Latest news with #PennySimmonds
RNZ News
7 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Where to now for Polytechs?
money education 9:10 am today Some polytech students are grappling with courses being cut or changed. This as Te Pukenga is in the process of being wound up, with individual polytechs around the country working to show whether or not they can stand on their own. Some students are finding their courses significantly changed, or are struggling to confirm they can transfer studies to a similar course, under restructuring proposals. Legislation to disestablish Te Pukenga had its first reading in May. Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds earlier this month criticised the polytechs for having too high staff-per-student ratios, saying that any institute with fewer than 18 students per staff member was in financial trouble. Third-year Whitireia performing arts student Aroha Morrison says one of the proposals is to cut the final year of her programme. She will finish hers, but current students in years behind hers would miss the final year.
RNZ News
26-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Te Pūkenga disestablishment continues despite $16.6m surplus
Savings came from winding down its Te Pūkenga's head office and regional campuses. Photo: supplied The New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology, Te Pūkenga, finished last year with a $16.6-million surplus and $382m in the bank. The super-institute's annual report was tabled in Parliament on Thursday, showing a profit just as work accelerates to disestablish the organisation and return to a system of stand-alone polytechnics and work-based learning organisations at the start of next year. The report showed income increased $68.4m or five percent last year, much of it from growing international student enrolments, but it attributed much of its surplus to cost-cutting rather than increased earnings. "The financial result, showing a 144 percent improvement on the previous year, is the outcome of focusing on addressing financial performance through an intensive cost savings exercise across all divisions, structural changes, vacancy management, lease reduction, property sales and programme rationalisation," chief executive Gus Gilmore said in the report. Gilmore told RNZ the surplus was "a fantastic result" for the institute just two years after it was created to take over 16 polytechnics and nine industry training organisations. He said Te Pūkenga had budgeted and was on target for a break-even result this year. Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Last week, Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds told the Education and Workforce Select Committee that Te Pūkenga's result did not prove it was viable , and was possible because it had wound down spending on a centralised head office. Gilmore told RNZ some of this year's savings came from winding down its head office, but a lot also came from its regional campuses. "We had some 200 FTE's two years ago. That number is down to 52 during 2024, which is the period in focus. "We made a $6.5 million cost saving in the national office and overall we've seen steady reductions across a number of our business divisions as we reviewed the demand for some of the less profitable programmes," he said. "Yes, there was some cost reduction in the national office but there was also cost reduction within the the 25-odd business division. So we took a holistic approach right across the whole network. It wasn't simply about the national office. The national office isn't the greatest proportion of our cost. The greatest proportion of our cost is the delivery across the country." Gilmore refused to be drawn on whether the report showed that Te Pūkenga would have been financially viable had it been allowed to continue. "I don't have obviously those numbers in a hypothetical situation. What I can say is we've been really focused on revenue growth and cost reduction, obviously the two most important ingredients of returning to surplus," he said. He also would not comment on the scale of cuts recommended by financial advisers and how much remained to be axed. "In the low hundreds was the number of of redundancies in our 2024 report, we reported 288 redundancy payments, that is $9.5 million, which is similar to the number in 2023," he said. "There will be more this year, although I can't give you an exact number, but it's going to be in the magnitude of low hundreds." Asked if Te Pūkenga had sufficient reserves to recapitalise its polytechnics, Gilmore said that was a decision for government and last year's Budget had included a contingency for that purpose. The report included a $9.6m provision for an "onerous lease" on the Weltec and Whitireia downtown Wellington campus. It showed "impairment" of the Taradalde campus due to flood damage of $21.3m in 2023, $13.8m in 2024 and elsewhere showed a $15.5m insurance payment for work on Taradale campus. The report said the institute had ring-fenced cash reserves totalling $63.4m from five former polytechnics and eight former ITOs, as well as $51m in other financial assets from four former polytechnics and two former ITOs. It said Te Pūkenga's top-tier management of 5.1 FTE were paid $3.99m last year. However remuneration information elsewhere in the report said one employee was paid in the range of $470-479,999, three in the range of $380-389,999, and one in the range of $370-379,999. "Cessation payments" were made to 353 staff and totalled $10.77m, an average of $30,497. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
24-06-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Government begins Te Pūkenga disestablishment despite last year's $16.6-million surplus
Savings came from winding down its Te Pūkenga's head office and regional campuses. Photo: supplied The New Zealand Institute of Skills and Technology, Te Pūkenga, finished last year with a $16.6-million surplus and $382m in the bank. The super-institute's annual report was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday, showing a profit just as work accelerates to disestablish the organisation and return to a system of stand-alone polytechnics and work-based learning organisations at the start of next year. The report showed income increased $68.4m or five percent last year, much of it from growing international student enrolments, but it attributed much of its surplus to cost-cutting rather than increased earnings. "The financial result, showing a 144 percent improvement on the previous year, is the outcome of focusing on addressing financial performance through an intensive cost savings exercise across all divisions, structural changes, vacancy management, lease reduction, property sales and programme rationalisation," chief executive Gus Gilmore said in the report. Gilmore told RNZ the surplus was "a fantastic result" for the institute just two years after it was created to take over 16 polytechnics and nine industry training organisations. He said Te Pūkenga had budgeted and was on target for a break-even result this year. Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone Last week, Vocational Education Minister Penny Simmonds told the Education and Workforce Select Committee that Te Pūkenga's result did not prove it was viable , and was possible because it had wound down spending on a centralised head office. Gilmore told RNZ some of this year's savings came from winding down its head office, but a lot also came from its regional campuses. "We had some 200 FTE's two years ago. That number is down to 52 during 2024, which is the period in focus. "We made a $6.5 million cost saving in the national office and overall we've seen steady reductions across a number of our business divisions as we reviewed the demand for some of the less profitable programmes," he said. "Yes, there was some cost reduction in the national office but there was also cost reduction within the the 25-odd business division. So we took a holistic approach right across the whole network. It wasn't simply about the national office. The national office isn't the greatest proportion of our cost. The greatest proportion of our cost is the delivery across the country." Gilmore refused to be drawn on whether the report showed that Te Pūkenga would have been financially viable had it been allowed to continue. "I don't have obviously those numbers in a hypothetical situation. What I can say is we've been really focused on revenue growth and cost reduction, obviously the two most important ingredients of returning to surplus," he said. He also would not comment on the scale of cuts recommended by financial advisers and how much remained to be axed. "In the low hundreds was the number of of redundancies in our 2024 report, we reported 288 redundancy payments, that is $9.5 million, which is similar to the number in 2023," he said. "There will be more this year, although I can't give you an exact number, but it's going to be in the magnitude of low hundreds." Asked if Te Pūkenga had sufficient reserves to recapitalise its polytechnics, Gilmore said that was a decision for government and last year's Budget had included a contingency for that purpose. The report included a $9.6m provision for an "onerous lease" on the Weltec and Whitireia downtown Wellington campus. It showed "impairment" of the Taradalde campus due to flood damage of $21.3m in 2023, $13.8m in 2024 and elsewhere showed a $15.5m insurance payment for work on Taradale campus. The report said the institute had ring-fenced cash reserves totalling $63.4m from five former polytechnics and eight former ITOs, as well as $51m in other financial assets from four former polytechnics and two former ITOs. It said Te Pūkenga's top-tier management of 5.1 FTE were paid $3.99m last year. However remuneration information elsewhere in the report said one employee was paid in the range of $470-479,999, three in the range of $380-389,999, and one in the range of $370-379,999. "Cessation payments" were made to 353 staff and totalled $10.77m, an average of $30,497. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
24-06-2025
- Health
- Otago Daily Times
A difficult balancing act for flamingos, ministers
Balance is often on my mind now I am in my eighth decade. As ACC tells us, about 30% of people aged 65 and over who live in the community will fall at least once a year and 10% to 20% will need hospitalisation. We old people are bombarded with information about improving our balance. I have become adept at standing on one foot in the shower like a misshapen flamingo in a deluge. Mr Google tells me this behaviour in flamingos is believed to help them conserve body heat and energy, particularly when it is cold. Also, this posture can form part of a courtship display. Please do not regurgitate your porridge imagining such scenes in my bathroom. They are not a happening thing. There is already enough of a risk of an ACC claim when I try the creme-de-la-creme of this exercise, standing on one leg with your eyes shut. My pathetic attempts at this prove I am not a flamingo, misshapen or otherwise. Those fine birds happily sleep while maintaining their unipedal posture. I cannot do that exercise where you cross your ankles, drop to the floor and get up again without using your arms or knees either, flopping about with all the elegance of an albatross walking. If that condemns me to an earlier-than-expected grave, as some commentators on the importance of this seem to be suggesting, so be it. I could be following the ACC Nymbl programme, designed to help the over-50s stay on their feet. It combines body movements and brain games, but it is an app only downloadable to a smartphone or a tablet. I have neither. And no ACC, please do not suggest joining an exercise group. It would be irresponsible of you to have me reliving the traumatic days of unco-ordinated blundering about in physical education in my straining-at-the seams rompers. All is not lost though. I can do more sit-to-stand repeats (where you sit on a chair with your arms crossed on your chest and see how many times you can stand up and sit down in 30 seconds) than the average for a person my age, according to the United States public health agency the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost twice as many. Not that I am skiting. I am, after all, the woman who broke her wrist after slipping on bedding when I was changing the sheets a few years back. While I may be inconsistent about exercising, and a little confused about balance requirements, that's nothing compared with the baffling use of the balance buzz word from government ministers. Among them was Environment Minister Penny Simmonds telling us the balance had swung too far towards environmental protection at the cost of not being able to get things done. "We consider there does need to be a rebalancing," she said. "Not a disregard of the environment, but a rebalancing." But when a public health researcher and freshwater advocate wondered on what basis Ms Simmonds had made this statement, she was advised the minister had not been provided with any specific advice or evidence from any agency. Accordingly, the Official Information Act request from the researcher was refused because the requested information did not exist. More recently, in the same vein, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay told us the government wants to restore "balance in how fresh water is managed across the country and ensuring the interests of all water users, including farmers ... are properly reflected". It's all part of the planned overhaul of resource management which we are assured will continue to protect the environment even as regulation is reduced. Are we expected to believe the balance has swung too far towards environmental protection when so many of our waterways are unswimmable, undrinkable and too murky to properly reflect much? If current regulations for managing freshwater have not made the improvement we would like yet, and they are supposedly too stringent, how will weaker rules work? Last week Associate Education Minister David Seymour announced a review of early childhood education (ECE) funding aimed at ensuring it is simple, fair and gets value for money. Great. But hard on the heels of the pay equity debacle, many in the sector will be feeling uneasy the review group's brief includes advising on "the balance between quality and affordability for services and parents/caregivers reflected in the funding system, including its contribution to an appropriate mix of minimum standards and quality inputs, such as adult-to-child ratios or proportions of qualified teachers". Should quality really be battling it out with cost, and if it loses, who will be advantaged? Not our tamariki. Have our government ministers been spending too much time playing ostriches in ECE sandpits, reinforcing the myth about the birds' behaviour? That's what I call unbalanced. • Elspeth McLean is a Dunedin writer.
RNZ News
19-06-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Ministers quizzed over bottom trawling, freshwater, axing Predator Free 2050
Environment Minister Penny Simmonds has defended deep cuts to environment funding at a sometimes scrappy scrutiny hearing, which also saw opposition MPs challenging the government over weakening freshwater rules, bottom trawling near Auckland, and axing funding for Predator Free 2050. Green MP Lan Pham asked Simmonds what risks she saw from about $650 million in cuts to funding for the Ministry for the Environment across the previous two Budgets. "When you compare that to an annual budget of $528m in total, you san see that it's significant," Pham said. "Minister, you've been overseeing those cuts and some of the most damaging legislative changes we've seen in decades." Simmonds said budgets for the ministry were decreasing anyway under previous government. "We are doing things like using the much greater waste levy to go across a range of environmental issues," she said. "It's about getting value for money." "This country could not afford to keep spending the way it had been," Simmonds said. Labour MP Rachel Brooking said none of the government's strategic priorities for reforming environment laws talked about improving the environment and asked if a better environment was Simmonds' goal. "Your strategic priority document talks about improving the RMA (Resource Management Act) to be more efficient and effective but... there is nothing here about improving the environment." Brooking said waste management policies had been weakened. "You're consulting on removing the national bottom lines for freshwater," Brooking said. "These are all things that seem to go in the opposite direction from improving the environment." Simmonds said she did want a better environment but was focused on action. "The question highlights very clearly the difference between ideological statements and commentary and getting things done, and that's what this government is about, getting things done, getting product stewardship schemes in place, getting waste funding used to improve the environment," she said. The government reallocated much of the money from waste levies from purely funding waste-cutting schemes towards paying for broader environmental work in the Budget. "You're quite right, we haven't indulged in ideological rhetoric of the previous government but we are getting on with doing the things [that will help]." Simmonds was asked by Pham for the evidence behind her statements that the balance had swung too far in favour of the environment. "We are managing risk, risk if there is not economic growth, risk if there is not sufficient housing... there is risk of not having development and there is risk of any development that we do on the environment," Simmonds said. In a scrappy exchange over conservation, Minister Tama Potaka was asked about the decision to axe funding for Predator Free 2050 as well as changes to the protection of the Hauraki Gulf from bottom trawling. Green MP Celia Wade Brown said axing funding for Predator Free would only shift the work to an "overstretched" Department of Conservation and asked how volunteers were expected to keep investing their time in culling pests when the government was pulling funding out of conservation. Labour's Priyanca Radhakrishan asked Potaka how he squared the decision to disestablish funding for the Predator Free 2050 company with his statements a few months earlier about its crucial role in eradicating pests. Potaka said the Department of Conservation had had to go through a process of cost savings just as "nearly all portfolios have had to give up something". "One of those choices was to remove the funding for Predator Free 2050 Limited and disestablish that company." He said there had been some duplication between the company and the department, and "a lot of the mahi" could be undertaken by the department. "I think it is important to delineate between opinions and facts," Potaka said. "There is a strong opinion that we are not committed to Predator Free 2050 (the goal) and that is entirely inaccurate, we are consulting right now on a predator free strategy and... we have allocated a significant amount of money." He said 14 jobs would be lost from the closure of the company but some might be redeployed. Potaka accused Brooking of being "out of control" during a heated conversation about wildfire protection rules sparked by a herd of Wapiti deer, a type of elk, which the government recently decided to protect in Fiordland National park. Brooking asked Potaka if Wapiti ate the undergrowth of native forests in National Parks. "Yes, they do eat undergrowth but they also contribute significantly to tourism and getting the economy moving again and we're really thrilled to have partnered with the [Fiordland] Wapiti Foundation... and others," Potaka said. Potaka said he was carrying out conservation reforms because of some "archaic arrangements". Brooking asked, "Is the New Zealand Conservation Authority an archaic arrangement?" and noted it was included in the proposed reforms. "I've never said that, and you imputing that I did I think is out of control," Potaka said. Brooking could be heard saying "settle" during Potaka's answer. Potaka also defended changes to bottom trawling in the Hauraki Gulf under questioning from Green co-leader Marama Davidson, which became another heated discussion. Davidson asked if the minister had sought advice from officials "about the impact of continuing to allow for disruptive trawling and how that will impact on his purview of protection of ecosystems and indigenous species, and what further extra cost or work it might take to fix up that destruction?". "I'm not aware of any extensive advice that has been proffered to me on trawl corridors in the Hauraki Gulf but what I am aware of is extensive advice that's very celebratory of our tripling of the protection [area] in the Hauraki Gulf, which we are going to follow through," Potaka said. On freshwater, Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard said he knew of a vegetable grower producing a quarter of the country's leafy greens who was operating illegally because the council couldn't give him a consent. He defended the proposal to get rid of national bottom lines for water quality. "I'm aware of catchments where water is coming out of nature at quality worse than bottom lines." "We can't just live with no jobs, no economy in an idyllic little paradise." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
