Category: Public Media

Source: Radio New Zealand

Te Atiawa has opened a high-end townhouse development on an inner-city site in New Plymouth where colonial troops once assembled for inspection.

Pukekura / The Parade features 36 two-storied two and three-bedroom homes, located just 500m from the CBD.

Taonga pūoro and karakia ring out at first light as the multimillion dollar project is unveiled.

Iwi members, construction workers and new homeowners alike then file through each home, touching the walls and fittings.

Te Kotahitanga o Te Atiawa chair, Liana Poutu, explained the blessing had two functions – firstly to clear the homes for what was to come.

“Then the second part is when people walk through houses they’re placing their energy, their mauri, if you like, their good intentions into those houses.

“So, we’re filling the houses with our aroha, we’re filling the houses with all of those good intentions and thoughts, so that the families that live in those houses are surrounded by that love, those good intentions.”

Poutu said the project’s name was an acknowledgement of the site’s dual history and shared future.

“Pukekura historically was a gully system of a whole lot of waterways and so that was used by our people historically for food gathering and resources and then this particular site where this development is was an old parade ground for the colonial troops that used to be based on Pukaka Marsland Hill.”

Te Atiawa general manager economic development, Joshua Hitchcock, explained the freehold homes cost up to $900,000.

“We have pitched it at the upper end of the market here in town and done that deliberately so. It’s such a prime site, it’s a wonderful location, with the amenities you can’t beat it.

“Pukekura Park is a five minute walk away. You’ve got supermarkets and cafes all within walking distance, so in terms of the opportunity and the location of the site we wanted to provide that more premium offering.”

Hitchcock said profits from developments such as the Parade – built on the former New Plymouth Technical School site – would be pumped into projects with a more social focus.

“Then there we have those housing developments which are specifically designed as modern day papakainga for our whanau where we are developing housing for Te Atiawa by Te Atiawa and there are a number of those projects underway.

“Just two months ago we opened a five-unit kaumatua development next to the hospital here in town and we’re really working with the Ministry of Social Development to put a number of our kaumatua who are on the housing register into those whare.”

Jen Smart had bought one of the Parade townhouses.

“I’m just overwhelmed really by how special it is and the history behind it because both my husband and I have history on this bit of land.

“My husband went to Central School and my ancestors arrived in Ngāmotu and one of them actually was in the regiment here, so would’ve marched on this bit of land.”

Another owner, Paul Barrett, was taken aback by the ceremony.

“Well it was very spiritual I wasn’t really aware and ready for that. It was kind of to me a house and a home, but then I didn’t know what it meant to the developers how passionate they are all about it.

“And it’s not just smash it up and get some money out of here. It’s really a project of love.”

Livingstone Homes apprentice, Tama-James Tuffley, who had Te Atiawa whakapapa, had benefited from the project’s 15 percent Māori procurement target.

“It’s been mean just a great opportunity to learn a lot of things. We’ve got 36 townhouses to build so there’s a lot of things to learn from all of that.

“And it means a lot to work on I guess like my own buildings, I could say, like for my people, I guess.”

Te Atiawa expects to open 18 inner-city apartments on Weymouth Street later this year featuring six units designed for kaumatua living downstairs and 12 apartments available via an affordable rental programme.

A 19 townhouse development in Tukapa Street in Westown was due to be completed in 2027 featuring a mix of affordable rentals and shared ownership options.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

First person – A little while ago, I wrote about my fairly dismal returns investing in Sharesies.

I started on the platform in 2017 and to date, have a simple return of 28.14 percent. That’s well below what I could have achieved in a managed fund.

Sharesies say it calculates the simple return by dividing total return by the largest amount my portfolio has ever had invested.

Fund managers pointed to some of my investing mistakes – I have some funds that have done pretty well and some direct investments that have performed okay, but I also own some “big name” stocks that have been rather lacklustre in recent times.

But Sharesies pointed out that I could be short-changing myself with this calculation, and perhaps I wasn’t as bad an investor as I had thought I was.

Co-founder Leighton Roberts said, because of the way I’ve invested my annualised money weighted return is 11.11 percent a year.

I usually invest a steady amount each month but there have been a couple of larger deposits, which Roberts said weighed my simple return down.

So why the difference?

Roberts acknowledges that the way the site describes returns, displaying the overall simple return on the dashboard, is not ideal.

“There’s different types of maths and different ways of comparing things and some of them are better for different things than others,” he said.

“So the most common ones are a simple return, which is literally just what percentage return you’ve made, regardless of time or how much money you’ve put in and all that sort of thing.

“Then for most fund managers the best way to compare something is a time-weighted return…that’s picking a point of time, normally it’s like for a year and saying, okay, from point A to point B that we’ve measured all of us against, and removing any sort of flow that’s gone into this, so any new money, and the timing of that, what has the return been?

“Trying to make sure it’s a best attempt, I suppose, at apples with apples. And then at an individual level, normally the best way to compare your own return once you’ve made all those selections is money weighted returns.

“So that takes into account the timing … even on a fund that historically performs very well, you could be unlucky and choose to buy in at the highest time and sell at the lowest time. So the money weighted return shows you exactly on an annualised basis what you’ve earned based on the real money flows …that’s best for comparing, particularly against something like a bank account.

“If someone invested eight years ago and put $1 in and they’d earned 10 percent in total, just for easy maths on their investment, but then one day ago, they put $100,000 in and that earned $10,000 or something on there, one of those numbers is going to say 10 percent, which is your simple return. And your money weighted return is going to say 10 percent times 360. So it’s going to say like 3000 percent.

“That one day when you put such a large amount of money, just massively over indexes the whole thing. And in your case, it’s sort of done exactly the same, like you probably perhaps started with a smaller amount. And when you put a bigger amount in, then that drags all your averages down.”

Note – I did make a large deposit towards the end of last year but it was more like $10,000 than $100,000.

Gertjan Verdickt, senior lecturer in finance at the University of Auckland, said a money weighted return would be a more meaningful number than simple return.

“Their simple return doesn’t really measure investment performance; it’s closer to return on peak exposure, which doesn’t cleanly answer any useful question. The MWR is the annualised rate your actual dollars earned, weighted by how long each contribution was invested. That’s the right answer to ‘what did my money earn?’

“One caveat: MWR mixes investment performance with the timing of your contributions, so you can’t use 11 percent to judge whether Sharesies or your portfolio choices are doing well versus alternatives. For that you’d want a time-weighted return: the return of the investments themselves, ignoring cash-flow timing. That’s the standard measure for comparing funds and platforms, and it’s what you’d want if the question is ‘is Sharesies a good place to invest?’ rather than ‘how did my money do?'”

Roberts said simple return was chosen as the option displayed on Sharesies because it was reasonably simple to calculate.

“We’re about to put money-weighted returns in for people as well …. Now where it gets tricky… often people will want the return but they want it based on certain inputs or without certain inputs for whatever reason.

“So they might want to include this deposit but not this deposit, or they don’t want to include the withdrawal, or they don’t want the historic things they’ve invested in to be included in their returns now, which is a change. So there’s all sorts of reasons that customers come back and say, look, I want to see this but I don’t want to see this.

“So it’s the hard part about building in is actually giving it the right level of flexibility, I suppose, for people that it makes sense for them…if you put a money-weighted return onto a stock, and say you bought Infratil the day before it went up, whatever percentage it went up the other day, 20 percent, then a money-weighted return is going to annualise that for you 365 times. And all of a sudden, it starts to get very misleading as a customer, rather than showing 20 percent, you’re all of a sudden looking at a number that predicts that it’s going to do that every day.

“So while on the face of it sounds really easy, that’s not something we wanted to do when we first launched the platform or for new customers, because it’s just misleading one way or the other. It’s either massively exaggerating the return, which is obviously very risky, or massively over sort of assessing the risk.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Does having a degree pay off?

The government wants to redirect some of the funding it has been using for the ‘fees-free’ university scheme into trades training.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Morning Report the scheme had been “quite a failure” and the government needed to make sure it was growing the economy.

At the moment, only about 6 percent of young people go into apprenticeships when they leave school, while about a third go into a degree.

But would encouraging more into the trades improve outcomes, for them or for the economy?

The income

Data from the Tertiary Education Commission shows that at a high level, tradespeople earn more straight after graduation than degree-holders, but those with degrees pull away over time.

Focusing on those who are under 25 at the start of their working life, licensed tradespeople, such as electricians and plumbers, are the exception and match or beat the average degree-holder.

As a whole, those with university degrees, including arts, commerce, engineering and health, are starting work on a median $62,000 a year which rises to $95,000 after nine years.

Electricians earn $84,000 a year out of training and almost $100,000 at year nine.

Plumbers start at $79,000 and rise to $94,000.

Carpenters start at $73,000 and rise to $80,000 but are overtaken by degrees at year 5.

Auto mechanics follow a similar pattern.

“Electricians and plumbers are licensed and regulated, harder to qualify into, and supply is constrained. That scarcity translates into durable earnings. Carpentry and mechanics have no such barrier and their earnings flatten fast,” said Simplicity chief economist Shamubeel Eaqub.

Stats NZ data shows that overall, the average hourly wage for a technician or trade worker in New Zealand is $36.27 an hour for men and $31.95 for women.

Many tradespeople start their own businesses, which may make their income harder to track, Eaqub said, particularly from about year five.

There is also significant variation within degrees. Medical graduates had a $116,000 median income when qualified.

At graduation, engineering and building related technologies was second-highest-paying and management and commerce third.

After five years, health was still the highest paying sector but engineering picked up and IT jumped strongly.

University of Otago associate professor Lynnaire Sheridan said OECD data indicated tertiary educated workers earned twice as much as those who only finished secondary school.

Paying to study or being paid

Another key aspect to account for is time spent studying.

Most university students fund their own studies, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Research published almost a decade ago found that at that point about half of medical students had a loan of more than $90,000.

In comparison, apprentices pay a much smaller fee and earn at the same time.

Plumbing World said apprentices would usually earn between $24 an hour in their first year and $39 in their fourth year.

The commission said level four to seven qualifications had a 56 percent or 57 percent completion rate, depending on whether the programme was work-based, and degree-level qualifications had a completion rate of 60 percent.

What does it mean?

Census data also shows that the higher the qualification a person had, in general, the more they would earn.

But University of Otago economist Murat Ungor said there were some caveats to keep in mind when looking at it.

“First, correlation does not necessarily imply causation. Degree holders may also have higher average ability, greater family support, stronger motivation, or better access to professional networks, all of which can increase earnings independently of education itself.

“Second, the field of study may matter enormously. Degrees in medicine, engineering, economics, or finance are likely to generate much higher average earnings than degrees in some other disciplines, even when both are at the same qualification level.

“Third, not everyone requires a university degree to achieve a relatively high income. Some trades and vocational qualifications also produce strong earnings outcomes. For example, individuals with Level 5 diplomas have a median income of approximately $51,100, well above the median income of those with no qualifications.

“Finally, it is worth noting the position of overseas secondary school qualifications. People with this credential earn a median of $35,700 per year, which performs better than having no qualification but worse than most New Zealand level 2 certificates and above. This may reflect issues with qualification recognition, differences in curriculum standards, or demographic factors such as recent migration and lower English proficiency among some holders.”

He said one interpretation was the university students received considerable private financial returns from their education and should contribute more to the cost.

“However, there is also a strong counterargument that tertiary education generates broad social benefits, including higher productivity, innovation, tax revenue, and social mobility, which provide an economic justification for continued public support.”

He said access to education was not evenly distributed, either. “Financial barriers, family background, school quality, and social inequality all continue to shape educational participation and outcomes.”

Sheridan said there was also evidence of disproportionate unemployment among more highly educated people. “You get a degree and then you tend to be looking for the right role.”

The commission’s data showed that 1 percent of degree-holders are on Jobseeker benefits, compared to 9 percent of people with level one to three qualifications, which are usually obtained at school.

She said both degree-holders and tradespeople were affected by the economy but there was longer-term resilience from higher education.

“It’s more likely you’re able to weather more economic cycles across your entire life.

“Initially yes you have the debt and the cost but longer-term across your career you’ve got greater stability because you’re basing your education on really highly transferable skills like critical thinking and analytical skills.

“That gives you greater reliance, particularly at the moment where there’s such a challenge in terms of what future work will look like. We can’t even predict the jobs that will exist 20 years from now.

“When the economy is really hot, everyone will be doing renovations, building houses, needing that plumber now versus when times are tougher being able to fall back on this other skill set can actually help you create work and generate work within economies not as flush with cash.

“I would say whatever you’re studying and doing, you want to be the best version of that career. A really good plumber will always have a work. A really amazing accountant will always have work. Someone with a university education can pivot.”

Getting out what you put in

Hayley Pickard, managing director of recruitment firm Fortitude Group, said qualifications ended to only be one piece of the puzzle.

“Certain qualifications can absolutely help someone start on a higher salary for example, someone who spends four years at university may enter the workforce on a stronger graduate package because of the qualification they’ve earned.

“But equally, someone who entered the workforce four years earlier may already have built practical experience, developed industry knowledge, and progressed up the pay scale during that same period. In many industries, hands-on experience and proven performance can carry just as much weight as formal education.

“It’s also important to recognise that university or formal qualifications don’t suit everyone. Some people thrive in practical, hands-on environments and build highly successful careers through experience, apprenticeships, trades, or on-the-job learning. That’s why it’s important to look at the bigger picture, rather than judging someone purely on the grades they achieved in education.”

She said earning potential was shaped by education, experience, demand, performance, attitude and willingness to continue to learn.

Robert Walters chief executive Shay Peters said employers were likely to place less emphasis on degrees in future.

“A lot of the grunt work will be done by AI. Recent graduates are finding it tough to get jobs because AI is taking over their roles they’ve got to work through an education provider that’s going to give them practical experience.

“Employers are looking for pretty instantaneous output and productivity.”

He said people who were doing well were those with good human skills, who could work on relationships while technology did the work in the background.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A demographer believes the prime minister is promising a solution to an immigration problem that does not exist.

Christopher Luxon has told business leaders immigration was an emerging political issue and to expect “careful” immigration policy from National – and that the party would put social cohesion ahead of businesses’ profits.

Independent think tank Koi Tū senior fellow and distinguished professor emeritus Paul Spoonley said while immigration had become a polarising globally, that was not necessarily the case in New Zealand.

He said immigration had risen a bit as an issue, but it was not a top 10 concern for New Zealanders – as identified in the latest Ipsos issues monitor. He said polling showed the majority of New Zealanders viewed immigration positively.

“I can only assume that the prime minister is beginning to react to his two coalition partners both of whom seem to want to make immigration a central issue for the coming election, but also to see immigration as somehow being divisive and an issue for New Zealanders – I don’t think it is.”

Spoonley said New Zealand’s points-based system was strict compared to many other OECD countries where immigration had become polarising.

“They’re dealing with high numbers of refugees and asylum seekers. We are not. We [have] an economically-focused skills-based system, so we are very selective.”

He wanted to see more extensive programmes to help immigrants better settle and said such work was important for social cohesion.

“We are one of the most super-diverse countries in the world – 30 percent of us are born overseas, in Auckland 43 percent are born overseas.

“By and large, it works really well. So what is the problem, or what is the issue here that the prime minister thinks we need to address?”

Spoonley said while New Zealand did a “pretty good job” with recruiting and selecting migrants, that did not mean there should not be debates about immigration, particularly around net migration numbers which had been volatile in recent years.

Hospitality New Zealand chief executive Kristy Phillips said the devil would be in the detail of National’s immigration policy and businesses were keen to know what “careful” meant.

“Does careful equal workforce enabling policy and operational survival for our members?”

She said while effort was going into training local talent, the industry relied on skilled migrants to fill gaps in the workforce.

“It’s already difficult for workers to maintain roles and gain pathways to residency within the hospitality industry in New Zealand.

“We would be hoping that this ‘careful’ plan does not make that any harder.”

Phillips said residency pathways were integral to the sector’s long-term workforce stability.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand