that are heavily redacted and I'm concerned but not surprised that this remains the pattern [of the government]." She said she felt it had been shown the new medical school was "effectively a done deal" well before the public announcement, due to the government's coalition agreements. "The timing of the release of critical documents on a significant issue is deeply cynical and, along with the heavy redactions, makes me wonder what the National government is trying to hide?"
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
Gangs Are Going Global And So Is The Illegal Gun Trade – NZ Can Do More To Fight It
, University of Waikato According to the Global Organised Crime Index, international criminal activity has increased over the past two years. And the politically fractured post-pandemic world has made this even harder for nations to combat. New Zealand is far from immune. According to official advice in late March to Minister of Customs and Associate Minister of Police Casey Costello: The threat posed by organised crime in New Zealand has increased substantially in the last five years. Even with the best of will, New Zealand is losing the fight. New criminal groups are becoming active here – from Burma via Malaysia, to the Comancheros and Mongols gangs. Each brings new networks, violent tactics and the potential to corrupt institutions in New Zealand and throughout the Pacific. As of October 2024, the national gang list contained 9,460 names. While there is debate about the accuracy of the figures, gang membership has grown considerably. This is fuelled by the global trade in illegal drugs, with local criminal profits conservatively estimated at NZ$500–600 million annually. The one relative bright spot is that New Zealand hasn't yet seen the levels of firearms-related violence driven by organised crime overseas. For example, European research shows the illegal trade in guns and drugs becoming increasingly intertwined. But waiting to catch up with those trends should not be an option. New Zealand already has a lot firearms. In the past six years, police conducting routine patrols have reportedly encountered 17,000 guns, or nearly ten every day, nationwide. In 2022, official figures showed, on average, approximately one firearms offence had been committed daily by gang members since 2019. The risk had become apparent much earlier, in 2016, with the discovery of fourteen military assault-grade AK47s and M16s in an Auckland house being used to manufacture methamphetamine. This year, another firearms cache, including assault rifles and semiautomatics, was found in Auckland. Progress and problems On the legal front, the main avenues New Zealand gangs use to obtain illegal firearms are being closed off. Under the Arms Act, members or close affiliates of a gang or an organised criminal group cannot be considered 'fit and proper' to lawfully possess a firearm. These people may have specific firearms prohibition orders added against them, which allow the police additional powers to ensure firearms don't fall into the wrong hands. The firearms registry is key to this. There are now more than 400,000 firearms fully accounted for, making it harder for so-called ' straw buyers ' to onsell them to gangs. Despite the progress, several challenges remain. In particular, the nature of the gun registry has been politicised, with the ACT and National parties disagreeing over a review of the system's scope. Arguments over the types of firearms covered and which agency looks after the registry risk undermining its central purpose of preventing criminals getting guns. Theft of firearms from lawful owners needs more attention, too. Making it a specific offence – not just illegal possession – would be an added deterrent. Tighter and targeted policy Accounting for all the estimated 1.5 million firearms in New Zealand will be very difficult – especially with the buy-back and amnesty for prohibited firearms after the Christchurch terror attack likely being far from complete. There are also tens of thousands of non-prohibited firearms in the hands of unlicensed but not necessarily criminal owners. Given all firearms must be registered by the end of August 2028, there should be another buy-back (at market rates) of all guns that should be on the register. This might be expensive, but the cost of opening a large pipeline to criminals would be worse. There needs to be greater investment in staff, education and technology within intelligence services and customs. This will help inform evidence-based policy, and support targeted law enforcement. A recent European Union initiative to track gun violence in real time is an example of how data can help in this way. New Zealand is a party to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (and its two protocols on people trafficking and migrant smuggling). But it is not a party to a supplementary protocol covering the illicit manufacturing and trafficking of firearms and ammunition. That should change. Amendments to the Arms Act since 2019 mean New Zealand law and policy fit the protocol perfectly. By joining, New Zealand could strengthen regional cooperation and increase public safety, given the scale of the problem and its potential to get worse.
Otago Daily Times
6 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
A prescription for dismay, disbelief
Everything is going up. The costs of butter, milk and cheese, fruit and vegetables, rents, rates and electricity are rising, some of them faster than belief. Annual inflation has lifted to 2.7%, according to the consumer price index. There can be no doubt New Zealanders are grappling with the escalating cost of living. The government says it is all about cutting costs for Kiwis, something we have seen with its policies and its energetic drive to cut the public service and put thousands of skilled workers out of jobs. However, despite its much-vaunted approach to trim things, some of which didn't need much pruning, the coalition is still releasing big pots of money for projects which have its favour and tickle its fancy, or the fancies of its cadres. As a consequence of that favouritism, something else is going up. Advice be blowed, let's have a third medical school in New Zealand at a time when the government has been doing everything it can to minimise the importance of, and squeeze the life out of, Dunedin's desperately needed new hospital. Until Monday afternoon's announcement that the University of Waikato's persistent and somewhat personal bid for a medical school had been approved, there had been perhaps a hope that surely common sense might prevail and the government wouldn't, after all, go along with the proposal. Such sanguine thinking, however, was always held in check by the knowledge that this government has already shown several times that logic, facts and evidence to the contrary will not stop it supporting something which it is hell-bent on delivering for its followers. At the heart of Waikato's proposal was something few could disagree with — that the country urgently needs to do something about the state and delivery of rural healthcare. Access to timely and effective medical services for those communities has been a big concern for many years, one which has only continued to grow. But does it take a spanking new medical school costing several hundred million dollars, and growing, to ensure rural targets will be met? No. There is no reason why the medical schools at the University of Otago and the University of Auckland could not have been funded to train more doctors at a significantly lower cost than launching a new school, a point they clearly made to the government. Even the Treasury advised against the wisdom of proceeding with this pet project, as did the Ministry of Education and the Tertiary Education Commission, warning that the expense, the duplication and the logistical challenges raised red flags for them. In spite of that, the government and Waikato University forged on regardless. Health Minister Simeon Brown announced a development with costs which have changed significantly from those pledged by the National Party before the last election. Then, National said it would provide $280 million for the new school and the university would need to find $100m. Now, the government will disburse $82.85m towards it, and Waikato will have to stump up more than $150m. The final cost, of course, is bound to be higher than current expectations. A lot has been written about links between National and the university and its vice-chancellor Neil Quigley, and also with consultant Steven Joyce, a former National government minister. Without getting too deeply into that, we are concerned that this is little more than an overt example of pork-barrel politics. We are also troubled and disappointed, yet again, at the lack of transparency around the government's decision-making, particularly over health matters. Whenever it makes pronouncements which it knows are likely to be contentious, the accompanying documents seem to take ages to surface — if they ever do. That in itself probably speaks volumes about the consideration of the evidence. It's difficult to stay calm and reasoned and attempt to rise above the feeling this government cares not a jot for the South. When one sees what a charmed life this Waikato proposal has apparently had through the coalition's approval process, and compare that with the absolute shambles it has promulgated with the new Dunedin hospital and its obvious level of disinterest in the project, it is hard to remain philosophical. Once again, this government has let us down.
Otago Daily Times
22-07-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
News of new medical school welcomed in Waikato
By Libby Kirkby-McLeod of RNZ The announcement of a new medical school at the University of Waikato has been welcomed by local business, community, and medical leaders. The government confirmed yesterday it will fund $82.5 million of the school, with the university paying the remaining $150 million, backed by philanthropists. 'Otago is being overlooked' Waikato Chamber of Commerce chief executive Don Good said he had no concerns about the university being able to secure the money needed to get the New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine off the ground. "There are some very wealthy families in the Waikato that you probably have never heard of, and they are very community-minded," he said. Good said people who made money in the Waikato put it back into the region. While he spoke warmly about people in Waikato, he was not so impressed with some of the actions of those outside the region. He said there had been a long-running campaign against a Waikato medical school by the existing medical schools in Auckland and Otago. But the Dean of the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences in Auckland, Professor Warwick Bagg, told Morning Report that while the university had put forward its case against a third school, it was pleased that the government had invested so heavily in medical student training. "If you are a patient waiting to see a doctor you are going to be pleased that in the years to come we will have more locally trained doctors to see, I think that's really good news," he said. Kawhia is a small coastal settlement west of Ōtorohanga, where John Burton has been a local GP for 33 years. He said he was thrilled the new medical school was happening and he wished it had happened 20 years ago. Dr Burton has trained many student doctors over the years and said he enjoyed it. But he said rural practices currently spent a lot of time training the wrong people and he was looking forward to students who were not coming from the big cities. "We have a lot of medical students come here, down from Auckland, and they all say they love it, it's wonderful experience, but for the majority of them they're Aucklanders and this is a foreign world for them and although it's a lovely adventure, it's not what they're going to end up doing." Rural Health Network chair Dr Fiona Bolden said students from rural areas who trained rurally were six times more likely to work as a rural doctor. Down the country a bit from Kawhia, Waitomo Mayor John Robertson said a Waikato-based medical school was a positive announcement for young people in his town. He said proximity to training opportunities was important. "The fact that it's so close is an advantage, and for some students they can live in the area, get a bus up to Hamilton each day," he said. A University of Waikato spokesperson told RNZ the New Zealand Graduate School of Medicine would be located within a new Division of Health precinct. Detailed designs were under way and work was expected to start later this year after the main contract had been awarded and the building consent had been received. The university said it also had plans for dedicated student accommodation next to the Health Precinct for medical school students. The first students are expected to be welcomed in 2028.
Scoop
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
Opening Up Highly Productive Land For Housing
The Government is proposing to open up some of Aotearoa's most highly productive agricultural land to make it available for housing development. Sweeping proposals to change the RMA national direction include the country's most productive agricultural areas, which are classed according to how versatile they are for primary production. According to the proposal, Land Use Capacity 3 land would no longer be protected in the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL), which restricts the rezoning, subdivision, and use of Highly Productive Land. Consultation on the proposed changes to the NPS-HPL runs until this Sunday, 27 July 2025. The SMC asked experts to comment. The SMC has also gathered expert reactions on proposed RMA changes to housing and slash management. Emeritus Professor David J. Lowe, University of Waikato, comments: 'It is proposed that the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land is emended to remove land use capability (LUC) class 3 soils from their current protection 'from inappropriate land use and development'. The proposal is poorly considered and, if it goes through, would be an irreversible blunder of intergenerational scale for multiple reasons. 'Future generations of New Zealanders are being robbed of the potential productivity of versatile soils by people with a vested interest. The Luxon-led coalition government has an ethical, moral, and legal obligation to provide for future as well as current generations. 'Contrary to popular myth, New Zealand does not have large areas of highly productive soils. Rather, such soils, encompassing LUC classes 1 and 2 along with most class 3 soils, make up only 14% of New Zealand's soils. Class 1 (0.7%) and 2 (4.5%), the most versatile soils, amount to a mere 5.2%, with class 3 soils another 9.2 %. Removing class 3 soils from protection would leave just 5% of New Zealand's soils to sustain the entire nation in perpetuity. 'Many of the highly-productive (versatile) soils typically have taken around 10,000 to 20,000 years, some 50,000 years and even longer (several hundred thousand years in Pukekohe area), to develop and hence are irreplaceable. 'The versatile soils confer the key capability to produce a wide range of crops yet over 10% have already been lost to lifestyle blocks and housing, with around 33% of the best land (highly versatile soils) in Auckland and Waikato lost for good to urban expansion under an accelerating process. 'The high-value soils of the Pukekohe-Bombay area have been facing 'death by a thousand cuts' over the past few decades under housing pressure yet it is seldom appreciated that these soils, only ~4,400 ha in extent (~3.8% of New Zealand's horticultural land) produce ~26% by value of New Zealand's vegetable production adjacent to the country's largest market and under a horticulturally favourable climate. 'The versatile soils, including many LUC 3 soils, must be preserved: – to support a wide variety of viable land use options, including cropping, to meet the foreseeable needs of future generations – to facilitate the sustainable production of food and fibre and other services and to help maintain food sovereignty (the ability to maintain authority over New Zealand's food supply) – to preserve soil ecosystems that provide environmental services and confer the greatest natural protection to the environment – to maintain natural capital and soil diversity 'The versatile soils have – high energy-use efficiency and yields for various crops – high pollution absorption capacity – moderate or better soil resilience 'There are plenty of less-versatile soils available for housing. 'In conclusion, preservation of nationally scarce highly-productive land including LUC class 3 soils for growing crops is of paramount importance because further loss needlessly and irreversibly limits this option for current and future generations. Hence the proposed amendment should be abandoned. 'Further, rather than maintaining its disparaging attitude to science, and geoscience in particular, and its reprehensible ridiculing of expert opinion, the current coalition government should engage meaningfully and respectfully with soil scientists and horticulturalists to resolve the conflicts and self-interest of vested parties with respect to land use in New Zealand.' Conflict of interest statement: Lowe is a former professor in Earth Sciences, School of Science, University of Waikato, Hamilton. He is not commenting on behalf of the institution. Dr Pierre Roudier, President, New Zealand Society of Soil Science, comments: 'Land classified as Land Use Capability class 3 (LUC3) represents the backbone of New Zealand's food and fibre production and high-value exports. It makes up two-thirds of the land currently protected under the National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land (NPS-HPL) and supports a wide range of primary production, ranging from dairy and arable farming to viticulture and horticulture. In Taranaki, 80% of LUC3 land is used for high-value dairy exports, while in Marlborough and Tasman, around 30% supports intensive horticulture, including vineyards. LUC3 land is characteristically extensive and highly productive, supporting large-scale farming and a wide range of crops across New Zealand's varied climates. If the protection of LUC3 land were removed entirely, New Zealand would risk losing large, connected and versatile areas of land that are essential for both domestic food supply and high-value export industries. Once this land is built on, it's lost from food production forever. 'Blanket removal of protections of LUC3 land from the NPS-HPL is not required to achieve the housing goals the Government has set. Exceptions to the current NPS-HPL already exist that allow councils to approve urban development on LUC 1-3 land when justified. Meanwhile, blanket removal of LUC3 protections risks large-scale rural residential subdivision, which is an inefficient use of our best land. Research shows that the most pressing issue on HPL is residential lifestyle development, significantly more so than edge-of-city expansion. This type of development breaks up productive farmland into smaller, disconnected parcels, which not only makes the land harder to farm efficiently but also introduces new pressures because of 'reverse sensitivity' (when new residents in rural areas object to normal farming activities, leading to restrictions on farms). These impacts reduce the overall productivity and versatility of the land. Rural residential blocks on LUC class 3 land now take up an area equivalent to nearly 60% of all the land in New Zealand used to grow vegetables – highlighting the scale of land lost to low-density residential development. 'The Regulatory Impact Statement outlines 4 different policy options, ranging from a status quo to a complete removal of LUC3 protections. One of the more balanced options would allow councils to enable urban growth on LUC3 land through local planning processes, while still protecting that land from residential lifestyle subdivision. This targeted approach would support housing goals near urban areas without opening the door to uncontrolled sprawl across the wider countryside. 'The proposed Special Agricultural Areas (SAAs) are poorly defined and currently limited to just two regions (Pukekohe and Horowhenua), raising concerns about transparency, national consistency, and scientific rigour. Their effectiveness depends on being grounded in biophysical land qualities, not just current land use. This narrow focus risks excluding other significant food-producing areas and ignores future shifts due to climate or market changes. SAAs could also be less efficient than refining the existing LUC system, which already covers the whole country and is based on scientific land assessment. Without clear criteria and wide consultation, SAAs may create confusion and leave large areas of valuable land unprotected – especially if protections on LUC3 land are lifted before the SAA framework is finalised.' Conflict of interest statement: 'Pierre Roudier is employed full-time by the Bioeconomy Science Institute as a Senior Scientist. He is also the current President of the NZ Society of Soil Science (NZSSS), and his commentary is provided from his perspective as President of the NZSSS.'
