Deloitte ‘State of the Unions’ report

Download Deloitte Rugby Union Sports Review 2012 (PDF, 682.12 KB)

Deloitte
Media Release

July 31, 2012

Community participation and support crucial to sustainability of Rugby Unions

Deloitte ‘State of the Unions’ report highlights decline in provincial rugby unions’ revenues

Community participation and support are crucial to the on-going viability of the country’s provincial rugby unions and the continued success of the nation’s favourite game at the highest levels, according to a Deloitte Sports Review released today.

The ‘State of the Unions’ Deloitte Sports Review examines the annual financial accounts over the last five years of the 14 semi-professional and amateur rugby unions competing in the ITM cup. It shows that collectively revenues are falling and reserves are being eroded, potentially threatening the future success of the game in New Zealand.

Revenue earned by the 14 rugby unions competing in the ITM Cup (excluding the professional rugby franchises competing in Super Rugby) dropped 11% from $77 million in 2010 to $68 million in 2011. This is 19% down on the $84 million earned five years ago.

On average, over two-thirds of total revenues in 2011 were from grants and sponsorships from the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU), the corporate sector and others. The remaining revenue streams for the unions include match related revenues, retail sales, event management and other sundry incomes.

Of particular concern is the decline in match related revenues, which include gate takings and hospitality. This revenue has fallen 58% in the past five years from $21 million to $9 million, accounting for the lion’s share of the total $16 million decline in revenues.

However, Deloitte partner Grant Jarrold said there are signs unions are working harder to contain costs in a difficult environment and have made some progress in turning the financial picture around. Only five of the 14 ITM Cup unions posted profits in 2010 with this improving to nine unions in 2011 and the combined deficit falling from $2.3m to $630,000 over the same period.

Mr Jarrold added that the large corporate sponsorships and other grants that have filtered into the grass roots game in the past can no longer be relied upon in the current commercial climate.

“Now more than ever, the unions need to look for innovative ways to build community support and encourage increased attendance to reverse the worrying trend of declining match related revenues. Otherwise changes to the structure of the game in this country will become inevitable,” says Mr Jarrold.

He points to the fact that a relatively small increase of 500 spectators paying an average price of $20 per ticket at each of the regular season games of the ITM Cup would have eliminated the combined net deficit in 2011 with all other things being equal.

“The importance that our provincial rugby unions hold for the on-going success of our national team should not be forgotten as they are responsible for fostering the development of the game and its players throughout New Zealand,” Mr Jarrold concludes.

The full State of the Unions Deloitte Sports Review can be found at www.deloitte.com/nz/stateoftheunions.

For more information, contact:

Matt Huntington
Communications Manager
Deloitte
DDI: 04 470 3771
Mob: 021 812 210
email: mhuntington@deloitte.co.nz

www.deloitte.com/nz/about

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

National Government puts champagne and stadium before shelter housing

A replacement stadium for the earthquake-damaged AMI Stadium in Phillipstown will be built on the old Turners & Growers site, on the edge of the CBD’s new eastern frame. It will be a covered stadium with natural turf and seating for 35,000 people. –The Press

Christchurch residents in the eastern suburbs are left to fend for themselves…

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The first project to get underway is the river precinct along the Avon

### thepress.co.nz Last updated 18:03 30/07/2012
Bold plan for a new Christchurch
By Lois Cairns
Christchurch’s new city centre will be compact and low rise, with all key facilities and precincts corralled between the Avon River and a new green ‘frame’. The 100-day blueprint released by the Christchurch Central Development Unit (CCDU) outlines a bold plan to significantly shrink the size of the CBD by designating two strips of land – one in the east of the city and one in the south – as open spaces. These spaces, along with the Avon River, which will be widened in stretches and developed into a riverside park, will serve to frame the new CBD, ensuring that all development is concentrated within a tight geographic area. Building heights in the city will be kept at a maximum of 28 metres, although exceptions may be made in some areas around the planned convention centre to accommodate hotel developments. The convention centre will occupy a prime site next to Victoria Square and will be big enough to allow the city to host three events simultaneously. It will stretch the entire block between Gloucester and Armagh streets and incorporate two new hotels.
Read more + Flyover and Interactive Map

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At The Press…
Excerpt from comment made by Nicholas Lynch #8 06:34 pm Jul 30 2012
“The whole thing is a racket,” Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby recently observed. “Once again the politicos will expand their empire. Once again crony capitalism will enrich a handful of wired business operators. And once again Joe and Jane Taxpayer will pay through the nose. How many times must we see this movie before we finally shut it off?”

At Otago Daily Times…
Wider Earthquake Communities’ Action Network (WeCan) spokesman Mike Coleman said today marked further evidence of a “corporate recovery” while residents in the eastern city suburbs were being “left to flounder”. “They open up the champagne bottles for the CBD but there’s mere drips of water for the plebs in the suburbs.” APNZ (ODT Link)

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

ORC on hazard risks and land use controls

### ODT Online Mon, 30 Jul 2012
Building ban in risk-prone areas
By Rebecca Fox
For the future safety of Otago communities, the building of homes and businesses in hazard-prone areas needs to be restricted, and in extreme cases banned, by councils, the Otago Regional Council says. A report to a recent council policy and submissions committee said earthquake, landslip, tsunami, flood and wind storm events all impacted on the ability to use land and could increase the risk in doing so. Communities either adapted or modified their use to deal with the risk, such as the flood protection scheme on the Taieri Plain, the report said.
Read more

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### ODT Online Mon, 30 Jul 2012
Quake could flood West Taieri
By Rebecca Fox
An earthquake could render the pump station and floodbanks which keep water off the West Taieri plain inoperable for a “prolonged period of time” and at risk of flooding from Lake Waipori. The area at risk includes Dunedin International Airport. There was also a “significant risk the whole Taieri could liquefy into one big soggy puddle”, Otago Regional Council chairman Stephen Woodhead said at a recent committee meeting. Based on observations following Canterbury’s September 2010 earthquake, the regional council believes lateral spreading and liquefaction would likely render the Waipori Pump Station inoperable, the Natural Hazards on the Taieri Plain report says.

The report, the result of concerns raised by the succession of flood events on the Taieri since 2006, brings together all the hazard risks faced on the plain and the interaction between flooding, earthquakes and landslips for the first time.

The report will be given to the Mosgiel-Taieri Community Board and Dunedin City Council in coming weeks.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Pokie fraud: ODT fails to notice own backyard

● The Trusts Charitable Foundation (TTCF Inc) ● The Trusts Community Foundation Ltd (TTCF Ltd) ● Otago Rugby Football Union (ORFU) ● Professional Rugby ● Centre of Excellence for Amateur Sport ● Harness Racing ● Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) ● Gambling Commission ● Pokies ● Rorts ● Organised Crime ● Serious Fraud ● Political Interference

The newspaper had better start naming names.

### ODT Online Sat, 28 Jul 2012
Editorial: Poker machine proceeds
Hundreds of millions of coins rattle through poker machines in New Zealand pubs each year. A proportion of those coins pour back out of the pokies to be scooped up by punters delighted to receive an instant return on a risky investment. The rest tumble into the Government’s tax coffers and the vaults of gaming trusts which then get to decide how they are distributed.

It is no wonder that, when some industry figures allege endemic noncompliance and outright corruption in the pokie business, many are willing to listen. And while such sweeping statements inevitably tarnish honest operators, there has long been, at the very least, the whiff of questionable decision-making involving some trusts.

In the South, one trust had its licence suspended for five days after spending money on venue fit-outs for high-returning sites. In other cases, legislative roadblocks appear to have been simply driven around. There have been examples in the past of organisations that, having failed to set up their own pokie trust, have entered a relationship with an existing trust and got money that way.

Hearings on Mr Flavell’s Gambling (Gambling Harm Reduction) Amendment Bill are slated to begin next month. Lawmakers will face strident views from camps on both sides. They clearly have some serious thinking to do.
Read more

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Related Posts:
25.7.12 Martin Legge backgrounds TTCF (pokie trust) and Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts #DIA
24.7.12 Mention in NZ Herald dispatches: TTCF and friends ORFU [David Fisher]
15.7.12 Martin Legge responds to media stories on Murray Acklin, TTCF and DIA
13.7.12 We know exactly where ORFU has been. It’s locked there. It’s not over.
26.6.12 Department of Internal Affairs, ORFU, Centre of Excellence for Amateur Sport, and TTCF [Russell Garbutt]
22.6.12 Connections: ORFU and local harness racing [Martin Legge]
20.6.12 Mayor Cull leaves the planet [Russell Garbutt]
4.6.12 Questions: ORFU and the Centre for Excellence in Amateur Sport [Russell Garbutt]
26.5.12 DIA media release
22.5.12 Join ORFU board, without forensic audit to show how millions went west?
29.4.12 Department of Internal Affairs, the gambling authority
22.4.12 DIA, OAG, TTCF and Otago Rugby swim below the line [Martin Legge / Steve Kilgallon]

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Media Links:
14.7.12 NZ Herald Watchdog: Pokie checks not up to mark
25.6.12 Sunday Star Times Richard Boock (Sunday Star Times 24/6/12) on pokie funding of sport
20.6.12 D Scene – ORFU $480k debt deal stays #bookmark Register
2.6.12 ODT Determined to clean up sector
2.6.12 ODT Internal affairs to investigate ORFU, pokies
2.6.12 ODT MP’s query sees ‘all hell’ break loose
29.5.12 ODT Rugby: Financial troubleshooter warns job not over
23.5.12 ODT Grants meant for amateur rugby used to pay ORFU creditors
3.5.12 Sunday Star Times/Stuff Stadium plans met with scorn [‘Stadium builds under fire – sport’]
3.5.12 ODT Dinner profits went on day-to-day costs
1.5.12 ODT Small creditors get their money back from ORFU
23.4.12 The Standard Gaming industry whistleblower
22.4.12 Sunday Star Times/Stuff The inside man

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

‘The Public’s Right to Know’ – OIA Review

Official Information Act (OIA)
“At present, the Ombudsman was in charge of investigating complaints under the Act, but did not have any wider responsibilities. […] An information commissioner could be created, who would perform a similar role to the Privacy Commissioner or Human Rights Commissioner.”

### ODT Online Thu, 26 Jul 2012
Review recommends broader scope for OIA
Source: NZ Herald
The Law Commission has recommended that all publicly funded agencies should be subject to official information requests, including courts, universities and boards of trustees. The commission has made more than 100 recommendations in “The Public’s Right to Know”, a review of the Official Information Act (OIA) which was tabled at Parliament yesterday. Lead commissioner for the report Prof John Burrows said main principles of the 30-year-old Act were sound, but it needed to be upgraded for the digital age.

“We think there’s a case now for saying if a body is receiving public funding and is performing a public function it should be accountable under the OIA.”

The review also recommended re-drafting some of the grounds for withholding information – such as “good government” and “commercial sensitivity” – which were unclear.

The Justice Ministry and Department of Internal Affairs would consider the recommendations, and were expected to act on them within six months.
Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Cull’s council thinks $750,000 per annum to DVML represents good value?

INSULTING, IMMORAL, IMPRUDENT

We have watched the latest reports and statements of intent (SoI) flow to the council’s Finance, Strategy and Development committee meeting held yesterday, chaired by Cr Syd Brown.

Immoral profligate spending and corrupt practices continue under this council led by Mayor Dave Cull – there is no other take on the council’s rort involving the flow of ratepayer funding to Dunedin Venues Management Ltd (DVML); which likely represents at least in part, a direct flow to Otago Rugby Football Union (ORFU) and Professional Rugby – since DVML and ORFU share staff, space, marketing, and more.

Nobody seriously believes DVML’s forecast losses have been reduced to $873,000 for the three years to June 2015. Obviously, more fudging.

Mayor Cull – treating the Dunedin Community this way is your political end. You’re a low piece of work, as is Lesser Dunedin (formerly Greater).

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### ODT Online Thu, 26 Jul 2012
Finance boost for stadium operating firm
By Chris Morris
The finances of the company running Dunedin’s Forsyth Barr Stadium look set to improve after cost-cutting and a cash injection from the Dunedin City Council. Dunedin Venues Management Ltd’s revised statement of intent – setting the company’s objectives for three years to June 2015 – were presented to councillors at yesterday’s finance, strategy and development committee meeting.

In May, when DVML revealed a $1.9 million loss for the first six months of the 2011-12 year, the company also projected losses totalling $3.3 million for the period. The revised document, accepted by councillors yesterday, now forecast losses in those years totalling $873,000.

The improvement also largely reflected the decision [during the council’s budget deliberations earlier this year] by councillors to contribute another $750,000 a year to the DVML budget, council finance and resources general manager Athol Stephens told yesterday’s meeting.
Read more

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25 July 2012
DCC Finance, Strategy and Development committee meeting
(Link to Agenda and Reports)

Report – FSD – 25/07/2012 (PDF, 178.3 KB)
Funding Transfers to DVL by Calls on Capital

Report – FSD – 25/07/2012 (PDF, 712.5 KB)
Revised Statements of Intent for DVL and DVML

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Comment at ODT Online.

Overall losses
Submitted by farsighted on Thu, 26/07/2012 – 9:32am.

DCC owns DVL and DVML. DVML pays DVL rental for the stadium. DVL pays DCC a dividend. DVL is budgeting a loss. DVML is budgeting a loss. DCC is injecting cash into DVML to make the losses look smaller.
But overall, the loss is still the same. This will continue until DVML can make an operating profit without cash injections. However, it is pretty clear, as many have said from the start, that it is not possible for DVML to make an operating profit – it has been set up to fail.
While we can’t relitigate the past (as dear Richard used to say), we can treat this as a marker for the future. The DCC is ill-equipped to operate CCOs and CCTOs and any attempt to create new structures or enterprises should be regarded with the utmost suspicion and concern.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Local government change: council rates, core services, efficiencies

The Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council in May confirmed they were considering the potential benefits of merging.

### ODT Online Wed, 25 Jul 2012
Editorial: The role of local government
Local and central government are set to go head to head when the issue of what councils would like and what they can afford to provide for their communities is debated as part of the Better Local Government law changes before Parliament. Prime Minister John Key has called for local authorities to cut spending to keep rates affordable and has said the Government would like to see more council mergers. Speaking at the Local Government New Zealand conference in Queenstown last week, Mr Key told delegates the job would not be an easy one. They faced high expectations – but “we all have to face up to making difficult choices”. That is correct, of course. Businesses and households make difficult choices every day. And decision-makers must realise increases in public spending often put pressure on those who can least afford it. There is no doubt council spending on big-budget projects, viewed by many as “non-core” council business, fuels frustration in communities.

One thing is certain: if local authorities are against changes to their structure, and communities remain as divided about such matters as whether ocean-side drives should be for pedestrians or vehicles (or even dog sleds and skiers), the regional debate about those issues – let alone rates, priorities and costs – will surely drown out the current discussions in Parliament.

Read more

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Dunedin City Council is over extended… the result of ten years of imprudent debt funding (core business and pet projects), and a lack of overall conservative management on behalf of residents and ratepayers. Cr Syd Brown claims the council’s debt – excluding its companies – stands at $217 million, following the transfer of stadium debt to Dunedin Venues Ltd. This is how your elected representatives and council staff operate, entirely through obfuscation and fudging of true debt levels and annual spending by the city council and its entities.

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### ODT Online Wed, 25 Jul 2012
Costs will rise: mayor
By Chris Morris
Ratepayers across New Zealand – including those in Dunedin – could be left to foot the bill as local government reforms drive up the cost of borrowing for councils, it has been claimed. The warning came as Dunedin city councillors prepared to complete their response to the Better Local Government reforms at a Dunedin City Council finance, strategy and development committee meeting today. The reforms – unveiled in March – included plans to introduce new benchmarks to assess the financial performance of councils, as part of a push to control local government debt levels and limit rates increases. However, Dunedin Mayor Dave Cull said the reforms “run the risk of doing exactly the opposite” by forcing up the council’s debt-servicing costs by $1 million a year.

Local Government Minister David Carter rejected the claims last night, saying “the exact opposite” could happen if new rules inspired greater confidence in council financial decision-making.

Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Martin Legge backgrounds TTCF (pokie trust) and Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts #DIA

Comment received.
Gaming industry whistleblower Martin Legge backgrounds comments in David Fisher’s article ‘MP keeps heat on pokie trusts‘ (NZ Herald 24.7.12).

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Martin Legge
Submitted on 2012/07/25 at 10:33 am

The full article has TTCF Chairman, Ross Clow claiming the new TTCF structure has reduced costs. What he has failed to tell readers is that the former structure returned in excess of 50% to the community for many years. That was in the time before TTCF began paying $600k per annum to a private company (TTCF West Auckland Ltd), a company purposely set up by the Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts, and of which Mr Clow and Warren Flaunty were Directors.

Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts are TTCF’s biggest and most powerful pub operators and despite already receiving $$millions per annum for hosting TTCF pokie machines at those bars, they demanded more from TTCF. This company was simply a means by which the licensing trusts transferred a large proportion of its own commercial staff and office costs off the balance sheet of their liquor business on to the balance sheet of a pokie trust (TTCF) who would use community funds to make the payments. It made the bottom line of a liquor business look better than it was.

In 2006 DIA warned TTCF against the costs but TTCF went ahead and did it anyway. After waiting 2.5 years before acting, DIA launched a 6 month long investigation into TTCF and the outcome was that just as they had warned, the costs associated with the Company were not actual, reasonable or necessary, and simply a duplication of services and a means to mislead the West Auckland Community into believing the grants were all coming from the licensing trusts.
Read more

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The Trusts Community (previously Charitable) Foundation “…faced questions over payments to the Otago Rugby Football Union. Lawyers at the sport’s central body, the NZ Rugby Union, handed over material to the DIA of information found while carrying out its recent financial rescue.”
-David Fisher, 24 July

Related Post:
24.7.12 Mention in NZ Herald dispatches: TTCF and friends ORFU

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Sweet nothings [email], yo Laurie and Wayne!

Received.

From: bevkiwi@hotmail.com
To: laurie.mains@comlink.co.nz; wgraham.admiral@ljh.co.nz
Subject: Defamation spoils
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:11:40 +1200

Tuesday 24th July 2012

Dear Laurie and Wayne

The black tie dinner DVML bill has still not been paid.
Thought I would email you again and ask Laurie if his wife, Annemarie, intends paying back the $10,000+ she paid herself before paying all the other bills?
My understanding is that professional event organisers ALWAYS pay ALL the bills before handing over the ‘surplus’. Remember Jeremy Curragh stated that $52,000 went into the ‘pot’ but as we know some of the bills hadn’t been paid. Your mate, Ian Taylor, was obviously annoyed but as he has now quietened down, is it safe to assume he was paid off?

As for the defamation, if you get a nice wee tidy sum out of the ratepayers, what do you intend doing with it?
Will you pay the black tie dinner DVML bill then?
Or build another multi-million dollar house to make yourselves feel like you’ve really, really made it?
Maybe you could explain to me why you are suing Cull ie the city.
What did he say that was untrue? I read his comments and thought they were rather tame compared to what I think of the ORFU. As reported in the ODT I thought it was obscene the ORFU running off after their black tie dinner and not paying their bill for all the booze, food and cleaning. Still think that.

Spare a thought in your quieter moments, sitting in your multi-million dollar houses in Wanaka, for the little old ladies in South Dunedin who can’t afford to heat their homes in winter. Some of them go to bed during the day to keep warm. And you two still only see your glass as half full. Take another look. Your glasses are already bulging. Why do you want to take more money from the city, from the poor who barely have enough to keep themselves warm?

I hear your ‘feelings were hurt’ at the ORFU being referred to as ‘incompetent’.
Is it competent to run off without paying your bills?
Is it competent to put $52,000 in your own ‘pot’ and not pay those bills?
Is it competent to even call it a surplus when all the bills were not paid?
Is it competent to apply for grants from community trusts and then use that money for unauthorised purposes?
Is it competent to set up 3 pokies bars in South Auckland and siphon off the money ($6m) to ORFU?
Is it competent to run a business and spend more than you earn year after year after year?

Thought the following story just might reach your tenderloins if not your loins:

Poor pair give cash find to Brazil police (Link)
10:03 Tue Jul 10 2012AAP

A homeless Brazilian couple have found a garbage bag filled with money and promptly handed it to police.
Officials said the pair were out for a dawn stroll when they found a briefcase and a garbage bag filled with 20,000 reals ($A10,000).

They alerted police.

“When we arrived, the couple gave us the money. It might be the money stolen last week from a Japanese restaurant,” said military police spokesman Bruno dos Santos on Monday.

The pair “had the opportunity to flee with the money … What they did is commendable,” he said.
Jesus Silva Santos, the man who found the money, said he earned about 14 reals a day from collecting rubbish for recycling.

“My mother taught me never to steal,” he said.

Sincerely

Bev Butler

Ph 4776861

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Mention in NZ Herald dispatches: TTCF and friends ORFU

“People have not been shy about what is going on. It is the trusts that are doing the dicey stuff.” -Te Ururoa Flavell

### nzherald.co.nz 5:30 AM Tuesday Jul 24, 2012
MP keeps heat on pokie trusts
By David Fisher
Pokie trusts are lining up to return greater cash payments to the community as proposed new gaming legislation puts the entire industry under threat. Cuts are anticipated to the trustee payments with the amount spent on administration also expected to drop. The trusts have to return a minimum 37.12 per cent of their income to the community, with a handful providing as much as 63 per cent. But Department of Internal Affairs figures show many fail to rise much above the legal minimum return.

Select committee hearings are expected this year on proposed legislation put forward by Maori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell. His proposed bill would dismantle gaming trusts, put councils in charge of distributing grants and require 80 per cent of money to go back to the community.

Mr Flavell said the publicity around the proposed bill had led to a great deal of information about their operation being sent to him. He said there were trusts distributing pokie proceeds which observed the rules but others “would hang themselves on how they operate”.
Read more

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Media Link:
(this one should be hurting DIA and Martin Quivooy)
14.7.12 NZ Herald – Watchdog: Pokie checks not up to mark

Related Post:
15.7.12 Martin Legge responds to media stories on Murray Acklin, TTCF and DIA

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Defamation, word is

It will come as no surprise that Mayor Dave Cull The Ineffectual will definitely settle out of court.

An “incompetence” shared is an incompetence doubled. This will cost him the 2013 election.

God forbid DCC on behalf of the Dunedin community would want the ORFU and related entities’ books opened for full independent forensic audit. This is the missed opportunity that going to court – not settling – presents. However, depending on who independently commissioned the audits, DCC itself would show up badly in the dealings – not enough diligence, too much corruption, brotherly love, mass incompetence, you name it.

Wait for the DCC media release. Watch the council’s new five million dollar Spooks (communications) department cream it.

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Related Posts:
26.6.12 Defamation
11.5.12 Dunedin shootout: mafia bosses

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Mayor Cull limp biscuit on North-South match

Earlier yesterday, DVML chief executive David Davies issued a statement confirming revenue of $114,808 had been generated by the match, with a profit of $21,412 once costs of $93,396 were covered.

### ODT Online Tue, 24 Jul 2012
North-South game profit falls short
By Chris Morris
Dunedin ratepayers are on the right side of the scoreboard, despite receiving just a fraction of what had been hoped for from last month’s North-South charity rugby clash, Mayor Dave Cull insists. It was confirmed yesterday the game at Forsyth Barr Stadium had generated a profit of just $21,412, after teams shorn of All Blacks and other top players drew a crowd of 7427 fans. The profit was much less than the $200,000 hoped for by Mr Cull when details of the match were unveiled in March, as part of the rescue package designed to save the Otago Rugby Football Union.
Read more

Related Post:
23.7.12 DCC media release

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Received.

From: bevkiwi@hotmail.com
To: david.davies@dunedinvenues.co.nz
Subject: LGOIMA request: Full costs of North South game
Date: Tue, 24 Jul 2012 08:45:21 +1200

68 Russell St
Dunedin Central 9016

Tuesday 24th July 2012

Dear David

It was reported in today’s ODT that the North South game generated a revenue of $114,808, with a profit of $21,412 once costs of $93,396 were covered. It is also reported that:
“Match costs included about $13,000 spent on advertising and promotion by DVML, but staff costs were not part of the bill and nor was any venue hire agreement, it was confirmed yesterday.”

It is normal business practice to include ALL costs before declaring a profit.

As this was a fundraising match, I do not anticipate any “commercial sensitivity” excuses for not disclosing all the costs.
I, therefore, request a full breakdown of ALL the costs, including the staff costs and normal cost for hiring the venue.

Yours sincerely
Bev Butler

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

D for (weak)design, Dull and Deathly

### idealogue.co.nz 23 July 2012 @ 10:22 am
Air NZ revamp embraces the dark side
By Design Daily Team
Air New Zealand is going black for good, with its fleet set to sport a new livery from next year that was created in collaboration with leading Kiwi typeface designer Kris Sowersby and Designworks. Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe announced last week that the tails of all new aircraft entering the fleet will be painted black.

“The Air New Zealand lettering has remained relatively unchanged for the past 20 years, but the airline has undergone significant cultural and reputational change. The challenge was to develop a new style which retained the history and credibility while injecting a new sense of momentum and modernity.”
Read more

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http://www.facebook.com/AirNewZealand

New Zealand Herald: Air NZ plane tails to go all black

Designworks: Going Black for the Nation

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Shopping Malls – United States

Thanks to wirehunt for this link.

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### theatlanticcities.com Jul 13, 2012
Urban Wonk
The Shopping Mall Turns 60 (and Prepares to Retire)
By Emily Badger
The enclosed suburban shopping mall has become so synonymous with the American landscape that it’s hard to imagine the original idea for it ever springing from some particular person’s imagination. Now the scheme seems obvious: of course Americans want to amble indoors in a million square feet of air-conditioned retail, of course we will need a food court because so much shopping can’t be done without meal breaks, and of course we will require 10,000 parking spaces ringing the whole thing to accommodate all our cars. The classic indoor mall, however, is widely credited with having an inventor. And when the Vienna-born architect Victor Gruen first outlined his vision for it in a 1952 article in the magazine Progressive Architecture, the plan was a shocker. Most Americans were still shopping downtown, and suburban “shopping centers”, to the extent they existed, were most definitely not enclosed in indoor mega-destinations.

At the mall’s peak popularity, in 1990, America opened 19 of them. But we haven’t cut the ribbon on a new one since 2006.

Gruen’s idea transformed American consumption patterns and much of the environment around us. At age 60, however, the enclosed regional shopping mall also appears to be an idea that has run its course (OK, maybe not in China, but among Gruen’s original clientele). He opened the first prototype in Edina, Minnesota, in 1956, and the concept spread from there (this also means the earliest examples of the archetypal American mall are now of age for historic designation, if anyone wants to make that argument).
Read more

● Emily Badger is a contributing writer to The Atlantic Cities. She also writes for Pacific Standard, and her work has appeared in GOOD, The Christian Science Monitor, and The New York Times. She lives in the Washington, D.C. area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southdale_Center

Southdale (b.1956) two overlays – WAI Architecture Think Tank

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Tonight – NZHPT Open Lecture WIN CLARK

See earlier post with details and downloadable flyer.

CAN EARTHQUAKE PRONE BUILDINGS BE STRENGTHENED?

YES THEY CAN!

.

The future of ‘old buildings’ in Dunedin is a topical issue.
Come and hear Win Clark, consultant structural engineer and Executive Director for the NZ Society for Earthquake Engineering talk about how stone and masonry buildings can be strengthened.

Find out:
• Why do masonry buildings fail?
• What are the biggest issues for strengthening ‘old buildings’?
• What modern techniques are available to strengthen brick and stone masonry buildings?
• What are the solutions to meet structural and economic criteria?

Win Clark is the consultant structural engineer for NZ Historic Places Trust.

THURSDAY 19 JULY 2012 5:30 to 7pm
OTAGO MUSEUM – BARCLAY THEATRE
419 Great King Street, Dunedin

Light refreshments to follow the conclusion of the talk.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

DCC salaries and retention payments

Comment received.

Phil
Submitted on 2012/07/16 at 5:42 am

If Paul Orders is hunting for more suggestions, he can take a look at the ridiculous “retention” money being paid to lower and middle DCC managers over and above their listed salary. Bumping up the gross income to between 30 and 50% higher than the salary listed for them. No staff member in the DCC is that indispensable. Likewise to the staff members receiving 105% of their graded salary, year after year, supposedly reserved for a “one off action”. This practice has been going on for so long now that staff are expecting it as a right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Martin Legge responds to media stories on Murray Acklin, TTCF and DIA

● The Trusts Charitable Foundation (TTCF Inc) ● The Trusts Community Foundation Ltd (TTCF Ltd) ● Otago Rugby Football Union (ORFU) ● Professional Rugby ● Centre of Excellence for Amateur Sport ● Harness Racing ● Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) ● Gambling Commission ● Pokies ● Rorts ● Organised Crime ● Serious Fraud ● Political Interference

Updated post July 16, 2012 · 3:14 pm

ODT reporter Hamish McNeilly had a story published on Saturday (14 July), ‘$425,000 fee not recovered’. He said: “The Department of Internal Affairs was “unable” to recover more than $400,000 paid to a Queenstown-based pokies’ trustee. In his role as “executive trustee with special responsibilities” Murray Acklin was paid $425,254 by The Trusts Charitable Foundation (TTCF), between April 2006 and March 2009. He later resigned from the position, on the advice of the department, but remains a trustee. Following an investigation the department suspended the trust’s licence for two days as its expenditure, including that paid to Mr Acklin, was “considered to be excessive and not reasonable or necessary to the gambling operation”. That suspension was increased to five days after the trust took an appeal to the Gambling Commission.” Read more

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Martin Legge
Submitted on 2012/07/15 at 12:01 pm

Re ODT article about Murray Acklin reported above re $425k

You’d be forgiven for thinking Acklin was responsible for raising $6.9 million for the community. Acklin did not raise one cent for the community but simply enticed the transfer of existing pokie bars over to TTCF so he and his fellow trustees could give most of it to racing and ORFU, that is what he was paid for.

Senior DIA Management held a meeting with TTCF Chairman, Malcolm McElrea of Balclutha in late 2009 following the results of a number of serious investigations into TTCF which included the unlawful payment of $1.2 million to a company associated with the Portage and Waitakere Licensing Trusts, the $425k payment to Mr Acklin and the promise of pokie grants and TAB upgrades to secure pubs. At that meeting DIA expressed a strong desire that Acklin resign his position as Trustee.

So here is the question for Mr Quivooy and DIA. Why, in June 2010, only weeks after the Gambling Commission decision and 8 months after the above meeting and without even attempting to recover any of the $425k or $1.2 million, was DIA able to “sufficiently satisfy” itself (in accordance with its statutory obligations – yes, that is the wording of the legislation – “satisfy”), that they should grant a new gaming operators licence to TTCF Ltd allowing the same trustees (including Mr Acklin) to all become Directors effectively permitting them to continue to grant millions to racing and ORFU???

Gaming industry whistleblower Martin Legge is a former detective and police prosecutor, TTCF contractor, and DIA senior inspector gaming compliance. He continues to expose the system and the players.

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NZ Herald reporter David Fisher has his story published the same day, ‘Watchdog: Pokie checks not up to mark’, lobbing attack at the Department of Internal Affairs for incomplete sloppy work, seemingly carried out to avoid prosecutions. He says: “The public servant charged with regulating the gambling industry has described his department’s capacity and capability as not being fully up to the mark. In an email to an informant, Maarten Quivooy of the Department of Internal Affairs also wrote that “our practice isn’t always as sharp as we would want it to be”. The comments were made in letters to former Otago Sport chairman Russell Garbutt, who spent years raising concerns about grants from a gaming trust which took money from pokie machines in the North Island and paid it out in the South Island. The complaints appeared to go nowhere until eight weeks ago when the department said it shared his concerns but had run out of time to do anything about it.” Read more

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Martin Legge
Submitted on 2012/07/14 at 7:06 pm

Maarten Quivooy says DIA don’t have the capacity to regulate the gaming industry and blames it on the legislation. How can he blame the legislation when his department rarely tests it? How does he have the gall to say that they can’t do anything because the statute of limitations prevents action – when it is DIA’s own inaction that allows these crooked trusts to get off because DIA do absolutely nothing within the 2-year prosecutorial limit but not only that, they continue to re-licence them year in, year out. From my evidence from the last 5 years at least, the DIA senior management and past and present Internal Affairs Ministers have not only turned a blind eye to offences, but have interfered on behalf of pokie trusts who have lobbied them. Coal face inspectors (the ones who don’t kow-tow to their bosses) leave the DIA in frustration after doing thorough and enforceable investigations that get quashed. The silence of politicians other than the Greens and Flavell over the appalling state of the gaming sector is deafening. What Quivooy told Russell Garbutt is at odds with my own response from Quivooy that stated DIA “had conducted a robust and thorough enquiry” into my numerous complaints, many of which they now state publicly that they are “continuing to investigate, re-investigate, audit, re-audit” and I still haven’t been contacted! Thank goodness for the media. If Quivooy was a senior Police Officer and made that kind of admission to a member of the public or in the media, a national enquiry would be called for and the Police Complaints Authority would be all over him.

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Media Links:
25.6.12 http://itsabigfatlie.blogspot.co.nz/2012/06/richard-boock-sunday-star-times-24612.html
2.6.12 http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/211666/determined-clean-sector
2.6.12 http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/211669/internal-affairs-investigate-orfu-pokies
2.6.12 http://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/211671/mps-query-sees-all-hell-break-loose
29.5.12 http://www.odt.co.nz/sport/rugby/211018/rugby-financial-troubleshooter-warns-job-not-over
23.5.12 http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/210293/grants-meant-amateur-rugby-used-pay-orfu-creditors
3.5.12 http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/7038067/Stadium-plans-met-with-scorn
3.5.12 http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/207787/dinner-profits-went-day-day-costs
2.5.12 http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/207653/orfu-unpaid-bill-obscene
1.5.12 http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/207473/small-creditors-get-their-money-back-orfu
23.4.12 http://thestandard.org.nz/gaming-industry-whistleblower/
22.4.12 http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/6785852/The-inside-man

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Rival newspaper on historic heritage #cathedral

The Press editorial, today. Balanced.

### stuff.co.nz Last updated 08:31 14/07/2012
Editorial: Anglican diocese should give account
The pause in the demolition of Christ Church Cathedral is a positive sign that the building’s fate is not sealed. Its destruction, which had seemed the inevitable outcome of the Anglican Church’s stand, is now less certain as the Government and the diocese consider the Greater Christchurch Building Trust’s report that sets out a plan for the cathedral’s conservation. The result is the sense that, for the first time, the contending parties are in dialogue.

As The Press wrote about the consecration of the cathedral, in 1881, the building is “a symbol to our children and their descendants of the spirit which animated those who projected the settlement of Canterbury, a spirit which we who have come after have, however imperfectly, endeavoured to give form and shape to”.

The previous lack of serious dialogue had raised the temperature of the debate, causing unnecessary division in a city in need of unity. Positions had become entrenched, personal accusations were too common and the tone was embittered. The pause to consider eases that tension, at least temporarily. Even if the Anglican hierarchy remains committed to demolition, the advocates of retention will at least have the consolation of knowing that they were listened to.
They certainly have given their cause the best chance of success by producing the Building Trust report. It is a considered document from prestigious engineers that gives a detailed account of how the cathedral can be saved with most of its features intact. The somewhat vague assertions that salvage was possible have now been hardened into a clear plan of action.
Read more

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Commissioned by Great Christchurch Building Trust (GCBT), documents received 10 July via Mark Belton at Restore Christchurch Cathedral:

Christchurch Cathedral Structural engineering Review Final 27June2012
(PDF, 94.8 KB)

Christchurch Cathedral MRO prelim sketches (F)
(PDF, 3.9 MB)

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Related Post:
2.3.12 Christ Church, Cathedral Square

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

We know exactly where ORFU has been. It’s locked there. It’s not over.

“The analogy that I’ve been using is it is almost like we are starting from scratch.” -Kinley

There will be no starting from scratch until ORFU and related entities are fully investigated by forensic audit.

ORFU is currently implicated in a Department of Internal Affairs investigation for pokie fraud, tied to The Trusts Community Foundation Ltd and The Trusts Charitable Foundation (Inc).

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### ODT Online Fri, 13 Jul 2012
Rugby: ORFU head ‘starting from scratch’
By Adrian Seconi
New Otago Rugby Football Union general manager Richard Kinley has a clear idea where he wants to lead the organisation. The ORFU board yesterday announced the 45-year-old would fill the role left vacant by Richard Reid. Officially, Kinley assumes the role on August 13 but he has already had his feet under the table for the past six weeks.

“We can’t forget about the history and we can learn from the past, but it is about moving forward.” -Kinley

Read more

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

What the

From Red China or DCC Spookerama Productions ?
If we’re honest panelists do we get thrown in jail, receive a whipping, or worse ?

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### ch9.co.nz July 12, 2012 – 5:48pm
The People’s Panel about to be launched
Most Dunedin people would have jumped at the chance, in the last few years, to tell the city council exactly what they thought of their plans. That chance is about to come with the launch of the [online] People’s Panel – a way ratepayers can regularly, and confidentially, have their two cents worth on city issues.
Video

Note: A council has responsibility for the whole community within its geographical boundary area – that includes residents, not just ratepayers.

FORGET CONFIDENTIALLY
We’re more than willing to tell the Council what we think FACE TO FACE – and have been for years. The Council does not, will not listen. The Council has consistently ignored what residents and ratepayers have been telling it. This is more crap from Cull’s zoo and the idiot five million dollar communications unit. Start here: get rid of all grey papers; video all meetings of the Council and its standing committees and upload to YouTube as well as the DCC website – we want transparency and accountability. We know DCC doesn’t want to provide it. End of story.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

NZHPT Open Lecture: WIN CLARK

All welcome. Free entry.

NZHPT Win Clark flyer (PDF, 606 KB)

Win Clark is consulting structural engineer for NZ Historic Places Trust.

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Enquiries to Owen Graham, Area Manager – Otago/Southland
New Zealand Historic Places Trust/Pouhere Taonga

Floor 4, 109 Princes Street, PO Box 5467, Dunedin 9058, New Zealand
Phone 03 4779871 | DDI 03 4702362 | Cell 027 4316701 | Fax 03 4773893
Shop online at http://www.historic.org.nz/

Help keep New Zealand’s heritage places alive

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Recommended changes to RMA explode environmental protection

Technical advisory group’s report recommends significant changes to section 6 of the RMA…the proposal to drop the requirement for decision makers to provide for the preservation and protection of indigenous vegetation and habitats as matters of national importance ignores Environment Court case law built up over the last 20 years.

### ODT Online Thu, 5 Jul 2012
Proposed changes reduce RMA protection
By Adam Bennett – New Zealand Herald
A Government-appointed advisory group has recommended a significant rewrite of the Resource Management Act removing references to the protection of coastal areas, wetlands, lakes and rivers and indigenous flora and fauna. Environment Minister Amy Adams released the report from a technical advisory group established after the Canterbury earthquakes with the primary task of looking at natural hazard issues relevant to the RMA arising from the quakes. “After the Canterbury earthquakes, it became clear that consents for subdivisions had been granted without any consideration of the risk of liquefaction,” Ms Adams said in a statement. However, the group’s report addresses much wider issues and recommends significant changes to section 6 of the RMA.

As it stands [section 6] instructs local authorities to recognise and provide for the protection or preservation of the natural character of the coastal environment, wetlands, lakes and rivers when considering RMA applications. They must also provide for the protection of outstanding natural features and landscapes and areas of significant indigenous vegetation or wildlife. Protection must also be provided for historic heritage and protected customary rights while public access to and along the coastal marine area, lakes and rivers must be maintained. However the group’s recommendation proposes removing the words “protection” and “preservation” from the section entirely.
Read more

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### radionz.co.nz Friday 6 July 2012
Morning Report with Geoff Robinson & Simon Mercep
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport

08:13 Independent report a major assault on the RMA – Opposition
Opposition parties say recommended changes to the Resource Management Act by independent advisory group are a major assault on the sustainable management of the environment. (3′57″)
Audio | Download: Ogg Vorbis MP3 | Embed

More reading via Scoop
Greens – Report ‘Major Assault On The RMA’
NZ Govt – Report on Resource Management Act principles released
Labour – RMA changes risk more litigation
ACT – RMA Principles Report Encouraging But More Boldness Required
Maori Party – Māori Party comfortable with direction of RMA report
Fish and Game NZ – RMA rejig a disaster for the environment

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Dunedin Railway Station clocktower

### ch9.co.nz July 5, 2012 – 7:06pm
The view from the Railway Station clocktower
The Dunedin Railway Station is an Edwardian monument to the era of rail, and the nineteenth century dreams of the city’s early inhabitants. And inside its clocktower are some very cool spaces the public seldom gets to see. Nine Local News squeezed through some tight manholes and got very dusty to bring those spaces to you.
Video

Image: Channel 9

Making roofs more intelligent

What’s being billed as the country’s first zero energy house is steadily taking shape in Point Chevalier, Auckland, and its owners are aiming to save up to $80,000 in power costs over the next 25 years.

### idealog.co.nz July 2, 2012 @ 10:07 am
Zero energy house leading the way
By Idealog
SolarCity has partnered with owners Joanna Woods and Shay Brazier and energy consultants and eco-companies to help build the house, which aims to achieve net-zero power bills by generating as much electricity as is consumed through a blend of energy-efficient features and an intelligent solar roof. Brazier, who is also head of design and innovation at SolarCity, says the house could save between $50,000-$80,000 in power costs over the next 25 years.
“Our zero energy house protects us from the impact of electricity rate increases while safeguarding the environment for the next generation,” Brazier says. “The country needs to start thinking about making their roofs more intelligent, and start thinking about the cost of running a house per square metre, rather than just the cost of building a house per square metre.”
Read more

Zero Energy Solar from Zero Energy House Project on Vimeo.

Zero Energy Explained from Zero Energy House Project on Vimeo.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Demolition by neglect. Townscape precincts.

About which, belated (after parapet failure) “buying of engineering opinion” can make sure historic buildings come down for car parks.

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On Friday, Karen Ratten of St Kilda had a letter to the editor published, ‘Why the long delay in demolition?’ (ODT 29.6.12). Ms Ratten is firstly concerned about three car parks being currently unavailable for use outside Brocklebanks Building in King Edward St, South Dunedin. She then asks why the hold up with the building’s demolition?

The question could have been, why is demolition of the listed building required at all (the building has facade protection in the district plan and is located in a listed townscape precinct) – if it’s to create interim on-site parking? Given it was (still is!) possible to tie the building together and restore it, or retain the historic facade and erect a new building behind – thereby removing the public safety issue altogether.

DCC’s Alan Worthington, Resource Consents manager, provides reply including an inference (we’re way past generalities here, Alan) that archaeological authority processes required by New Zealand Historic Places Trust for the building have contributed to delay of demolition. This is not so. He then intimates something more useful, saying: “At the same time there may be other matters the building owner is dealing with.” Bingo. Just maybe, the Brocklebank family trust hasn’t finalised building plans in order to apply for resource consent. Who knew!

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The other site…

### ODT Online Sat, 30 Jun 2012
Buildings’ demise imminent
By Debbie Porteous
Scenic Circle Hotel Group director Stuart McLauchlan confirmed a crane that went up behind the N. & E.S. Paterson Ltd and Barron buildings in Rattray St this week would be bringing the partially demolished buildings down within “days”. Two separate sections of the 136-year-old Barron Building collapsed in January 2011; parapets fell on to the roof causing it to collapse inwards onto the second storey.
Read more

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The Barron Building, originally known as the Banks, Barron & Co. Building, was designed by architect Henry F. Hardy, and constructed circa 1875. The Victorian-era warehouse later received a very fine interior by architect Owen E. MacFie. The first bottling plant for Speights was housed in the basement (still intact) – potentially, a stunning adjunct to Speight’s Alehouse and heritage tours.

According to specialist engineers the Barron Building could have been saved following collapse of the parapet.

Keeping up a building of this scale is not usually prohibitive, cost wise – it does require diligence. It can ‘come down’ to having motivated owners and investors.

Long before parapet failure, Barron Building required conscientious owner-stewards to carry out cyclical maintenance (seeing to weathertightness, gutter cleaning, keeping pigeons out, removing vegetation and trees from mortar, repointing and so on) and regular structural assessment towards enhancing building performance – with all resulting work to be costed and carried out in stages (at its most affordable – given that for many many years Dunedin City Council has practised leniency towards building owners in regards to bringing buildings up to code).

All the people saying pull the old buildings down because they’re “eyesores” (see ODT news report above) and asking why private building owners should be put to the cost of saving old structures like these – the answer, respectfully, is that they need to get out a bit, to see for themselves what’s actually going on in the neighbourhood.

Building owners (good investors), with vision and means, are set on maintaining, strengthening and upgrading their heritage buildings. Their efforts are attracting higher paying tenants; and incrementally/cumulatively they are raising property values in the old CBD. It’s known as “regeneration”. If you’re a building investor who isn’t participating in this upward movement (where’s your diligence?) and your property is going backwards, you need to ask yourself what’s the sense in being left behind? Get educated. Those caring for heritage building stock are starting to make real money now and for the long term. They’ve done their sums, they know what it takes.

A sizeable cluster of Dunedin’s historic buildings in the area have been or are in the process of being strengthened and re-used. They include (no particular order): Old BNZ Bank, Standard Building, Old National Bank, Bing Harris Building, Clarion Building, Bracken Court (Moray Pl), Queens Garden Court, NMA Building (former Union Steam Ship Co, Water St), former Rogan McIndoe Print Building (Crawford St), 14 Dowling St, Garrison Hall (Dowling St), former Stavely Building (cnr Bond and Jetty Sts), Wood Adams Building (19 Bond St), former Chief Post Office, former Donald Reid Store (Vogel St), Milne Brebner Building (Vogel St), 366 Princes St… and more besides.

Again, WHY are we losing the likes of Barron Building, N. & E.S. Paterson Building, and Brocklebanks Building?

If you are a heritage building owner wanting to access available information that could help you conserve, strengthen and save your building, contact Glen Hazelton, DCC Policy Planner (Heritage) phone 4774000 – or Owen Graham, NZHPT Area Manager (Otago Southland) phone 4779871.

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### ODT Online Tue, 7 Sep 2010
Measures urged to protect heritage buildings
By John Gibb
Relatively cheap and simple measures can protect many of Dunedin’s heritage buildings from much of the kind of earthquake damage evident in Christchurch, structural engineer Lou Robinson says.
Read more

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Related Posts and Comments:
8.5.12 Owners of neglected buildings
25.8.11 180 Rattray St, Dunedin: Proposed historic building demolition…
12.4.11 Public outrage – SHAME on those re$pon$ible for building neglect
4.3.11 Reaction to another instance of unthinking ad-hocism from City Hall
19.2.11 Owner of Dragon Café/Barron Building has lodged an application…
26.1.11 D Scene: Honour heritage
22.1.11 SAVE Dragon Café / Barron Building – Sign the Online Petition
13.1.11 Barron Building and Rattray Street
13.1.11 Banks, Barron & Co Building Collapse pics

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr