logo
Backing NZ's water reform

Backing NZ's water reform

NZ Herald18-07-2025
This article was prepared by TechnologyOne and is being published by the New Zealand Herald as advertorial.
Safe drinking water is something residents of New Zealand take for granted.
It is not something, however, that can be taken for granted.
Investing in, maintaining and managing the infrastructure to manage water is one of the most important, high-profile and fundamental responsibilities for governments at all levels.
It is a challenge local authorities can continue to rise to, but only if they have the right technology at their disposal.
The New Zealand Government has recognised the importance of modernising water systems management across the nation with its Local Waters Done Well policy, intended to ensure New Zealanders can have confidence in this essential service into the future.
TechnologyOne is proud to have supported local authorities in New Zealand and Australia over many years, providing them with the systems they need to safely and cost-effectively build and manage water services.
Our decades of success in delivering solutions to highly regulated organisations including water authorities, NZ electricity distributors and government agencies gives us a depth of experience and a set of integrated, powerful capabilities that water authorities – and residents – need to have full end-to-end confidence in any organisation providing them with their water.
Our ERP Solution for Water Utilities solution combines regulatory compliance, real-time financial control and planning, supply chain management, water asset and project lifecycle management, document management, water billing, customer management, HR and payroll systems, delivered on a single platform from a single vendor. Our open platform provides API tools to facilitate GIS and SCADA integration.
Even more importantly, it is delivered using TechnologyOne's pioneering SaaS+ approach which means the systems are in place within weeks, not years, with no additional implementation costs. No one does more to take the risk out of technology implementation.
TechnologyOne's experience and ability to deliver results quickly is a compelling combination, considering New Zealand's new Water Done Well council-controlled organisations (CCO) are facing tight deadlines from the Government.
CCOs must get their plans in place by September 3, 2025, have systems operational by July 2027, and be fully compliant by June 2028.
TechnologyOne has been part of communities across New Zealand since 2000, with team members based around the country and offices in Auckland and Wellington.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Job cuts as part of Govt's polytech reform necessary
Job cuts as part of Govt's polytech reform necessary

1News

time5 hours ago

  • 1News

Job cuts as part of Govt's polytech reform necessary

Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds says a reduction of 600 roles across different polytechnics is necessary to address unsustainable financial deficits as the Government dismantles Te Pūkenga. Ten polytechnics will be re-established from next year 2026, Simmonds announced last week, with differing fates for six other institutions. Simmonds told Q+A the net job losses were necessary to address unsustainable deficits. "It depends where they're coming from. When you've got institutions that are running $11.3 million deficits, you simply cannot carry on with that," she said. "You look at what's causing those deficits. In the WelTec/Whitireia situation, the arts centre here in the middle of Wellington, they were running at a ratio of one staff member to 5.6 students. No school gets that advantage. ADVERTISEMENT "You've got to have a look at where the staff are going to come from, and in some cases, it's just they shouldn't be operating at that ratio." She confirmed "there would be a reduction this year" of roles at some institutions. "There will be further redundancies." Minister confident changes will prove worth Treasury has previously suggested the reforms could risk repeating past failures, saying plans remained focused on supporting institutions' financial viability, "with no clear evidence of how the needs of learners and employers have been considered". Simmonds responded when read the advice: "Treasury gave a range of advice, which Cabinet looked at along with lots of other advice. "We've got evidence over the last five decades of polytechnics being able to be successful to reflect the needs of industries and their community, and so I relied on the history that we'd seen of polytechnics being able to do that successfully." ADVERTISEMENT Before entering politics, the Vocational Education Minister and National MP served as the chief executive of the Southern Institute of Technology. Treasury officials also posited the reforms could create a financial situation "similar, if not worse, than the situation faced by [educational institutions] pre-Te Pūkenga". Asked about assurances that further bailouts wouldn't be needed, she said the institutions "will be set up in the best possible way that they can be". "They will have their debt addressed. They will have their financial pathway to viability. It's then up to communities to make sure that the right people are in the governance roles and the right people are in the management roles, and that they integrate with the community." Simmonds was also pressed about whether some institutions gaining independence were in worse financial positions than those entering federation. "No, not a worse financial position, no. So, some of them will get to sustainability. They'll get to a surplus. In the time they'll take to get to a surplus, they have reserves that can cover them during that time." Labour says new model will drain regions ADVERTISEMENT In response to the Q+A interview, Labour's education spokesperson Shanan Halbert said, the whole point of Te Pūkenga was to make the polytechnic sector more financially viable and ensure more training opportunities and employment in our regions. "The changes announced today will only return the polytechnic sector to a model that was never financially viable – and the result will be major job losses in local areas." Halbert said the Government "could have simply addressed some of the issues" the existing model to avoid the "uncertainty this has had on staff and students". The changes to amalgamate polytechnics and institutes of technology were introduced by the previous Labour government. In her interview, Simmonds was also asked about delays to a ban on single-use plastics, how she had managed her environment portfolio, and on Gore's recent tap water issues. For the full interview, watch the video above Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air

'Call me Mr Cash Man': MP seeks protection for hard currency
'Call me Mr Cash Man': MP seeks protection for hard currency

1News

time5 hours ago

  • 1News

'Call me Mr Cash Man': MP seeks protection for hard currency

Self-proclaimed cash advocate and MP Jamie Arbuckle believes his proposed law protecting hard currency transactions is about more than accessibility — it's also about privacy and preventing "Big Brother" surveillance. The New Zealand First MP's members' legislation, the Cash Transactions Protection Bill, would require vendors to accept cash up to the value of $500, with no limits on the amount of cash that must be accepted for essential items like fuel and food. 'There's a real concern across New Zealand that we're becoming a cashless society, and we've got a lot of people who depend on cash,' the MP told Q+A. He said that particularly applied to people living in rural areas, the elderly who are more comfortable using cash than digital systems, and those on low incomes. A self-professed fan of using cash, Arbuckle said, 'cash is king, and you can call me Mr Cash Man if you like.' ADVERTISEMENT 'I've got to tell you right now, I don't like walking into a shop and not being able to pay cash for a coffee.' Composite image by Vania Chandrawidjaja (Source: iStock/1News) But he said in an increasingly digital world, there was a more serious point to be made about the ability to make anonymous payments. 'People are telling me they want to have the ability to use cash, it's a freedom of choice issue.' 'It's really the only true way of having privacy in a transaction. You don't get that with electronic payments. There's always the concern that Big Brother or someone is able to look at where you've been, what you've purchased, so the majority of people have been very positive about protecting cash use.' A Reserve Bank survey released in June 2025 found that — while electronic and debit card use was by far the most common method of making payments — a significant minority of the country continued to use cash regularly. Around 46% of respondents said they used cash 'to pay for everyday things', down slightly from 48% which an equivalent survey found in June 2023. ADVERTISEMENT The survey also found a majority had used cash at least once in the seven days preceding the survey being taken, with approximately 33% of respondents saying they hadn't used cash in the last week, and a further 3.6% saying they would never use cash. Further research undertaken last year by the Reserve Bank found Kiwis value being able to use physical cash. Director of money and cash Ian Woolford said, '84% of respondents were worried about losing access to banknotes and coins, and want assurance that cash will still be issued by the Reserve Bank and not reduced or replaced by digital cash.' 'We'll keep issuing cash for as long as New Zealanders want to use it," he said in December. "We're doing a lot of work to redesign the cash system, including helping retailers through community cash services trials next year in several rural communities lacking over-the-counter bank or ATM services.' Some businesses have moved to being cash-free, but Arbuckle said in his view, it couldn't be an opt-in and opt-out system. 'The majority of businesses hold cash, so we're only talking about a small amount of businesses that would have to change. ADVERTISEMENT "Cash is legal tender, and you should be able to purchase with cash.' He said if the bill is pulled out of the member's bill biscuit tin, he'd welcome feedback from businesses that might be affected during the select committee process. Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air

Why NZ can't shake the recession: 'Brought to its knees'
Why NZ can't shake the recession: 'Brought to its knees'

1News

time16 hours ago

  • 1News

Why NZ can't shake the recession: 'Brought to its knees'

New Zealanders were told to "survive till '25" for the economy to pick up - but now one major bank economist says it's probably going to be 2026 before any real improvement happens. Kiwibank's latest Annual Regional Note shows small improvements across the country, but weak scores overall. The national average score has lifted from three out of 10 to four. Southland and Otago top the table at five. Otago was boosted by a recovery in international tourism and improvement in employment. Northland, Taranaki and Gisborne went backwards. Taranaki had the biggest fall in employment of anywhere in the country, at 8%. Northland reported a double-digit drop in building consents. ADVERTISEMENT Retail sales remain below their average levels over the past decade in most regions, as weak household confidence weighs on consumption. Kiwibank said Wellington recorded the steepest annual decline at -3.3%, while regions like Waikato, Northland and the Bay of Plenty experienced a slight improvement on last year. 'Wellington is just more pessimistic' Wellington's score improved from a two out of 10 to a three out of 10 while Auckland lifted from a three to four. "Wellington is just more pessimistic," Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr said. "It's gone through a lot in recent years. You can see it in their activity, you can see it in the housing market. You can see it in the economy, the city has been brought to its knees and it's been struggling to shake the pessimistic vibe." He said both Auckland and Wellington were well below average. "If you look across the regions, some of them have gone backwards and others are improving but it's not good. "When you look at the South Island things are better, people are definitely more optimistic in the South Island but even then the top-scoring regions get a five out of 10." ADVERTISEMENT He said the report helped solidify the view that rate cuts to date had not been enough to turn around the economy. "We're really crawling out of this recession rather than regaining our footing and looking to grow from here. We're still struggling across the entire country." He said Kiwibank customers last year had talked about needing to hold on until this year. "We are halfway through the year and, yes, things are better but only by a little bit." Worse off than Australia New Zealand was worse off than Australia, he said. "Their economy is much stronger than ours but in their terms it's soft… where everything washes out is the labour market and, you know, the unemployment rate tells you a lot. Our unemployment rate is over 5% and theirs is pretty close to 4%." ADVERTISEMENT Part of the reason was the more aggressive interest rate hikes from the Reserve Bank, he said. "We were much more aggressive in our rate hikes than in Australia. We were much more aggressive on inflation than across the Tasman. "I think both the RBA and RBNZ made mistakes as I think every central bank did through the Covid period, we overstimulated in hindsight but at the time it was the right thing to do. And then we had to deal with the inflation problem." He said the Reserve Bank had kept the official cash rate at 5.5% for too long as it worked to tackle inflation. "We had a really bad recession last year, which the Reserve Bank openly orchestrated, they said 'look, we need a recession to get inflation back down'. The Australians didn't orchestrate a recession, they didn't slam the economy into the floor." Kerr said recovery was still coming but he had hoped it would have started more obviously by now. "We're hoping it takes off in the second half of this year as more and more people refix on to lower rates. Then it's more of a 2026 story now."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store