Celebrating strong past and future
Waikato’s strength – its successful past and potential for an even brighter future – has been highlighted by recent events.
I was in Te Kuiti for the unveiling of the statue paying tribute to that great rugby player, charity supporter and farmer Sir Colin Meads. As a symbol of Waikato’s competitiveness and achievement, Sir Colin is right up there. The statue, along with the Meads Brothers Exhibition, is a great recognition of their achievements and a must visit for rugby fans.
Good, too, to be at Fieldays as it gets set to celebrate turning 50 in 2018. Again, this event is a great symbol of our regional success, based on agriculture.
There was a really positive vibe this year, reflecting better dairy prices. Nice to see this buoyancy after some harder times recently.
It was encouraging to have good farmer interest at the regional council’s stand, including in the Healthy Rivers Wai Ora Plan Change 1 and its implications for landowners. It’s important we get this right for both the health of our economy and our environment.
A strong international pres- ence at Fieldays bodes well for further interest in our agricultural products and in-bound foreign investment.
On a broader front, there have also been some positive developments towards creating a brighter future.
The Waikato Mayoral Forum recently hosted Local Government Minister Anne Tolley and Statistics Minister Scott Simpson, the MP for Coromandel, along with Labour’s Nanaia Mahuta from Hauraki Waikato and list MP Sue Moroney.
Minister Tolley congratulated the region on the development of the Waikato Plan, a project initiated by the forum.
The Plan – which seeks to boost regional performance – has just taken a significant, all but final, step when it was approved by the joint committee overseeing it.
It has now been formally recommended for adoption by the partner councils.
A public launch will be held and we will then move into the implementation phase.
The Plan sets out a range of high-level priorities, including planning for population change, targeted investment to connect communities, advancing regional economic development and advocating on behalf of regional transport priorities.
These will be advanced through an integrated series of actions. The Plan is great work which has been attracting national attention.
The forum is now looking at where next to build on the collective effort.
Our region is diverse with further opportunities for co ordinated sub regional initiatives generally, as well as joined up work at a higher regional level. During recent detailed discussion on the way forward it was felt strong political leadership was needed to help drive initiative.
Council political leaders and chief executives are continuing to take a very forward looking yet practical approach to enhancing our prosperity through local collaboration and by working closely with others, such as central Government, iwi, and business.
As Sir Colin Meads knows well, great teamwork is what gets results.