A week in South Island
I’ve finished my second week in New Zealand researching practical innovations to providing education and training in rural and remote communities. Last week I had another warm welcome from education leaders in Christchurch and then local leaders involved in Southland’s Just Transitions Partnership.
Right at the tip of Murihiku/Southland is Tiwai Point, New Zealand’s only aluminium smelter, scheduled to potentially close and result in the loss of over 600 jobs and many more in the supply chain in December 2024. Having seen the ongoing impact of the SSI Redcar closure in the North East of England, I wanted to understand the Just Transition Partnership model as a way of supporting communities in more fragile economies through the loss of an anchor employer.
The Southland’s Just Transitions partnership brings together iwi, local government, education providers, business representatives, workers (represented by unions), community organisations, central government and the primary sector. Joining the meeting of the partnership’s Enduring Oversight Group and meeting leaders focused on employment/training afterwards, I was struck by the intangible value of the approach in unlocking the power of the community against seemingly inevitable global forces. In an area like Southland where it feels that local institutions are strong and local leaders genuinely represent their community, the partnership can identify what the local priorities are. The uncertainty of Tiwai’s future makes it difficult for individuals to engage however the partnership can stack the cards more strongly in the local community’s interests any negotiation.
The partnership highlights the potential value of early community-based action ahead of potential economic shocks, in this case supported by local economic growth. I was born in London and currently live in Tower Hamlets — an area with around 500,000 times the population density of Southland, New Zealand’s second least populated area and over 110 times that of Invercargill, the regional capital and home to half of Southland’s population. But even to my eyes, it was clear that Invercargill is a thriving place with abundant commercial/industrial development, re-development of the CBD and busy coffee shops and restaurants (admittedly closing much earlier than I’m used to). Following a population scare in the early 2000s, Southland has grown with the development of the dairy industry as well as higher international and domestic migration. Rio Tinto, the owner of the smelter, first threatened with closure in the early 2010s, has indicated that it might reverse the planned Dec 2024 closure.
Last week: meetings with NetNZ and Grow Waitaha in Christchurch (will hopefully find time on the road for another blog on this!) and Enduring Oversight Group, E tū (Aotearoa’s largest private sector union), Great South (Southland’s regional development agency) and Southern Institute of Technology. Cold runs around Queen’s Park and great coffee at the Batch Café and Black Shag in Invercargill.
Next week: Visiting Halfmoon Bay school in Rakiura/Stewart Island, meetings with Ministry of Education on remote education and technology in education in Wellington, call with virtual learning principal and leader, and visit to employment project in Central Hawkes Bay.
What I’m taking home with me: preemptive community action ahead of potential economic shocks and my first time driving on the beach on Oreti beach.
