Sharing their knowledge with Pacific islands
With its mission to help improve the quality of life for those living in Pacific Island countries, PacificTA uses the wealth of knowledge across local authorities in New Zealand to boost knowledge across island nations.
Peter Wimsett, the Tararua District Council’s manager of strategy and district development, has been to Vanuatu four times since 2013, helping to improve the capacity of council’s there.
Council’s chief executive Blair King has been north of Vanuatu, assisting on building contracts and rates.
Their work is all part of the PacificTA teams New Zealandbased technical experts working with their counterparts in the Pacific, to share skills and improve the way cities, towns and villages are run.
Last week, representatives of the Port Vila Municipal Council, including the Lord Mayor, Albert Daniels, were in Tararua, learning more about our infrastructure, council governance and visiting district assets.
“It’s been fantastic to have them here,” Tararua District mayor Tracey Collis said. “The Port Vila council holds our council in very high esteem.”
And with the population of Port Vila just ticking over to 53,000, it is now a capital city of a South Pacific nation, although not yet officially recognised.
“They have the 10th of the budget of Tararua District Council and they are trying to run a city with a population of three times our population,” Wimsett said. “They haven’t had a rates increase in 20 years and that’s one of areas I am principally trying to advise them on.”
Wimsett wrote the defining report on revenue collection which the Port Vila council still pull out, four years after it was written in 2014.
“They are actively working on recommendations from multiple teams across New Zealand, helping them to build capacity,” Wimsett said. “The PacificTA is about strengthening neighbouring nations in the South Pacific to deliver services their communities need.
“As a council they are quite different from us. They provide health service clinics, but don’t provide water or roads, that’s a government activity. They have a higher level of regulations, with the majority of their staff semi enforcement officers.”
Wimsett said he’s had a great deal of satisfaction in what has been achieved over four visits to Port Vila.
“The first year we went they had a rubbish problem, now they don’t,” he said. “I wrote a 30-page report on how to deal with their rubbish and when we went back 18-months later the town was clean.”
During the last visit Wimsett and Aaron Williams, council’s IT contractor, whose time was donated by Master Business Systems, upgraded the Port Vila IT system, including a vital fire wall.
Last week was the first time three council staff, the Lord Mayor and his deputy from the Port Vila Municipal Council had visited New Zealand and Wimsett said they were “pretty exhausted” after two days in Tararua, two in Wellington and as guests of Hastings District Council.
“They are going home with a buzz and some gems to remember from their visits around the Tararua district, the council workshop and an insight into housing and social issues,” he said. “They were intrigued by the free flow of discussion during council’s workshop.”
And Wimsett said he particularly likes Vanuatu, with its friendly people.
One of the highlights of their visit to Tararua was the Te Apiti windfarm.
“They are interested in renewable energy because they are very reliant on imported oil,” Wimsett said.
PacificTA’s mission is to help improve the quality of life for citizens in Pacific Island countries, allowing local authority experts to share experiences.
Funded by the New Zealand Government’s aid programme, PacificTA trains and mentors local public service managers and equips them with knowledge and technical expertise to better manage essential public infrastructure and services.
All Pacific Island countries with New Zealand bilateral relationships are eligible for support, including the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, and Tuvalu.