Finance -26 Corporate Committee - Zoom Meeting -5B53yPfrqbpkE-5D.wav

Transcription

Oliver: Meeting open.

Oliver: Welcome, everybody.

Oliver: So we'll start with the apologies and I guess we have Hazel.

Oliver: Everyone else seems to be here I think.

Oliver: So could I have a mover please?

Jack: Andrew, just just before you do, just before you do, I have to leave the meeting at 1:30 to attend a future proof meeting.

Jack: So sorry about that.

Jack: So my apologies from them.

Oliver: Good as gold.

Oliver: Thanks Jim.

Oliver: So we should we include that in the in the and then and the motion as well if someone would like to move please?

James: Happy to move, Mike.

Oliver: Thanks Lou.

Oliver: Thanks Susan.

Oliver: All in favour.

William: Aye.

Oliver: Contrary, no.

Oliver: That's carried disclosure of members interests.

Oliver: Do we have any today?

Oliver: No.

Oliver: I'll move on to item 4, late items.

Oliver: Any late items?

Oliver: No late items, so confirmation of order of meeting.

Oliver: No changes, Ken.

Harry: No, I don't see any need for for change.

Harry: We we do have a number of guests joining us at the meeting today, but they're well aware of the time.

Harry: So yes, I'm hoping they'll they'll be here at the the required time.

Jack: Happy to move, Andrew Graham.

Oliver: Thanks, Graham.

Oliver: A seconder second Susan.

Oliver: Thanks, Susan.

Oliver: I think it was.

Oliver: Cheers.

Oliver: All in favour.

Oliver: Please say aye.

William: Aye.

Oliver: Constantly No carried OK Item 6, which is confirmation of the minutes from 18 February.

Oliver: Have we all or take those as being read?

Oliver: Anything raised from those minutes?

Jack: Andrew Graham speaking, my diary showing me that I was at that meeting, but my name's not recorded there.

Oscar: Right.

Oscar: Yeah, I was going.

Oscar: I was going to bring that up too.

Oscar: So yeah, I think there's some mistake.

Oliver: Thanks, Bruce.

Oliver: OK.

Oliver: So I'm sure we can have that remedied, Sam.

Oliver: Yes.

Amelia: We'll make the changes.

Oliver: Thank you.

Oliver: OK, So would that change, could I have a mover for the minutes to be received as a true and correct record please?

Oliver: Thank you, Marcus Seconder.

Oscar: I'll second it.

Oliver: Thanks Bruce.

Oliver: All in favour, please say aye.

William: Aye.

Oliver: Contrary no carried thank you.

Oliver: Item 7 Jason has Jason joined us?

Oliver: He has I seen Sam nodding.

Oliver: Oh, hi, Jason.

Oliver: How are you doing?

Oliver: Good.

William: Thank you.

Oliver: Great, and the floor is yours.

William: OK, same.

William: I don't think we had as we had issues with trying to get the presentation.

William: Is that right?

William: Oh no, same as sharing.

William: Brilliant.

William: Perfect.

William: Thanks.

William: Same.

William: Good morning or good afternoon.

William: Sorry everyone.

William: Thanks for allowing me time.

William: Just to give you a quick update on where we are as a sector for tourism and particularly for Wipeout District.

William: So a report has obviously been provided to you and prepared, which was our last six months performance at the end of 31st December 2019.

William: As you would have seen why Pedestrian Council was going through significant growth, pretty one of the fastest growing regions for us.

William: With regards to tourism impact, you were experiencing double digit growth pretty much down through visitor expenditure and also commercial accommodation.

William: But we are here today to discuss just obviously a bit of a change in the dynamic given COVID and the impact for tourism, particularly as a sector.

William: If we can go to the next slide, Sam, Perfect.

William: So just first a couple of slides obviously just covering off some data.

William: We're now receiving international and national data on a weekly basis from the government and also from the airlines.

William: Sort of no surprise.

William: Obviously since COVID lockdown and international travel restrictions were put in place, international visitor arrivals into New Zealand has been have been dropping it at a very sharp rate.

William: We still do have airline connectivity, which I will go through because we are still maintaining what we call a baseline service for connections across the world, mainly for repatriation flights, but also for cargo and service across the country as well.

William: Next slide, Sam.

William: So weekly card transactions, again, no surprise.

William: Obviously overall our visitor expenditure is down significantly.

William: But when you do look on to the left top five, obviously food, liquor and pharmacies, we are still seeing some cumulative and some obviously weekly growth and expenditure compared to all our other visitor type expenditure and transactions as well.

William: Thanks, Sam.

William: So the impact for us as a sector again look I mean every all of this has been reported, but just to cover off in summary, we were already impacted through the loss of China group travel which started in the second to last week of January.

William: So with that, all of our international facing products, our hotels, our motels, our Airbnbs were immediately impacted by that because many of China group travel actually did stay in the white cuttle.

William: They were our 4th largest international visitor market behind Australia, North America and UK and Europe.

William: It did shut us down pretty much once international travel restrictions hit us.

William: And the visitor economy covers more than just the tourism operators.

William: Again, we've mentioned accommodation.

William: It also impacts retail, hospitality, transport providers, our operators of course, but also event organizers and major venues and of course Mystery Creek of anti drone Lake Cutter Pedal a key event platforms for Wipeout District.

William: We have had significant job losses and business closures across tourism.

William: I have down underneath that last bullet points.

William: Look, the immediate business impact that we have been coaching our businesses through and helping them get through.

William: There's some have gone to what we call temporary or seasonal closure.

William: So again, we have a lot of seasonality and tourism.

William: Many who would close for winter have closed, but those that potentially have never closed before, we've suggested they go into hibernation.

William: And so that's what we're calling temporary seasonal closures.

William: We've had a number of businesses, you know, Hobbiton was obviously one of the most public ones reported in the media.

William: But again, all our motels, hotels, retail, hospitality have pretty much reduced service and staff.

William: There's only essential services operating as we know.

William: But again, with alert Level 3, we do see some opening up potentially in the hospitality sector for Y Power anyway.

William: And then the last obviously implication for us is we have had a number of businesses who are permanently closing, not only of these are lost definitely to the tourism industry to try and bring people back when we don't have products, but also particularly for those vulnerable communities where some of these operators have been going for many years.

William: Thanks, Sam.

Jack: All right.

Jack: Can I ask a question about that?

William: Sure.

Jack: Have you got examples of what businesses are struggling and like what what?

Jack: Who isn't closing Like who is closing and how it is impacting around the white industry?

William: Yeah.

William: So particularly for why part, it has mainly been your hospitality, potentially some of your retail and also accommodation.

William: So we've had many, nearly all of your accommodation has pretty much gone into hibernation or closure.

William: They're calling it temporary closure.

William: But there's some of them have been able to access the wage subsidy, which is great.

William: But again what we're going to see is the impacts are longer than the 12 week wage subsidy right now.

William: So it's post 12 weeks.

William: What we're quite concerned about.

William: We have been lobbying nationally, the government and I think that's all sectors, not just tourism around potentially extending the wage subsidy for 20 weeks because it will take a lot to restart the tourism sector.

William: Again, people's propensity to travel is quite low.

William: We will travel locally and potentially we will travel intra regionally sustained within the region.

William: But to try and stand up the domestic travel market is going to be a long haul that we're looking at a six to 12 months recovery plan for that.

William: Great.

William: So look lastly, look I mean and nothing, no surprise here.

William: This was just something we do for industries.

William: People know where we all fit.

William: So from the tourism perspective, when we respond, obviously we're providing the industry support right now at a national level, regional level and also at a local level.

William: But then we have Tawaka, our Chambers of Commerce, our business associations and all local government have been great in actually supporting us with what we call the business and community sort support side for tourism businesses.

William: And then lastly, we're obviously partnered with the Civil Defense Network around providing welfare support not just for tourism operators.

William: Again, it's also been utilizing tourism operators.

William: Many of our caterers have now been repurposed into providing food services pretty much or supporting the food banks and actually cooking meals.

William: We also have a number of our transport operators and tourism being basically requisitions now to provide transport options and actually getting people around such as essential workers and many of the staff potentially we've been redeploying into the civil defense network through providing security and welfare and call center as well.

William: So not only are we also working with civil Defense, we're also putting staff into there as well.

William: Thanks, Sam.

William: Even though we're obviously dealing with COVID, this is just for you to be aware.

William: There are obviously continuing issues that were going on with with COVID and with the tourism industry.

William: First up was domestic airline connectivity.

William: So the Air New Zealand has been pretty open that they will not be restarting until alert level 1.

William: So we meet with Air New Zealand weekly just to see how we will try and stand the industry back up again.

William: They're going to focus very much on what we call an incremental restart.

William: So it's doing a width and breadth strategy across the country.

William: So potentially maybe only two or three flights into Hamilton per day, but again is to try and get that reach across the whole network first before they can actually stand up and have a full schedule like we have seen out of Hamilton Airport, particularly over the last three to four years.

William: Airline connectivity internationally is still continuing.

William: So those are just some a summary of some of the ones that are still flying.

William: So looking in New Zealand are still connecting into North America and Hong Kong into Australia.

William: Fiji Airlines are still flying into Fiji on a daily service and Qatar has probably used the most to try and repatriate Northern Hemisphere travelers back to their homes through Qatar.

William: And then also Korean airlines are still operating a daily service as well for future again in New Zealand are saying they will be focusing very much on the domestic market first.

William: They will traditionally be a domestic airline for the 1st 6 to 12 months and domestic also includes Australia and the Pacific.

William: American Airlines so far have been the only one we've met with who planned to return to New Zealand from October 2020.

William: So they have put a stake in the ground to say when they will start flying into New Zealand again.

William: Now, the reason why I just raised international airline connectivity is because it will take this country at least two to five years before we ever go back to the type of connectivity we've had as a country previously before lockdown.

William: So again, it's going to be a very long boon for us as a country to regain the international visitor arrivals.

William: We've seen in the past.

William: Air traffic control services up for review.

William: The reason why I just put that in there is just to let everyone know there was no Wycott airports or airfields, but particularly Hamilton airport is an impacted.

William: But for us in the Central North Island, Rotardua is one that is going to be impacted around potentially the closure of air traffic control tower services.

William: That will mean potentially that we will be re diverting the domestic network through Torana and Hamilton.

William: So unfortunately for Rotardua's last, it could be our gain.

William: And then lastly, we've still got the investigation under way around for Cardi Wide Island.

William: So the work safe investigation should be coming to a close shortly.

William: There will be impacts on the tourism and suppliers around adventure tourism for this country.

William: And also we will be up waiting Qualmark, which is our accreditation program particularly around health and safety for the country.

William: Thanks, Sam.

William: Just some events dates.

William: So it's we're now Field Days is going online.

William: So from the 30th of June for two weeks Field Days we'll be providing a virtual exhibition space very similar to other international events who offer this type of experience.

William: Again, it is a trial, but we do hope to bring Field Days back in 2021.

William: Obviously not only is the largest major event for Y Par, but it's definitely for the Y Cutter.

William: With regards to economic impact, we worked due to host the New Zealand Tourism Awards in November.

William: That has been postponed until next year.

William: So we will reset the date for that.

William: Exploring trends, these are what we call our two main international trade shows.

William: They've obviously been delayed trends 2021, which is the main time when we actually sell the white cuttle to the world.

William: We will not be having until maybe June next year.

William: So it's just still waiting on a date for that.

William: Two major convention centers were due to open this year to π and Christchurch, which potentially is the one that will be taking a lot of business away for us for All for business events that is now being delayed for another year.

William: And of course, the in New Zealand International Convention Center, we will not know the reopening date of that until they work through the final insurance claims.

William: So again, by having these two convention centers not operating means that places like Foodlands and the Mystery Creek Event Center are going to be filling the gap for national and international conferences for the short term, which is actually a good opportunity for us again, as a region post COVID.

William: But we also do still have events planned.

William: So the major events, obviously the national Waka armor is at this stage still plan to take to take to take take effect and like cut a pedo.

William: And we also have our first major event for the region, the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup scheduled for the 8th of February.

William: Again, this one will particularly be decided by around October, November whether we international travel restrictions have lifted to enable some of the players to come.

William: Otherwise they will have to go into if it does continue into isolation until the Cricket World Cup can be held.

William: So what we have seen particularly for other parts of the sector is that events have been more postponed for wipe our and for the wider Wicotta region rather than completely cancelled and not returning.

William: So there is some positivity for us as we do see this as the lead sector to enter recovery economically and socially for the district.

William: Next slide same.

William: A response, we have a what we call 3 tiered response plan.

William: Obviously this is no similar to everyone else right now.

William: We have a mitigate process which we're currently and now we then have a restart phase and then we have a reimagined phase.

William: So initially in the response phase, no different to everyone else, lots of briefings, lots of support.

William: We're obviously having face to face briefings across all the sector long before the shutdown.

William: And now we've moved to the virtual space.

William: We're still doing advocacy at a national level to try and make sure we can access more business support for the region.

William: Some of the gap right now out of government support and out of the support that Tawaka can provide as it doesn't cover any employees for 100 employees plus.

William: So that's quite that's quite the pointy end of town, we call it for most of our region for our big employers, again, wage subsidy, OK, but of outside of that, there's actually no large industry supports.

William: We've been pushing it through government to try and unlock some of that.

William: If this kind of lockdown continues.

William: We've been doing one-on-one operator check insurance.

William: We have 240 listed operators with us.

William: So again, these are daily to weekly check insurance by all our teams to make sure everyone's been able to access business advice and some of the wage support.

William: We've been doing webinars and we've now moved in the last two weeks into workforce redeployment.

William: So again, we've been taking some organizations or employers that have maybe at least five to 10 staff members displaced through to Hobbiton who had one of the largest at around 270 and actually redeploying them and offering them redeployment options into the Kiwi fruit industry.

William: We placed 110 staff into Kiwi fruit with transport from Hobbiton as well as the avocado industry, which will be the next seasonal workforce will be will be standing up until the end of the year, but put staff into supermarkets, civil defense, security and also they've been providing some services from home.

William: But again, what we are going to see over the next two weeks and we're starting to measure that is the full impacts of people that we cannot redeploy that potentially will be out of work.

William: So there's currently a survey under way and we'll be updating all councils and the government around the overall impact for tourism and white council.

William: Thanks, Sam.

William: Under the restart phase.

William: So again, we want to congratulate local government because obviously getting some of those shovel ready projects through with the Crown infrastructure partners for their consideration is a great win for the region, but potentially for the sector, pretty much every district has put up around 1:00 to 2:00 tourism projects as part of shovel ready.

William: So again, we do need to focus on the future and how we'll restart the region researched.

William: We were already in market and about to finish up our domestic perceptions and major research.

William: This is now becoming quite timely for us and will help us inform around how we will try and bring back the domestic travellers into the region based on some of the research we've undertaken.

William: We're also working on a major and business events restart campaign.

William: So that planning has been underway for a couple of weeks so that when we're ready to go, we can push go on that.

William: We do see events and business events and corporate travel as being the Kickstarter we need for economic and social recovery across the region.

William: New developments.

William: Again, you've all got new developments going on potentially in your regions.

William: Hidden Lake, obviously one of your newest hotels in Cambridge only opened on Christmas Eve.

William: So Glenda and the team we've been keeping in touch with quite a lot because they haven't been in operation very long, their impacts are quite severe.

William: So again, making sure that we still have some future developments that will continue across the region to take us through the next stage.

William: Data and insights, I've touched on them now gone to weekly.

William: So again, we're sharing that information in to Walker.

William: And now we're contributing to the to Walker economic outlook as well, which is great.

William: And then lastly, the Mighty local campaign was launched 2 weeks ago, and it's definitely around the restart phase.

William: Thanks Sam.

William: So mighty local again is a partnership with ourselves to walk out all the Chambers of Commerce.

William: So TR move to and obviously Cambridge Chamber of Commerce plus the White Cutter Chamber of Commerce, all our councils, the business associations.

William: It also exists in some communities and all our regional eyesights.

William: We're in Phase 1.

William: So for the last two weeks we've been promoting businesses with contactless delivery, promoting, you know, on people that are still doing entertainment online or virtually from within Waikato, recipes from our beloved chefs well-being and fitness.

William: And this week we launched Business Stories.

William: So again, we're starting to use this platform to promote some of the businesses and how they're pivoting into obviously response or looking at different opportunities for their business.

William: So the idea is to try and give people hope during phase one.

William: During phase two, which is obviously from elite Level 3, we will increase our take away and Ethan B listings and also essential services are starting to grow as well.

William: In phase two, we will move more to a local phase.

William: At the moment it's a regional platform, but the idea is potentially people were able to to able to group the types of information and services available at a local community level and at a district level as well.

William: And in phase three, which has been hopefully all travel restrictions are lifted, we will then activate the basically the the buy local, Eat local event, local shop visit and explore within the region.

William: And obviously that's in partnership with many communities and business associations that already have local programs such as Cambridge with their Totally locally Cambridge campaign.

William: So we're working with Kelly and the team around how he would try and push their program rather than this one once we get to phase three.

William: Thanks Sam.

William: And when it comes to how we will actually respond long term, so at the moment we're in Phase 1.

William: So we're calling it the hyperlocal phase.

William: So one to three months we'll be pushing basically localism everything to do with obviously how how you purchase and interact with your local community.

William: It's phase two, which then we'll move into a three to six month bracket.

William: We're estimating we can then start to do intra regional travel.

William: So we'll be targeting the drive market within the White Cuttle region.

William: We will be hopefully starting to stand up community events again that can happen at a local level and regional business meetings might be able to begin again with social distancing at Level 3, which thought we're planning our scenarios for 6 to 12 months.

William: We can then stand up the domestic market.

William: That is when potentially we will mainly focus on drive.

William: So as you've heard me say before 2.5 potentially 3 million people live within three hours radius of the Waikato region including the region itself.

William: So we'll definitely be focusing on the drive market.

William: National events will be returning as well as national meetings and then eventually corporate travel, which again business are quite a good lead for us with regards to stand up the sector again.

William: And then lastly, we're planning on one to two years before we actually start to see any sort of international impact again.

William: Short haul markets into Australia and the Pacific will open first and then we will eventually move back into major events, international conferences and starting to bring back the corporate and leisure travel market into White Cuttle.

William: So that's the time frame we are currently doing our scenario planning for.

William: But as we all know, it may change every week based on the alert levels we have.

William: Thanks, Sam.

William: And then lastly, reimagine.

William: So you would have seen that last week or actually two weeks ago as well, the government announced that there was a call to reshape and reimagine the tourism industry.

William: So we have been pushing for the last two to three months with Tourism New Zealand and the Minister for Tourism around what we're calling a reimagining of tourism when we there was our chance that this is more than a shock.

William: It's actually a bit of a circuit breaker for the sector and for all business sectors for us all to look and see how could we do our businesses differently.

William: We all knew that tourism was growing at quite an exponential rate and there were some areas that were really feeling the pressure such as Queenstown and Central Otago and Cathedral Cove, some of our sites, Mount Tomarito.

William: So for us now, it's great to see the government are taking this seriously.

William: So we're now working with Tourism New Zealand to lead a new plane domestically and internationally, but also look at all these types of questions, you know, where our previous visit arrivals and expenditure growth right for the region.

William: What will success look like for us, for the future for a visitor market, How we move our sector from boom and bust again no different to the food and fiber sector or any other business cycle.

William: And lastly, how do we move to a more sustainable community LED tourism and for us on the white cuts of what we call creating net benefit rather than just benefiting those that potentially were making money out of tourism.

William: We want to see community strive and that they have the decision around what sort of tourism they want.

William: So again, we will be moving our 2016 tourism opportunities plan, which many of you were involved in.

William: We will now be developing a destination management plan and it'll be happening nationally as well to try on what we call transform tourism for the beta.

William: So there is no such word as recovery.

William: Now.

William: We will not be receiving the same sorts of level of tourism as we did previously, but neither we might not have the same sort of services and opportunities available in tourism as well post COVID.

William: So again, it is a good opportunity for us to look at transforming the sector.

William: Thanks, Sam.

William: I think we've got one more look.

William: And lastly, just obviously a call, I call it to all my life, government partners, I really appreciate everyone helping to promote your rates relief for emissions and instalment policies, not just for the tourism sector, but for all business.

William: I it's great to see you all continuing with your resource consent process, maybe in a more delayed way, but again, the liquor and food licensing is going to be more important for us particularly we try and stand up after alert Level 3.

William: We still have the regional major event strategy activation.

William: So again, we are still awaiting some a decision from well Energy Trust about potentially helping to establish a regional major events fund, which will actually assist all the districts to be able to bid for major events again and also to attract and bid new major events into our shoulder season across the region.

William: And then lastly, again, just to thank you all for your continual funding to support the tourism industry.

William: And then that would obviously be more important through restart in the reimagine phase.

William: And again, the point I made earlier, we will not be recovering to pre COVID levels for at least two to five years as a sector and as a region.

William: And that's pretty much it from me, I think.

William: So happy to take any questions.

Oliver: Thanks.

Oliver: Thanks Jason.

Oliver: That's I've got to say that's a fantastic response to what must have been a massive shock to the industry.

Oliver: Yeah.

Oliver: And of course in white power and probably a lot of white cattle as well.

Oliver: Domestic tourism is actually a lot bigger than international.

Oliver: So we really want to see and, and as you have in your plan, that being that being worked on as soon as it's soon as it becomes a possibility.

Oliver: But yeah, does anyone have questions?

Oliver: Just put your hands up.

Oliver: I can see you all clear.

Amelia: OK.

Amelia: Yeah.

Amelia: Thanks a lot, Jason.

Amelia: And yeah, fantastic effort, I think being put in by all your team, you know, in this situation.

Amelia: A couple of questions.

Amelia: Well, the first one was that I noticed that in the regional major event strategy, there's a new funding partner mentioned.

Amelia: Is that the well energy relationship or is it all right?

William: Great.

William: You said as well.

William: Energy.

Amelia: Yeah, I know.

Amelia: That's great.

Amelia: And the the other thing is for your reimagining, you know, the future of tourism, I saw that you had your stakeholders listed.

Amelia: I didn't see the Department of Conservation there.

Amelia: Not that they are a tourism operator, but most of our, you know, popular destinations, you know, I think a cathedral Cove, you know, they're actually managed by the department.

Amelia: And, and I just wonder if it'd be worthwhile trying to get them sort of around the table so that because I hear, you know, they worry about the pressure points that we were experiencing and that, you know, just having their input, you know, might be beneficial.

William: Yes, no, look, absolutely.

William: So you're sorry about that, Clear.

William: The Department of Conservation are part of that.

William: So it's actually a joint Tourism New Zealand and doc review of tourism and it's only because they, they both actually contributed to the national tourism Altior strategy.

William: So they're definitely part of it.

William: We don't obviously have a lot of any national parks, but we do still have a lot of Crown Estate and some of the Crown Estate in our region are obviously some of our our waterfalls and and lake areas.

William: So again and along our rivers, we just they will be engaging in that as well well because we did obviously have some opportunities with Doc originally before COVID sort of the developing short walks for the region under the Great Walks mantle.

William: So there's some projects that we now have brought forward again to say, can will Doc reconsider moving some of those for the domestic market?

Amelia: That sounds fantastic.

Amelia: Yeah, Well done.

Oliver: We have any other questions, Liz?

Amelia: Yeah, I guess just a huge thank you Jason to the support you have operators, you know, I've been affected a little myself and the and the calls that I get from your team are are very encouraging.

Amelia: It's very it's very certain.

Amelia: Just one of the things I just wanted to check in with you on and that's we do have a presentation a little bit later from manga territory.

Amelia: And I see you've also given them some support and that's really great.

Amelia: Who are reliant on a lot of the international visitors.

Amelia: And I guess it's lucky for us in some ways that there's not that many white power operators that are reliant on internationals among a town tree is probably one of them, perhaps our eyesight to to a certain degree in servicing international guests.

Amelia: But other than that, do you think that there are any other aspects of Wiper that are going to be greatly affected with internationals because it's really where the biggest, you know, issue is going to be?

William: It's mainly going to be the sports, the sports code.

William: So I think if we can try and get some of the international sporting events back up and running as soon as possible depending on travel restrictions, they would be the main and pick for Wiper.

William: But you are correct.

William: Look, pretty much most of our events which are great and our operators pretty much talk to the domestic market and I still feel that again look the White Country Expressway and some of the other work that potentially has been put forward for shovel ready, even extending the Expressway down to PAD that, that's just all going to help the ease of domestic travel.

William: And we definitely see the push from self drive.

William: Obviously the motorhome and caravan association, they are going to be another first leader and mover back into the region as well, which is fantastic.

William: So we're working with them and a a traveler around trying to get more people back into Y pass.

William: So I think again, your geographic location, your natural environment and also your event platforms hold you in a stronger position around obviously recovering compared to other parts of our region.

Oliver: Great.

Oliver: OK.

Oliver: Thanks very much for that.

Oliver: You've got, you've done an awful lot of work and you've got a lot more in front of you, I can see, but that's great.

Oliver: And if we've got no more queries, I'll we have a recommendation.

Oliver: Do we have a mover, please?

Oliver: Thanks, Marcus.

Oliver: Thanks, Claire.

Oliver: All in favour.

Oliver: Please say aye.

William: Aye.

Oliver: Contrary no carried.

Oliver: Thanks very much Jason.

Oliver: All the best.

Oliver: We are relying on you.

William: Thank you and thanks Sam.

William: Good work.

Oliver: Yes, I see we have Mark, sorry, Mark Morgan with us.

Oliver: Yep.

Oliver: And also Kelvin and Andrew are out there.

Oliver: We'll get to you guys before long.

Oliver: But Mark from CE Hamilton Airport, yeah, the floor of yours.

Oliver: And just like Jason, you've had a massive change for your business.

Oliver: So yeah, let's hear how you're going on.

Ava: Thanks, Andrew and thanks for the opportunity.

Ava: Welcome to all of the elected members.

Ava: Hopefully we've got a presentation coming up and that should be before you.

Ava: Now look today I've also got Scott Kendall, my Finance manager.

Ava: So Scott will deal with a couple of the finance slides and as most of what we have to talk to you about is in in the realms of finance, useful to have them here.

Ava: Perhaps not quite the presentation I had intended to present a month ago.

Ava: But as we know a lot has changed and a massive amount has changed for Rao in the in the last three or four weeks.

Ava: So the presentation is, is primarily and if we can say move to the next slide is primarily around the COVID-19 response for Rao.

Ava: But I thought and there's about 8 or 9 slides to key slides to take you through.

Ava: And I think what you'll see is how we've dealt with the crisis, what the implications have been for the group now and for the next 15 months.

Ava: And in a summary that sheds some, some positive light at the end of the tunnel and thanks Sam if we move on.

Ava: So I guess the first point I think is useful to you've obviously received our six month interim results.

Ava: Some say you're only as good as your last results, but sadly that's not the not quite the case today.

Ava: But look, we were travelling extremely well, very, very good first six months and in fact on target for a record of financial performance under any measure of our Soi for this, this financial year.

Ava: But of course and that led to our draft Soi that you've also received.

Ava: And that of course is now pretty much irrelevant.

Ava: And I see that you ironically have an appendix letter to my chair Barry Harris about about OSOY.

Ava: And as you can imagine, we are working very quickly towards a revised SOY for the next three years, particularly the financials.

Ava: But also there'll be some narrative change and some priority changing as well.

Ava: We have as to say completed a very detailed 15 month forecast through the 30 June next year.

Ava: That will form of course now part of the year one of the of the SOY.

Ava: So look we have a, we have a presentation, the rail board and myself has have a presentation to all shareholding councils in May and we by that stage will have finalised the new drafts.

Ava: So moving, sorry, moving on to the next slide.

Ava: So I think now just looking at the the impact and look very difficult to well, it's very easy to explain in simple terms, it's had a massive impact on the business.

Ava: But if I divided into these four areas that are before you, of course, the 1st is the aeronautical business in New Zealand complete as you know, suspension of flights.

Ava: So for us that was an immediate loss of income really from April.

Ava: But from the last week of March and along with our general aviation L3 Harris, the flight school basically, you know, 9798% loss of our aeronautical income overnight terminal closed and we're really operating as an emergency medical service only at the airport had the same impact on our on our property.

Ava: But in fact our property is our lifeline that I will come to.

Ava: But again, really overnight impact on our tenancies.

Ava: We're quite a large landlord as you know and but to date and Scott will talk a wee bit about this, but to date we've had good support from our tenants.

Ava: But we're early days as we know into the next sort of three to six months as businesses work through how they're going to operate and survived during this process.

Ava: We've obviously suspended the terminal upgrade work and I'll talk to that a bit further on which of course was a major piece of work, approximately $15 million of of proposed work.

Ava: The hotel has been, sorry, if we can just go back to the previous slide, Sam, the hotel impacted significantly as well.

Ava: Fortunately during April we have it was taken over by Ministry of Health as a isolation facility.

Ava: It wasn't required.

Ava: It was a backup to the Auckland hotels.

Ava: Nonetheless, we have received and we are receiving payment for the use of the hotel by the government, but that ends really this week and from then on at difficult times ahead and we'll talk about that.

Ava: And obviously our people, all my team are working remotely.

Ava: That's working very, very well.

Ava: My sort of 11 or 12 on our immediate COVID team response.

Ava: But of course, the cafe and store staff are are at home unable to work and part of the government subsidy.

Ava: Our rescue fire team does remain on site at this point.

Ava: So that's really been the impact.

Ava: What have we really tried to do about it?

Ava: If we could move to the next slide.

Ava: First of all, we, we very quickly leading into probably 2 weeks before we moved into Level 2 and Level 3 or before we even knew what that meant.

Ava: We had worked very closely with the board around a pandemic plan, how we would operate the business.

Ava: And more importantly, started to look at some scenario and modelling at that point that as Jason would have mentioned earlier on, as borders such as China were, were closing to tourism.

Ava: We also saw the writing on the ward on the on the wall for our own business.

Ava: So that plan was developed and approved by the Board before we even went into lockdown.

Ava: We've completed significant cost reductions in the business.

Ava: That's right across the business of it's major cost reductions in our expense lines, reductions pretty much across our business in terms of payroll, anything up to a 20% reduction.

Ava: And the Board have also taken a reduction in their director fees.

Ava: We applied for and received the government wage subsidy across the group and with the hotel we work through and are still working through with Jetpack, but they've gone through a full restructuring exercise.

Ava: Number of people have been made redundant and number have been retained under the Government subsidy.

Ava: But we have a meeting later this week with Jetpack to look at Stage 2, the airport association that we're part of us doing a major piece of work with central government to try and see what support, if any, there are 4 airport companies that have been significantly hit.

Ava: As you know, we are.

Ava: We are long term infrastructure owners and that requires significant capital to maintain the assets.

Ava: So there's a piece of work going on in that space.

Ava: We've already covered the people.

Ava: We can move to the next slide, the scenario modelling that I talk about there.

Ava: I think the point that I will that I will make here and come back to at the end is that most airport companies, particularly regional airport companies, are significantly hit and hit now.

Ava: We are fortunate that that we made the decision 5 or 6 years ago that the board then under under the leadership of John Spencer and then implemented by myself and my team.

Ava: We've we have as you know diversified the airport company and that is I guess bought us time.

Ava: So we have completed a very conservative model for argument's sake it it assumes no in New Zealand activity of any of any meaningful since before October this year, no.

Ava: And then only a recovery of about 40% of passenger numbers through 2021 calendar year and well into 2022 before we have a positive EBITDA really.

Ava: So what is, and we've also taken a very conservative view of our leases of our lessees, ability to pay us etcetera.

Ava: No activity out of the hotel really for the balance of this calendar year.

Ava: So very, very conservative but realistic modelling.

Ava: Fortunately we have a major land sale that is unconditional and very extremely good family, significant family multinational business that have agreed to further provide a letter of credit to the airport company, which gives me confidence to to build the road so to speak.

Ava: So that delivers about two and a half million dollars of of margin of free cash flow into the group early next year.

Ava: So the reality is that we can get through this year and through the June 21 almost a slightly positive cash position.

Ava: The balance sheets taken a bit of a hit and Scott will take you through that.

Ava: But and also we have some work going on on Central Precinct And again we have the ability hopefully to settle some unconditional land sales with the same degree of confidence around further sureties, which will also feed some additional cash into the group.

Ava: We've only utilized about 65% of our of our debt funding.

Ava: And in fact we have further facilities that we were intending to take anyway pre COVID And we will still take, which will take our funding up to about 30 million and then we will have only utilized not much more than 50% of that by June next year.

Ava: So most, most of the cash burn is is funded out of out of our overdraft during this.

Ava: And then the land sales kick back in and we're back in positive space being said very supportive and no, no issues there around funding.

Ava: Next slide please.

Ava: So we have joined with Hamilton City and and I have spoken to Gary Diet and others around the obviously the Crown infrastructure projects.

Ava: We have put forward 2 applications.

Ava: If you've had a chance to to review the submission, she might would be aware there are 23 projects we have submitted for the terminal redevelopment and also for an amalgam of a number of projects around the airport that deal with roading, lateral infrastructure, our wastewater plant and various other aspect that the gain is also worth about $11 million.

Ava: So we have put those in whether we're successful, who knows, but under the terminal redevelopment project, we're ready to go.

Ava: Tenders have been received and Emirate being evaluated the week of lockdown.

Ava: Our consent is in with what we're in with your council at the moment and that's well that was well underway.

Ava: So it is a shovel ready project.

Ava: We could be out of the ground and doing enabling works within a month of a funding line.

Ava: The key for myself and the board will be what are the tags that the government apply if we are successful to the funding mechanism, how much of it is is, is a loan, is a grant, etcetera, But that's underway and that's part of our recovery program.

Ava: So if we go to the next slide been important as we work through really the devastation of the past three or four weeks to make sure that we still keep our eye on the longer term for the group and now our focus over the next 12 months.

Ava: I won't spend any detailed time here other than to let you know that we have a a clear set of a clear business plan and a clear set of objectives for FY21.

Ava: Most of those remain in place.

Ava: We are reviewing them currently as a management team, but we are trying to make sure that we continue property as a major contributor.

Ava: And as you can see, they're potentially just shy of $8 million in land sales in the next 12 month operations.

Ava: We continue to maintain the runway.

Ava: Fortunately in our 10 year asset management plan, we have a very quiet, we've just spent close to $1,000,000 finishing in March of this year on some apron works and some pumps, some other bits and pieces.

Ava: But we have a very quiet capital expenditure for aeronautical over the next 12 to 18 months, which couldn't have come at a better time.

Ava: But we maintain the assets and you need to know that we that we that we will when it comes to we'll be working very closely with the New Zealand to try and obviously kick start services again.

Ava: And so our whole marketing and social media and Comm strategy will be around exactly that.

Ava: The hotel is a much more difficult beast as you would have gained from Jason's presentation.

Ava: But look, we we are working now closely with Jetpack to understand what a what a plan coming out the other side may look like.

Ava: Fortunately, it's a hotel that wasn't reliant on international tourism, but it is reliant on conferencing in particular.

Ava: And we, we're yet to understand the behaviour of the business community as we go forward in this new world.

Ava: So we have just almost spending close to 4 million on the hotel just prior to lockdown.

Ava: So it is a, it's a, it's a property that we're going to have to maintain in the meantime and fund and our conservative modelling does does mean that the group can fund its interests in the hotel semi for the next 18 months with limited activity from it.

Ava: And if we move now into the next slide, which is probably the financial, a couple of slides here on, on sort of financials and I'll let Scott lead in now.

Ava: My, my, our overarching comment here would be you had a lot of detail in the six month interim results.

Ava: So we decided there was no point in replicating information you will have read.

Ava: So Scott will summarize it here and more importantly, take you out the other side over the next couple of years.

James: All right.

James: Good afternoon, everyone and thanks Mark for the introduction.

James: Yeah, I won't dwell too much on the past because it's unfortunately to become largely irrelevant.

James: But I guess just some key takeaways in the slide and and what you may have read already an interim report.

James: But it's really that momentum we've built in the past couple of years around a sustainable, so recurring revenue base through passenger growth in the airport business, through our property portfolio that it continued really well for the first half of the year.

James: And you know, obviously without COVID-19, we expect it to continue through the full year and beyond.

James: Yeah, just some points around property, obviously talking some big numbers around land sales.

James: I guess they are land sales that have been contemplated under A10 year plan, land sales in the pipeline.

James: It's not something that we've done as a knee jerk reaction or sort of a fire sale type arrangement just to get some cash for the next couple of years.

James: These are the land we're selling is sort of surplus to your Oracle requirements.

James: In fact much of it's actually physically separated from the airport through a gallery system.

James: So we're not compromising any core assets sort of future capability by selling this land very much as land that surplus to the airport.

James: So it's why it's being sold off time.

James: It has been, yes, just with the hotel, obviously it is a new investment for us, a new industry we've invested in.

James: I'm really pleased with the early trading performance, Yeah, and probably pleasing that we didn't other than the initial money to do the property up, attend to some deferred maintenance and things.

James: It's actually traded cash flow positive has not been profitable with depreciation and things, but that we're actually able to repay some debt.

James: And you know, the early vital signs of an occupancy in room rate have been have been certainly in line with expectation.

James: And again, kind of right up until February, March, it was really just coming into a stride around the conference centre and the food and beverage offerings.

James: So yeah, I think you know it was, yeah, it was looking really positive and hopefully at the other side that's the momentum we can we can leverage off again.

James: So probably just look look to the future now and just move to the next slide please.

James: So I've given here just sort of in six months increments the remainder of the financial year, also the financial year that we're in and then the following three that are presented and the draft statement of the team you've received.

James: I think important to focus on EBITDA because it's sort of a cash flow metric for us that includes land sales, but it excludes of course cost like depreciation, which is around $3,000,000 a year for us, which in the short term is not necessarily linear with the with the investment we make into assets.

James: So seeing obviously seeing a reasonably significant decline in the in the next in this calendar year with across the business certainly going to suffer.

James: And that's as we see in that sort of early six months between December 20 and June next year.

James: That's the effect of this large land sale taking effect.

James: And then as the business kind of gets back on its feet, you can see it's slightly back to cash flow positive.

James: So I guess you want to compare the red, the red and the blue, the blue bars and red line and the green line is sort of where we think we're going to head now.

James: So you can see it differently.

James: The next sort of 15 to 18 months is going to be a bit painful, but after that, very much backed on our fate and not becoming heavily reliant on our land sales, certainly out past the next 18 months.

James: So we've only seen what's already under contract and what's unconditional will settle in those numbers.

James: So I think that's the conservative, but realistic and conservative, conservative on both fronts.

James: Certainly the costs we're looking to remove out of the business aren't anything that's going to compromise us long term.

James: We're not giving up capability, but either we've built or we've managed to hang on to for as long as we have.

James: I think there's some, yeah, definitely conservative and and look at things don't play out the way we see them doing and certainly not as positive as they might do this some opportunities if further.

James: But for now it's this sort of as realistic that we can preserve our current capability anyway.

James: Yeah.

James: I guess just to overlay the net profit slide, yeah, there's a lot more probably the, the deficits are bigger largely because of the effective depreciation.

James: But ultimately following a fairly similar trend to the cash flow that land sales over the next 18 months will get us cash flow positive.

James: And we expect by the end of business to be largely cash flow positive from its recurring trading to be sustainable.

James: And yeah, that that's probably I guess the main take away there and it's not really built into the slides.

James: But just as Mark talked about the effect on the balance sheet, look, we expect that there will be some impact.

James: So a balance sheet around property values and those sort of equity movements.

James: So as a shareholder that obviously will impact your accounts as well.

James: But I guess out of this as a as a shareholder in a in a non financial sense, out of all of this, we're preserving our core capability, we're not compromising any of our aeronautical capability.

James: So I think, yeah, in terms of what the service will keep delivering that shouldn't be compromised or at least our ability to do it.

James: That was really all I had just a view of the financials.

James: So might be passed back to Mark to wrap up.

Ava: This is the last slide.

Ava: My apologies.

Ava: We've taken a bit of your time.

Ava: But look, I think the key themes here really are as I opened up, we, we, we, we hit this situation in a very strong position and in a very strong balance sheet, a record year.

Ava: The foresight of the diversification through a 10 year group strategy has I think really bought this company time perhaps unlike some other regional airports that I think will need to go to their shareholders very quickly for additional funding or through their through their bank funding lines.

Ava: We don't need to that non revenue has been absolutely critical to to and in fact ironically we never predicted a COVID-19 scenario, but we did predict a loss of aeronautical income through cessation of services or reduced services.

Ava: So has been one on the same.

Ava: And look, overall the, the recovery as Scott has mentioned will be modest but sustainable.

Ava: And as I want to keep restating, we won't need to go to our core debt at this stage or funding lines to, to, to, to fund this.

Ava: We can fund it out of, out of in effect the working capital.

Ava: And most importantly, I think for you as the shareholders, there is no requirement for the Board to come to its shareholders for support.

Ava: And we don't see a scenario at all that that requires the shareholders to assist the airport company in the foreseeable future.

Ava: So that's it from me.

Ava: Sorry, Andrew.

Ava: I apologize if we're over time, but happy to take questions if you've got time.

Oliver: Yeah.

Oliver: No thanks guys.

Oliver: I think we were aware that a bit of extra time was going to be required for you guys with such a massive impact.

Oliver: I just got a quick question about the flight school.

Oliver: When would they not get back to level 1?

Oliver: Or possibly could they operate at level 2?

Ava: Well, in fact, Scott's just had some advice today.

Ava: It could well be that the pilots that are, that are well through their qualification will be able to start flying under Level 3.

Ava: So as soon as next week, we could see some flight activity.

Ava: But it will be to your point Andrew, down at Level 1, probably there'll be the social distancing issues when you have an instructor and a trainee pilot on board.

Ava: So I think we're, we still are unclear and so are L3AS to when that will be.

Ava: I think it's worth noting that we don't quite know where we're going to go with L3 in the sense that they've got 100 about 180 pilots currently at the airport in in Hamilton or out of the accommodation at at the airport.

Ava: So I think we're fine, They're fine for the next few months.

Ava: The question is how whether they're going to be the logistics of moving pilots across borders for training and actually pilots there is not a dear for pilots in the global marketplace as a result of the catastrophe, catastrophe for the airlines.

Ava: So I think those two would suggest to us that we've got difficult times ahead, place the end of 2020 with L3.

Oliver: Yeah, that makes sense.

Oliver: Yeah, I think it's as you've both noted, the stage that you're at with your property development has been a very fortunate thing.

Oliver: If this had occurred at the at the beginning of that, it would have been far more financially destructive.

Oliver: But does anyone else have any queries OK, that not been case.

Oliver: Look, thank you very much a really comprehensive update and great to see you recovered from the shock and being really positive and and constructive going forward.

Oliver: So thanks very much to you both.

James: Thank you everyone.

Jack: Thank you.

Oliver: Cheers.

Oliver: And I see we have Kelvin.

Oliver: Sorry, what was that?

Oliver: OK.

Oliver: So we've got Kelvin and also is Peter available?

Charlie: Yes, I am.

Oliver: Oh, great.

Oliver: So thanks, Kelvin and Peter, and we'll let you get onto the shared services.

Charlie: Thanks, Mr.

Charlie: Chairman, and thanks for the opportunity to speak with you this afternoon.

Charlie: You've been provided with a copy of the company's statement of intent and half yearly report to 31 December 2019.

Charlie: And I, I, I'm conscious of the fact this is the first opportunity I've had is the newish chair of the last to talk to you.

Charlie: So I wanted to start by just briefly introducing myself and then I wanted to talk a little bit about the company's transformation role, how we're going to do things differently, what it means for your counsel.

Charlie: And then I want to conclude with some remarks about COVID-19.

Charlie: But I guess the key point is that certainly from the Board of Lasses perspective, the organization has never been more relevant than it will be in a post COVID-19 recovery period.

Charlie: So the first point I wanted to make is that my family has been heavily invested in the white cattle for a very long time.

Charlie: My mother's family came to this region in 1865, my father's family came to this region in 1880s and all my family live in the region.

Charlie: My mum lives in Horaki District, my sister lives in Thames Coromandel, I have another sister in in Hamilton, a brother in Waipa district and after 44 years Angie and I are leaving Auckland next week and moving to Cambridge.

Charlie: So we very much look forward to becoming Waipa District Council right payers this from 1st of May.

Charlie: So as you can see, my family's been heavily invested in the, in the success of the region and it's one of the reasons I took the job that the other reason is the clarity of the opportunity.

Charlie: And, and I've spent 21 years in local government governance across multiple CC OS and, and clarity of role is actually quite unusual in in this case, the company's vision is to have white cattle councils working together in the best way possible for the collective benefit of them and their communities, which means less burden on rate payers, happier communities and council staff and more effective councils.

Charlie: So as we, as we've set out in our statement of intent, the organization really exists to do three things.

Charlie: First of all, to create effectiveness and efficiency gains for shareholders such as you.

Charlie: Secondly, to help increase the influence of the region.

Charlie: And thirdly, to help shareholders provide a better customer experience.

Charlie: What LESS does is provide an opportunity to think regionally without boundaries and to then help councils use that thing locally to improve the well-being of the community.

Charlie: So thinking regionally means that rather than individual councils trying to solve their problems individually, LESS can help them work them out with the cost of that spread while still allowing local choices to whether to implement solutions locally.

Charlie: I think that it's fair.

Charlie: The same observation would be that over the years of its existence, the organization's done a good job.

Charlie: But I think one of the reasons that I've been hired is that there was an opportunity seen to be able to really grasp the company's potential.

Charlie: So when I was high, the board said that it wanted to undertake a number of transformative projects at pace.

Charlie: And for that reason we are going to and are driving the organization harder and faster.

Charlie: And earlier this year, the board committed to do just that.

Charlie: We are looking to be bolder, more disruptive to enable you to help you transform how you and other Waikato councils operate.

Charlie: We also won't be afraid of of failing.

Charlie: And by that I mean recognizing there are opportunities worth pursuing as long as we do it fast.

Charlie: Coming from the private sector, having spent 35 years in the private sector, my observation would be that there's nothing wrong with failure so long as you fail fast and fail cheap.

Charlie: So within that in mind and looking ahead over the next 18 months, there are really 3 core elements to what we're doing.

Charlie: There are some key strategic projects which we'll be looking to advance as fast as possible.

Charlie: And you'll see those projects in the statement of intent.

Charlie: There are some business as usual projects.

Charlie: And in addition, I've asked for a re examination of some of the work that we're doing to see whether we should stop doing it.

Charlie: As you'll appreciate it, it's really fundamental to perceptions of success of an organization that they seem to be making progress month by month.

Charlie: So one of the things we've done is introduced a lot more careful tracking about what it is that we're doing and whether we're being successful.

Charlie: And we're looking to improve the communications to key council staff as well.

Charlie: I've said to my board colleagues, and you'll be aware, I'm sure that the that everyone that sits around the last board, with the exception of me as a chief executive of one of the member councils, I've said to my board colleagues that they are really the difference between less succeeding and failing that.

Charlie: And the reason for that is that they are the ones who will dictate the resourcing and prioritization and cooperation, which is accorded to less projects.

Charlie: And I've made the point pretty clearly that without their total commitment, the organization will fail.

Charlie: But equally their success, lesser success will be their success and vice versa.

Charlie: So turning now to to what it means for your counsel, think three things.

Charlie: First of all, you should consider this organization is an extension of your vision of building the future together to promote the well-being of Waipar District and its people.

Charlie: We've both got a role to play in providing solutions to the high growth region of the White Cuttle.

Charlie: We both recognize the need to do more with less to drive cost out of local councils.

Charlie: We both want to ensure that nationally the White Cuttle region punches above its weight by showing that the region can provide can provide joined up services across the region.

Charlie: And we both want to improve the well-being of the community.

Charlie: Indeed, it's in your vision.

Charlie: Secondly, as an organization, as I've said before, we're not limited by boundaries.

Charlie: We're tasked with thinking regionally to enable you to act better locally.

Charlie: And I think the opportunities to work with you and your companion counsels to achieve your aspirations are boundless, regardless, and possibly even more because of COVID-19.

Charlie: Thirdly, obviously by necessity we need resource to achieve our outcomes and you'll see that some of the initiatives that we've proposed in the statement of intent will require some upfront investment in order to achieve some mid to long term savings.

Charlie: Now I said I would finish with a few words on coronavirus.

Charlie: It won't surprise you to know that as a board, we've discussed very early on whether we should make any substantive changes to our work program to reflect what will be a new reality.

Charlie: What we concluded indeed was that in fact we should keep doing what we're doing because it's going to be even more important.

Charlie: Moreover, it's going to help rebuild the region and increase resilience.

Charlie: Our view is that in a post COVID-19.

Charlie: During the recovery period there'll be need in the region for at least the following three things.

Charlie: First, security of public works to enable the private sector to plan long range and I think importantly commit to training and for the staff to commit the stay in the region.

Charlie: Secondly, a demonstration of restraint by public bodies on what might be perceived as non essential spending, in other words doing more with less.

Charlie: And thirdly, motivation and encouragement and development of current council staff.

Charlie: Now we're planning to deliver all of those already through our work program as set out in the statement of intent.

Charlie: So thank you for the opportunity to talk to you.

Charlie: I, I obviously wish that I could have spoken with you in person, but no doubt that'll opportunity will arise some sometime shortly in the future.

Charlie: Calvin and I are more than happy to take any questions, Mr.

Charlie: Chair, but I wondered, Calvin, if there is any additional points that that you wanted to make.

Evelyn: All right.

Evelyn: Well covered, Peter.

Evelyn: Thank you.

Oliver: OK, thanks very much for that.

Oliver: Yeah, as as you mentioned less has been active in our in our well between our councils for a number of years now and and been very successful particularly with rather the the roading accord.

Oliver: But what's happening now is an absolute step change and I totally agree with what you said about it being more important post COVID rather than less.

Oliver: So yeah, I wish you were a success.

Oliver: Of course, now questions, I think clear, yes.

Amelia: Yeah, yeah.

Amelia: Thanks, Andrew, and great to meet you via Zoom, Peter.

Amelia: And it's good to see you too, Calvin.

Amelia: I did send through some questions, but 22 ones that I'd just like to ask in this forum.

Amelia: The first one is that you know, you've made a strong case for continuing how you're going at the moment.

Amelia: You know that all those things that you're focusing on will be more important than ever when we're dealing in the post COVID era, I guess.

Amelia: But a lot of the things that that are done rely on the, I suppose, the goodwill of councils and releasing resources for from their business to work on less stuff.

Amelia: And I, I can foresee that councils are actually going to be pretty hard pressed with their own own staffing resources dealing with, you know, extra things that have come out of the woodwork to do with COVID-19.

Amelia: And So what assurance can you give us that that you won't sort of find yourself high and dry that, that you can't get the sort of resource that you do need, you know, from the individual councils that have normally been really supportive because, you know, the, the staff are just completely committed, you know, to this other work.

Charlie: Calvin, would you mind if I answer that question 1st and then sure, maybe there's a few additional points you want to make.

Charlie: I think, Councillor, thank you.

Charlie: That's a, that's a great question.

Charlie: The good news is we had, I'm happy to say, thought of that as well.

Charlie: And one of the earliest things that we did well before lockdown was when we could see this thing coming, was to reach out to councils to ask them to think about whether in the context of any redeployment of assets and and people that they were doing, whether there were going to be some people that might in fact be freed up to be able to work on some of our projects to make them go faster.

Charlie: And I was pleasantly surprised, particularly from some of the smaller councils, to be honest about the positive response that we got in terms of offering up staff.

Charlie: That's the first point.

Charlie: The second point is that more specifically, Calvin's been in touch with the chief executives of all of the councils, I think as recently as yesterday, Calvin, where we've set out some specific skill sets that we're looking for in order to be able to advance some of our strategic projects.

Charlie: So as I say, great question, surprisingly positive response from the from the councils that we've reached out to.

Charlie: But you're absolutely right, the resourcing issue may even flow over time and it's something we're acutely conscious of.

Charlie: Calvin, did you have any points to add?

Evelyn: Look, I I think that sort of covers it all off Peter, to be honest.

Evelyn: Goodbye.

Evelyn: Well.

Amelia: Well, that's really encouraging, actually.

Amelia: It's good to keep excuse me, it's good to get that clarification.

Amelia: That's great.

Amelia: Now the question I had was about the energy and carbon management that's mentioned in the Soi here.

Amelia: I wasn't sure whether that is the carbon audit that our counsellors sort of before the last election we that was one of the directions that we gave staff that we wanted to get something organized in that which would help us I suppose formulate a plan, you know, for climate change.

Amelia: And that and is the energy management that's mentioned that that that last does is, is that fitting into that, that that audit or or not?

William: So look the.

Evelyn: The the short answer is Councillor that no, it's well it's certainly not the audit that you were referring to.

Evelyn: I don't see any particular reason why the people that we use to that we engage to provide that support to councils could not help with that order if that was something that the Wipe our executive team were were interested in doing.

Evelyn: But I'm not actually Privy to the particular, the status of the particular piece of work that you're referring to.

Evelyn: I know that Martin Lynch, who's one of the guys that tends to work with Wipe our District Council, has been doing some bespoke work in this area, but I'm not sure whether it's specifically relates to that report that you're referring to.

Amelia: OK.

Amelia: Oh, well, thanks.

Amelia: Thanks for the clarification.

Oliver: OK.

Oliver: Any more questions?

Oliver: No, OK.

Oliver: Well, hey, thank you very much for for that presentation.

Oliver: And yeah, particularly now in a in a period of significant change that's really, you know, great to see the positivity we have going forward even in with the with the weird will we have around us at the moment.

Oliver: So yeah, thanks Peter Kelvin very much.

Charlie: Thank you very much, Mr.

Charlie: ******.

Oliver: Yes.

Oliver: And I see Andrew Michael is available and will talk to us about the LGFA.

Jack: Thank you for the opportunity.

Jack: I'll just maybe make a few brief comments and then touch on the current environment and then leave some time for for questions.

Jack: So LGFA started in 2012.

Jack: It currently has 67 member councils with the number of others in the process of joining.

Jack: And the current environment is probably just, you know, even for the councils that don't have any debt, they realise that, you know, having access to finance is important.

Jack: So it's sort of probably speeding up, you know, their their timetable for joining LGFA is based on similar models in the Scandinavian countries.

Jack: The longest of those is in Denmark.

Jack: That's been going for 130 years now.

Jack: So what LGFA wants is to be a very long term provider of financing to the local authority sector.

Jack: The objectives are interest savings on council's debt to provide a range of borrowing options.

Jack: So short term and longer term financing and probably the most important one is access to debt markets and that's been the area that's PEC's been the most challenging thing over the past couple of months.

Jack: In terms of the financials, the profit for the year to June 2020, which was forecast to be 10 million is on tracks or even ran the part numbers for for April yesterday.

Jack: And again the the monthly profit is on track.

Jack: A lot of the forecasting that's in the draft Soi is just out of date.

Jack: It's just been superseded by the events that we've seen the last few months.

Jack: But that said, just remember that LGFA has $10 billion of lending to the sector.

Jack: So we borrowed from investors and on lender and every time we do, we take a small margin.

Jack: So the profit really on all that lending is locked in until those loans are mature.

Jack: So even though there may well be some variability in profit, a lot of it is, is is locked in.

Jack: That said, the profitability probably shouldn't be your your primary concern.

Jack: It is where councils get the savings as the savings on their interest costs and certainty around accessing of of finance.

Jack: So that's probably the the key thing, the current environment interest rates are low.

Jack: So maybe that's one little bit of good news for for councils.

Jack: So short term interest rates, councils like yourself can borrow below 1%.

Jack: Now longer term, we just completed a $1 billion debt issue just over a week ago.

Jack: So we borrowed for six years and we borrowed at 1.46% for a billion dollars.

Jack: So we will add on 20 points to councils or 25 points to Y power.

Jack: I think it is.

Jack: So you'd be accessing longer term money, six year money at around 1.7% just to give you some idea of a borrowing costs.

Jack: So that's, you know, one bit of good news.

Jack: Probably two or three weeks ago we were receiving record borrowing requests from councils.

Jack: So there's a lot of councils knowing that maybe you know, fee income is dropping and they needed to get more money in to to cover that.

Jack: So we've never had a much, we've had a higher amount of borrowing costs.

Jack: LGFA was the first count, first non government entity, well entity other than the government to issue in New Zealand since the level 4 lockdown was imposed.

Jack: For a while investors were very reluctant to invest.

Jack: It's just, you know, they're worried even if we buy it, we won't be able to sell things and there's just that whole risk aversion.

Jack: But we had two developments, 1 was LGFA have a $1 billion standby facility from the New Zealand government that expires next year.

Jack: But the Minister of Finance provided a letter to LGFA saying that the government would roll that over for a further period of time.

Jack: So that support from the government was just a, it's really symbolic to investors that there's going to be their ongoing support from the government for LGFA.

Jack: The second thing that occurred as the Reserve Bank announced that they were going to buy back government bonds.

Jack: Subsequent to that, they added LGFA to the list of securities that they're able to buy.

Jack: So they signalled that buy back up to $3 billion of LGFA bonds from investors.

Jack: And it was that that really gave the confidence to investors that if we buy them, there's actually going to be another huge buyer in the market for that.

Jack: So again, you know, the level of support that we're getting from the government has been extremely important.

Jack: There's going to be significant challenges for councils, particularly in the 2021.

Jack: So the financial year part of the working group that DIA are running looking at doing a lot of modelling on council financial performance this well for the remainder of this year and and next year.

Jack: And that's feeding into a lot of the other governments sort of work streams such as the recovery sort of work stream.

Jack: So there's some quite sobering reading come out of that for YPA.

Jack: You're probably well positioned in terms of your debt levels not high relative to some of the other higher growth councils in in New Zealand.

Jack: So yeah, there are a lot of challenges and that's probably one of the challenges for us is that potentially we're going to get breaches of the financial covenants in the next financial year, not not this financial year.

Jack: So today we've never had a breach of the any of the financial covenants.

Jack: But you know, if revenue falls significantly for councils with a large amount of debt to start with, then they could well breach that net debt to to revenue covenant.

Jack: So that's something we'll have to deal with.

Jack: But for those growth councils, you know, one of the last tools I've really got is, you know, having to cut their CapEx.

Jack: And again, that's not particularly conducive to starting growth in the economy and is working against a little bit about what the government wants to achieve.

Jack: So I'd just like to, you know, we appreciate that there's no compulsion for councils to use LGFA.

Jack: You're still free to borrow from any other sources that you want.

Jack: So I'd just like to acknowledge Ken and his team because Wiper was one of the early supporters of LGFA.

Jack: We very much value your support of us and, you know, the professional relationship that we have.

Jack: Thanks, Andrew.

Oliver: I, I, I think yeah, almost goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway.

Oliver: LGGFA has been another great contributor to the local government seen generally and certainly, well, I guess Wiper hasn't used your services that greatly.

Oliver: We certainly intend to in the future, possibly even more with COVID, possibly not.

Oliver: We we don't know yet, do we can?

Harry: Yeah, that's, that's true.

Harry: We we don't know, but yeah, but very comforted by that, by that 1.7% number, Andrew, It's yeah, that is, that is very well priced borrowing ability.

Oliver: I like the one that was below 1% even better.

Oliver: But yeah, short term possibly isn't us that much.

Oliver: No thanks, Andrew.

Oliver: Does anyone else have any questions, Bruce?

Oliver: And then clear.

Oliver: You're still muted, Bruce.

Oliver: Press the spacebar.

Oliver: There we go.

Oliver: No, no, you need to keep pressing it mate.

Oscar: Hold it.

Oscar: Oh OK, I'm learning.

Oscar: I've changed machines.

Oscar: 1 doesn't work so one's in the bin soon.

Oscar: Andrew, just on page 33 share capital, I noticed White Pass got 200,000 shares at .4%.

Oscar: Just a simple 1 Marble district have got double ours but a 9.9 of a percent.

Oscar: Could you explain that?

Jack: Yes, the shareholding is just something sort of historical.

Jack: So when LDFA was started, it needed 25,000,000 of equity.

Jack: So there was I think 9 or 10 councils that were the initial subscribers and then they on sold some of the issues to a second group of councils that came in as shareholders.

Jack: So LGFA pay a small dividend to councils on their shareholder that is 2% over our cost to funds, but our cost to funds might only be like 1 1/2 percent at the moment.

Jack: So on $100,000 of shares, you're only going to be getting like a three or $4000 dividend.

Jack: So that is really not material.

Jack: So the level of equity you have is really not that important.

Jack: It is the savings that you get on your borrowing costs that are going to be the big, you know, drivers of why, you know, councils should be members of LGFA.

Jack: So it really doesn't give you a lot of advantage over, you know, a council that is a non shareholder because again, they're still getting the same borrowing benefits that you are.

Jack: It's just simply a fact.

Jack: We needed some councils to put in some equity to get the thing off off the ground.

Jack: So again, you know, we're grateful for the councils that did that.

Oscar: I think you're just interested of doubling a figure and being in ordinary terms of thinking, well, how, how did you get to that?

Oscar: So no, thank you.

Oliver: I just, I just worked it out for you, Bruce.

Oliver: It's, it's a rounding thing.

Oliver: It's we've actually got .444 of a percent and when you double that you get .88.

Oliver: So it's just rounding up and down.

Oscar: Thank you, Mr.

Oscar: Chair, You are so knowledgeable.

Oliver: Clear.

Amelia: Yeah, thanks.

Amelia: The question I had is about LGFA saying one of the principles is that they'll demonstrate social and environmental responsibility.

Amelia: And one question that I've been asking in the past is will LGFA consider introducing something like green financing or environmental bonds?

Amelia: You know, like the Productivity Commission did a report to a low emissions economy, you know, a couple of years ago they highlighted that actually there's a bit of a gap in New Zealand with this kind of financing where councils could borrow for a project that would be, you know, reducing emissions or for environmental outcomes.

Amelia: And usually it's sort of a slight margin lease or something just to say it's a good thing to be doing and we want to encourage councils.

Amelia: Do you think LGFA would do that or were you talking to government about that?

Jack: I thank you for that question.

Jack: It is.

Jack: The whole environmental issues have been pushed a little bit to the back at the moment because of everything that's going on.

Jack: But LGFA has done a significant amount of work on that and we are intending to offer green financing to councils.

Jack: So remembering that it's not LGFA that is doing things with the money, we're just on lending us.

Jack: So we still sit in the middle.

Jack: We've actually got all the documents up and ready to go, but the issue is we're going to need councils to identify green projects.

Jack: But then also there's three categories.

Jack: So there's green, social and sustainable.

Jack: So for example, a lot of the water things actually come under sustainable.

Jack: So there's a whole industry around it and it involves identifying things and also there's a certification process involved on that.

Jack: So I could probably speak to you for a day on this topic because it is, if you see the documents say, you know, it must be like 100 pages long and we've got all that ready to go.

Jack: So it is all happening.

Jack: But it will be, it's not going to be compulsory.

Jack: It will be up to each council as to, to how they use that.

Jack: But green investing is a big theme globally, probably particularly in Europe, probably less so in in the US, but certainly it does give you better access to to debt markets if you can, your green framework.

Amelia: Well, I'm thrilled to hear that you're working on it.

Amelia: I actually think you should report on it to say that you're actually preparing or or, you know, working on a proposal because I think a lot of people would be looking for that.

Amelia: And yeah, just say, well, congratulations.

Amelia: I think it's great that you've, you've made, yes, some, I suppose some groundwork progress and we look forward to seeing you when you can actually make an announcement.

Jack: Yeah, we did flat.

Jack: We have a council day each year sort of in July and we did flag that it was something we intend to do.

Jack: So we would you know give the update again this year.

Jack: But it is something that's definitely happening and we're more than happy to come and speak to you if you want to have, you know more in depth discussion about about that side of the business.

Oliver: Yeah, thank you.

Oliver: Thanks.

Oliver: Any other questions for Andrew?

Oliver: No.

Oliver: OK.

Oliver: That being the case, thank you very much for zooming with us.

Oliver: And yeah, always good.

Oliver: Might see you in first one of these days.

Jack: Yeah, no pleasure.

Jack: OK.

Jack: Thanks very much.

Oliver: Cheers.

Oliver: OK, well, thanks for that everybody.

Oliver: We have a recommendation that runs from A to G I'm not even going to attempt to read them all out.

Oliver: So I'm sure you Ken, yeah.

Harry: Sorry, Andrew, probably the thing we just need to turn our attention to because because obviously a key part of that, that series of recommendations is, is the three letters that are in, in the Appendices Appendix, Appendix 4-5 and six.

Harry: So, so I do just wonder whether just before you before you put the recommendation we've it is just with just seeking any, any input into those, those 3 letters because obviously when we you know when, when you actually do put the recommendation you, you will be essentially knocking in those letters.

Oliver: Yeah, thanks for that, Ken.

Oliver: You're, you're very right.

Oliver: I did think of that.

Oliver: I've read through them and I, I, I felt they seemed pretty appropriate as they are because particularly with cast my mind back now, particularly with the airport, we acknowledged that there was going to be a major revision in the, in the Soi.

Oliver: But yeah, is there anyone, does anyone have any thoughts on a on a note?

Oliver: All good.

Oliver: Thanks for that, Ken, but I think we're all good.

Oliver: So could I have a mover please?

Oliver: Thank you Bruce and a seconder.

Oliver: Thanks Lou.

Oliver: Cheers all in favour all.

Oscar: Right.

Oliver: Contrary, no, it's carried.

Oliver: OK, moving on to item number 9 and I see Nada's there.

Oliver: Ken, did you want to introduce or?

Harry: No, look, I'm, I'm very happy to leave this to, to nada to, to take us through the, the financial report.

Harry: Yeah, I, I, I guess the only thing of significance and, and again, there is a health warning there a little bit like like the full monthly report that you saw at the last council meeting.

Harry: Obviously anything in the in the forecast column is yeah, is, is obviously outdated by the, by the COVID events.

Harry: So, yeah.

Harry: So a huge effort has gone on right across some cross council in the last in the last two or three weeks to yeah, to re forecast and you should see the results of that re forecast and you should have a obviously a quite a different forecast column in the next financial report you see.

Harry: But yeah, but look, let's see them.

Harry: Happy for NADA to take us through the report.

Oliver: Thanks very much.

Charlotte: Thanks, Ken.

Charlotte: Good afternoon, everyone.

Charlotte: So at the currently standing at the end of March, the total income is currently at 74% of the forecast and the operating expenditure is at 72% of the full year forecast.

Charlotte: We have vested assets of 11.8 million recognised to date and that's currently 94% of the forecast.

Charlotte: Discovered assets is 402,000.

Charlotte: Development and reserve contributions of 4.4 million have been received to date and subsidies and grants are at 47% of the forecast.

Charlotte: We have capital expenditure to date of 71.3 million which is 51% of the forecast and there have been no major budget changes this month due to re forecasting happening now.

Charlotte: There was one arbitrage arrangement made on the 12th of March that utilized $6 million of short term fixed borrowings and it was on match terms maturing in June and will yield approximately 13,000 of net interest.

Charlotte: The rates we have the 62.1 million that's been set for the year prior years outstanding at this time was 62,000 and we have currently 464,000 outstanding to date.

Charlotte: And then I'll take the rest of the report as being read and if anyone's got any questions.

Oliver: OK, any questions?

Oliver: Not a big change really to the what we have presented the Council meeting, so yeah.

Charlotte: Pretty much.

Oliver: Thanks for that.

Oliver: Nada, that's great.

Oliver: And there being no questions, I'll ask for a movement for the recommendation.

Oliver: Thank you, Roger, and a seconder to.

Amelia: 2nd.

Oliver: Thanks, Claire.

Oliver: Oh, thanks Claire.

Oliver: I'll catch you next time, Philip.

Oliver: All in favour.

William: Hi.

Oliver: Hi, contrary.

Oliver: No, it's carried.

Oliver: Thank you very much and thanks, Nada.

Oliver: And we'll move on to item 10, Health and Safety team.

Oliver: What?

Harry: Should I say?

Harry: Oh, yeah, look, I think I'm is she is Steve.

Harry: Yes, Steve is still there.

Harry: So yeah, this is absolutely young Steve Shaw's baby and in fact, Beavers Beev as well, who has joined us.

Harry: So yeah, I'll head over to Stephen Beev.

Oliver: Great welcome, Stephen Bev.

Archie: Hey, guys.

Oliver: Another good news story.

Oliver: We need some of them.

Archie: Steve, do you want to start off?

Oliver: Oh no.

Archie: Yeah.

Oliver: Yeah, all yours.

Archie: All mine.

Archie: OK.

Archie: So I take it that you guys have have read the report and the attachments to this.

Archie: I do see that there are a couple of questions from Clear, but is there any anything else that you guys would like to ask before I get to those questions from Clear?

Oliver: Looks like the floor.

Oliver: Is yours clear?

Oliver: A couple of questions.

Amelia: Yeah, well, I mean the first one was that there were four the council entrance ways with the the location of a number of accidents.

Amelia: So if you looked into those entrance ways, is there something to do with the entrance ways like yeah, beef you 123 not do what?

Amelia: Oh.

Archie: There, there.

Archie: Yeah, there were.

Archie: There were just the two trips and and entrance ways and we did get property to have a look and there wasn't anything of significance that we found one.

Leo: 2/3.

Archie: Can you hear, can you guys hear me now?

Archie: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Archie: So we didn't find anything of significance of why they tripped.

Archie: The only thing we it was sort of at the lip where the doors kind of closed it and this is at Cambridge.

Archie: So I did probably did have a look at those, but we couldn't find anything that would have caused those trips and we haven't had any reported since.

Archie: So it may have been just one of those things, but we are continuing to monitor anyway.

Amelia: Yeah, yeah, I know.

Amelia: That's what I mean.

Amelia: It would just be our luck that, you know, our facilities are causing, causing a year a problem for people that are coming into this.

Amelia: Yeah.

Amelia: Yeah.

Amelia: So I just thought you'd have to know a bit more about that.

Amelia: Yeah.

Amelia: OK.

Leo: Can you hear me?

Oliver: Yes, yes.

Leo: Wonderful.

Leo: I'm so sorry I lost my my voice there for a minute.

Leo: So clear.

Leo: I understood you had another question as well and that was regarding what ways we have to keep track of how health and safety resources and processes are being utilized.

Leo: Yeah, that's a really good question.

Leo: Perhaps if I if you go to the the A3 or the big report on a page above the health and safety due diligence plan monitoring, above that is the health and safety lead indicators.

Leo: Now these lead indicators are basically the resources and the contractors that we use and so essentially what we pay for and that's how we monitor and provide to you the details and what we're spending our health and safety budget on.

Leo: We do have a very small health and safety budget obviously, but it what does health and safety lead indicators shows you is that we, we pay an ongoing fee to the White cattle occupational health Consultancy who deliver our health monitoring services.

Leo: We also provide money to the EAP service which is so provides I guess counselling services to all of our staff.

Leo: We also have training, health and safety training.

Leo: So we have set aside 27,000 for health and safety training in an annual year.

Leo: And that's, that obviously is first aid refreshes and by health and safety committee training as well as any investigation training which we are looking at at the moment.

Leo: And our our regular conflict training, which is obviously comes out of that budget as well.

Leo: And these are all reported through these reporting mechanisms to yourselves and also to the executive team.

Leo: So I guess that's one of our our due diligence and how we show that we are utilizing external resources and finances appropriately.

Amelia: Oh, no, that, that's a great explanation and I can see how it all fits together.

Amelia: I guess I was wondering about how you knew if just individual staff members were actually, you know, knowledgeable about health and safety practices or if they were starting a new task or something that they, they, they did actually get the right briefing and stuff like that.

Amelia: Like are you confident that that kind of sort of more grassroots of those processes are working well as well?

Leo: I think be feel free to jump in here, but I'm actually very confident because we have some very good well educated health and safety representatives now and I must say they are committed.

Leo: They they attend the meetings, they go back to their respective teams and they disseminate that information.

Leo: You know, we're making sure that any training is out there.

Leo: I've got Bev and Terry now working with all staff and especially team leaders and supervisors about how to keep their staff safe.

Leo: I know.

Amelia: That's great.

Amelia: Thank.

William: You.

William: Yes.

William: Thank you.

William: Can you hear me all right?

William: I can.

William: No.

William: Doesn't seem to be coming through my headphones.

William: I think this is a great report.

William: But the the question I have is, is there any way that we can assess some of the external influences on our team's health and safety from COVID-19?

Leo: Yes, absolutely.

Leo: And again there, feel free to jump in here.

Leo: This report only covers the period from November through to February.

Leo: So critically it misses, it essentially misses all the COVID-19 that will come in the next report.

Leo: But yes, absolutely we are.

Leo: We have a staff monitor or staff register which we monitor the health and well-being of all our staff.

Leo: Any that have immuno compromised.

Alexander: Health.

Leo: Issues we are aware of where our staff are, what they're doing, and with our slightly moving to Level 3 next week, we've gone out to all managers to advise us of where exactly their staff are going to be working, whether they will be continuing to work from home, whether we will have some like our parks operators working back out in the community.

Leo: And from a health and safety perspective, we're working up some really good protocols around how to keep them all safe.

Leo: So I hope, hope that's answered your your question, Councillor Gordon.

William: Yeah, I was.

William: I was more wondering about whether any of the external influences over which we've got no control, you know, that they're actually finding in their own family circumstances or something like that, that's actually affecting the their mental state, which obviously is a health and safety issue.

Archie: I, I can come in here if you like, Steve.

Archie: I've, I've just come out of a, a webinar with EMA in which one of New Zealand's leading people on health and safety, Paul Javi was part of.

Archie: So that actually ruled out quite a few ways on how this can be managed in multiple levels.

Archie: And I know that our wiper team have been working along those same lines.

Archie: So, you know, this is all pretty new to everybody.

Archie: So we're still writing up those protocols and and hopefully getting everything in place prior to actually going out next week on Level 3.

William: Oh, good.

William: Great to see those.

William: Thanks.

Oliver: Right.

Oliver: Anybody else?

Oliver: No, I'd just like to say it's, it's great to see your health and safety program maturing each each report that we get.

Oliver: And I just wanted to say, I think your, your one page Gary's health and safety commitment is a that's a really, really good yeah thing to put in place.

Oliver: There's nothing like everybody in the organization seeing that the CE is committed to to the program.

Oliver: So yeah, congratulations on that.

Oliver: Thank.

William: You, Mr.

William: Chair.

Oliver: Yeah, cheers.

Oliver: Well done.

Oliver: OK, so I have a recommendation to accept the report to have a mover please.

Oliver: Thank you, Claire.

Oliver: Thank you, Elwin.

Oliver: All those in favour, please say aye.

William: Aye, aye.

Oliver: Contrary no, that's carried.

Oliver: Thanks ladies.

Oliver: That's.

Alexander: That's.

Oliver: Terrific.

Oliver: Welcome, Phil.

Oliver: We're just going to pass pass a motion to move into public excluded and then go off live.

Oliver: Our thanks, Roger and the seconder.

Oliver: Thanks Susan.

Oliver: All in favour, aye?

William: Aye.

Oliver: Contrary.

Oliver: No, it's carried.

Oliver: So, Sam, we'll let you do your thing.

Summary

In the recent meeting, apologies were noted from Hazel, and Jim reminded everyone of his early departure at 1:30 for another meeting. Members approved the previous meeting's minutes after a correction was noted.

Jason initiated the session by introducing William, who discussed the substantial growth of the tourism sector in the Wipeout District until it was severely impacted by COVID-19. The suspension of international travel notably affected hotels, accommodations, retail, hospitality, and event sectors, leading to job losses and business closures. Jack probed into the struggling businesses, and William outlined the significant employment and operational challenges, particularly in hospitality and retail, while focusing on efforts for sector recovery through governmental support and partnerships.

The conversation moved towards maintaining essential sector operations and preparing to resume domestic airline connectivity incrementally. William emphasized the long-term impact on tourism and the need for strategic plans to revive the industry, including Qualmark accreditation updates and the challenge of closed convention centers shifting events to smaller venues.

Discussions also highlighted the collaborative recovery efforts across national and local levels, with redeployment of staff to civil defense roles during the crisis. The tourism recovery plan’s three-phase strategy focuses on hyperlocal engagement first, then broader domestic travel, and long-term international travel revival.

Mark Morgan from Hamilton Airport presented a finance-focused update, revealing significant revenue losses due to suspended flights and the terminal closure. Despite setbacks, land sales and property development offer financial resilience. The 15-month forecast anticipates a gradual recovery, leveraging diversified strategies and infrastructure commitments.

The presentation emphasized financial prudence and operational sustainability amidst the crisis. Challenges around reopening the terminal, maintaining aeronautical services, and resuming training operations were discussed. The company’s strong balance sheet and strategic foresight were noted as advantages.

Charlie discussed regional collaboration among councils, stressing efficiency and community welfare. They encouraged acceptance of failure as a step toward quick learning and cost-effectiveness.

The Local Government Funding Agency (LGFA) presented historical context and current financial stability, highlighting low borrowing costs for councils. Amelia suggested green financing initiatives, receiving confirmation of LGFA's readiness to support environmental projects.

Health and Safety team updates reported on minor incidents and proactive measures to enhance workplace safety during COVID-19 adjustments. The meeting concluded with unanimous acceptance of the Health and Safety report.

In sum, the discussion highlighted multifaceted recovery efforts, financial prudence, and strategic planning to navigate the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 across different sectors.

Action Items

• 1. Note that Hazel and Jim have given their apologies.
• 2. Amend the minutes from 18 February to include Andrew Graham's attendance.
• 3. Confirm the minutes of 18 February as a true and correct record with the noted changes.
• 4. William will discuss the impact of COVID on tourism as a sector.
• 5. Sam will share the presentation.
• 6. William will review and discuss international and national data being received weekly from the government and airlines regarding international visitor arrivals.
• 7. William will discuss airline connectivity and its baseline service for repatriation flights and cargo.
• 8. William will analyze weekly card transactions and the visitor expenditure data, focusing on categories like food, liquor, and pharmacies.
• 9. Assist businesses in Wipeout District with the transition to temporary or seasonal closure.
• 10. Help businesses that have never closed before to enter a state of hibernation.
• 11. Provide coaching to businesses for navigating immediate business impacts, including significant job losses and business closures.
• 12. Monitor and support the reopening of hospitality sectors in alert Level 3.
• 13. Address permanent business closures, especially in vulnerable communities.
• 14. Lobby the government to potentially extend the wage subsidy for 20 weeks.
• 15. Develop a 6 to 12 months recovery plan for the domestic travel market.
• 16. Continue providing industry support at national, regional, and local levels.
• 17. Ensure Chambers of Commerce, business associations, and local government support tourism businesses.
• 18. Partner with the Civil Defense Network to provide welfare support for tourism operators.
• 19. Repurpose tourism caterers to support food banks and cook meals.
• 20. Utilize tourism transport operators to provide transport options.
• 21. Redeploy essential workers and staff into the civil defense network, providing security, welfare, and call center support.
• 22. Meet with Air New Zealand weekly to plan the incremental restart of domestic flights, ensuring coverage across the entire network before resuming a full schedule.
• 23. Monitor ongoing international airline connectivity and services from airlines such as Fiji Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Korean Airlines.
• 24. Focus on New Zealand's domestic market for the next 6 to 12 months, including Australia and the Pacific.
• 25. Track the return of American Airlines to New Zealand, scheduled for October 2020.
• 26. Review air traffic control services, with attention to the potential closure of air traffic control tower services at Rotardua.
• 27. Plan for the re-diversion of the domestic network through Torana and Hamilton if the Rotardua air traffic control tower services are closed.
• 28. Complete the WorkSafe investigation related to Whakaari White Island and assess its impacts on adventure tourism and suppliers.
• 29. Update the Qualmark accreditation program, focusing on health and safety standards.
• 30. Organize the Field Days virtual exhibition from June 30 for two weeks and plan for the 2021 event.
• 31. Postpone the New Zealand Tourism Awards initially scheduled for November and reset the date for next year.
• 32. Schedule the Trends 2021 international trade show for June next year, awaiting further confirmation on the precise date.
• 33. Monitor the delay in the opening of two major convention centers in Taupo and Christchurch and assess the impact on business events.
• 34. Determine the reopening date of the New Zealand International Convention Center after finalizing insurance claims.
• 35. Utilize places like Foodlands and the Mystery Creek Event Center for national and international conferences.
• 36. Maintain and plan major events such as the national Waka armor event and the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup scheduled for February 8th.
• 37. Decide by October or November whether international travel restrictions will be lifted for the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup.
• 38. Ensure events in the sector are postponed rather than cancelled for the Waikato region.
• 39. Implement a 3-tiered response plan: mitigate, restart, reimagine.
• 40. Continue virtual briefings and face-to-face advocacy to access more business support at a national level.
• 41. Push through government to unlock industry supports.
• 42. Conduct daily to weekly one-on-one operator check-ins.
• 43. Ensure everyone can access business advice and wage support.
• 44. Host webinars and focus on workforce redeployment.
• 45. Redeploy displaced staff members into the Kiwi fruit and avocado industries and other sectors like supermarkets, civil defense, and security.
• 46. Conduct and monitor a survey to measure the impact on people who cannot be redeployed.
• 47. Update councils and government on the overall impact for tourism.
• 48. Focus on shovel-ready tourism projects for future regional restart and development.
• 49. Finish domestic perceptions and major research to bring back domestic travelers to the region.
• 50. Work on a major business events restart campaign.
• 51. Continue planning to ensure readiness for execution.
• 52. Focus on business events and corporate travel to aid economic and social recovery.
• 53. Monitor and support new developments in various regions.
• 54. Maintain communication with new hotels like Hidden Lake in Cambridge.
• 55. Ensure future developments continue across the region.
• 56. Share weekly data and insights with Walker economic outlook.
• 57. Promote the Mighty Local campaign during phase one, covering contactless delivery, online entertainment, recipes, and fitness.
• 58. Launch and promote business stories on the Mighty Local platform.
• 59. Plan for phase two of the Mighty Local campaign focusing on increasing takeaway and essential services.
• 60. Activate the buy local, Eat local event, local shop visit, and explore within the region in phase three after travel restrictions are lifted.
• 61. Collaborate with local programs such as Cambridge with their Totally locally Cambridge campaign.
• 62. Work with Kelly and the team to push their program in phase three.
• 63. Promote localism and encourage interactions with local communities during Phase 1 (one to three months).
• 64. Target the drive market within the White Cuttle region during Phase 2 (three to six months) for intra-regional travel.
• 65. Stand up community events and regional business meetings with social distancing measures in Phase 2.
• 66. Focus on the domestic market and drive market within three hours radius of the Waikato region in Phase 3 (six to twelve months).
• 67. Facilitate the return of national events and meetings.
• 68. Monitor corporate travel to support the business sector.
• 69. Plan for international market impacts starting from one to two years, prioritizing short-haul markets in Australia and the Pacific first.
• 70. Work with Tourism New Zealand to lead a new plan both domestically and internationally to reshape the tourism industry.
• 71. Evaluate the previous visitor arrivals and expenditure growth to determine if they were right for the region.
• 72. Define what success will look like for the future visitor market.
• 73. Develop strategies to move the tourism sector away from the boom and bust cycle.
• 74. Transition to a more sustainable, community-led tourism model that creates net benefits for the community.
• 75. Develop a new destination management plan to transform tourism opportunities nationally.
• 76. Evaluate how services and opportunities in tourism can be transformed post-COVID.
• 77. Promote rates relief for emissions and installment policies for all businesses, not just the tourism sector.
• 78. Continue with the resource consent process in a more flexible manner.
• 79. Prioritize liquor and food licensing for businesses as they reopen after alert Level 3.
• 80. Await the decision from Well Energy Trust regarding the establishment of a regional major events fund.
• 81. Use the regional major events fund to help districts bid for major events and attract new events during the shoulder season.
• 82. Continue providing funding to support the tourism industry during the restart and reimagine phases.
• 83. Acknowledge that recovery to pre-COVID levels for the tourism sector and the region will take at least two to five years.
• 84. Ensure the Department of Conservation is included in reimagining the future of tourism meetings.
• 85. Engage the Department of Conservation in discussions around managing popular destinations and pressure points.
• 86. Continue joint reviews of tourism with Tourism New Zealand and the Department of Conservation.
• 87. Explore bringing forward short walk projects for the domestic market under the Great Walks mantle with the Department of Conservation.
• 88. Acknowledge the support provided to operators and check in regarding the presentation from manga territory.
• 89. Try to get some of the international sporting events back up and running as soon as possible depending on travel restrictions.
• 90. Work with the motorhome and caravan association to get more people back into Y pass.
• 91. Ensure to leverage Y pass’s geographic location, natural environment, and event platforms for better recovery.
• 92. A recommendation was moved by Marcus and Claire.
• 93. Present the upcoming presentation to the elected members.
• 94. Scott Kendall to handle a couple of finance slides in the presentation.
• 95. Move to the next slide during the presentation focusing on the COVID-19 response.
• 96. Discuss the interim six-month financial results and their implications.
• 97. Work towards a revised Statement of Intent (SOY) for the next three years.
• 98. Complete the detailed 15-month forecast through to 30 June next year.
• 99. Finalize the presentation to all shareholding councils by May.
• 100. Suspend the terminal upgrade work.
• 101. Address the impact on properties and work closely with tenants.
• 102. Continue operating as an emergency medical service at the airport.
• 103. Discuss future operations for the hotel post Ministry of Health usage.
• 104. Ensure payment processing for the hotel's use as an isolation facility by the government.
• 105. Maintain remote work for the immediate COVID team response.
• 106. Manage government subsidies for cafe and store staff who are unable to work.
• 107. Work with the board around a pandemic plan and develop scenario modeling.
• 108. Complete significant cost reductions across the business, including up to a 20% reduction in payroll.
• 109. Ensure the Board takes a reduction in their director fees.
• 110. Apply for and receive the government wage subsidy across the group.
• 111. Work with Jetpack on a full restructuring exercise and conduct Stage 2 meeting with them.
• 112. Participate in a major piece of work with the airport association and central government to seek support for airport companies.
• 113. Maintain the assets requiring significant capital as infrastructure owners.
• 114. Scott will present the details of the hit on the balance sheet.
• 115. Work on the Central Precinct will continue, with efforts to settle some unconditional land sales.
• 116. Utilize up to 50% of the debt funding by June next year.
• 117. Secure additional debt facilities to take funding up to about 30 million.
• 118. Proceed with land sales to generate positive cash flow.
• 119. Review the submitted applications for the Crown infrastructure projects, including terminal redevelopment.
• 120. Work on an amalgam of a number of projects around the area will be executed.
• 121. Evaluate tenders received for the terminal redevelopment project.
• 122. Await council consent for the terminal redevelopment project.
• 123. Prepare to start enabling works for the terminal redevelopment project within a month of securing funding.
• 124. Assess the government funding mechanism for tags, including loans and grants.
• 125. Maintain the ongoing set of objectives for FY21 while reviewing them as a management team.
• 126. Aim for approximately $8 million in land sales over the next 12 months.
• 127. Maintain the runway and other aeronautical assets as per the 10-year asset management plan.
• 128. Work closely with New Zealand to restart services.
• 129. Focus marketing and social media strategies on restarting services.
• 130. Maintain and fund the hotel property for the next 18 months with limited activity.
• 131. Allow Scott to lead the financial presentations and summarize the key points.
• 132. Continue to build a sustainable, recurring revenue base through passenger growth in the airport business and the property portfolio.
• 133. Proceed with land sales as planned under the 10-year plan, ensuring they are not reactive but strategic.
• 134. Move to the next slide in the presentation.
• 135. Focus on EBITDA as a cash flow metric that includes land sales but excludes depreciation.
• 136. Prepare for a significant decline in business performance in the next calendar year due to a large land sale.
• 137. Work towards bringing the business back to cash flow positive over the next 15 to 18 months.
• 138. Remove costs from the business without compromising long-term capabilities.
• 139. Preserve current business capabilities while being conservative in approach.
• 140. Monitor and manage the impact on the balance sheet, particularly around property values and equity movements.
• 141. Ensure that land sales over the next 18 months lead to being cash flow positive.
• 142. Maintain and not compromise aeronautical capabilities while delivering services.
• 143. Review the readiness and impact of reduced services and non-aeronautical income addressing potential future scenarios.
• 144. Ensure no requirement for additional funding from core debt or shareholders for the foreseeable future.
• 145. Confirm flight school operations can resume under Level 3 qualifications by next week according to new advice.
• 146. Clarify and address social distancing issues for instructors and trainee pilots at Level 1.
• 147. Ensure the logistics of moving pilots across borders for training despite the global market challenges.
• 148. Kelvin and Peter to discuss shared services.
• 149. Review the company's statement of intent and half-yearly report to 31 December 2019.
• 150. Understand the company's transformation role and what it means for the council.
• 151. Prepare for the post COVID-19 recovery period as emphasized by the Board of Lasses.
• 152. Charlie needs to complete the move to Cambridge by next week.
• 153. Charlie will begin paying Waipa District Council rates from May 1st.
• 154. The company will set out to create effectiveness and efficiency gains for shareholders.
• 155. The company will help increase the influence of the region.
• 156. The company will assist shareholders in providing a better customer experience.
• 157. The company will drive transformative projects at a faster pace as committed by the board earlier this year.
• 158. The company aims to be bolder and more disruptive to enable better performance.
• 159. Advance key strategic projects as fast as possible.
• 160. Continue with business as usual projects.
• 161. Re-examine current work to determine if any projects should be stopped.
• 162. Introduce careful tracking of progress to ensure success.
• 163. Improve communications to key council staff.
• 164. Ensure board colleagues dictate resourcing, prioritization, and cooperation for projects.
• 165. Promote the well-being of Waipar District and its people.
• 166. Provide solutions to the high growth region of the Waikato.
• 167. Drive cost out of local councils.
• 168. Improve the well-being of the community.
• 169. Think regionally to enable better local action.
• 170. Work with companion councils to achieve aspirations.
• 171. Invest upfront to achieve mid to long term savings for proposed initiatives.
• 172. Maintain focus on current work program to rebuild the region and increase resilience post-COVID-19.
• 173. Ensure security of public works to enable private sector planning and training.
• 174. Demonstrate restraint by public bodies on non-essential spending.
• 175. Motivate and encourage the development of current council staff.
• 176. Ensure continuous focus on current key initiatives post COVID-19.
• 177. Assess and manage the availability of council resources for ongoing initiatives considering the impact of COVID-19.
• 178. Reach out to councils to identify potential redeployment of assets and personnel to support initiatives.
• 179. Calvin to ensure chief executives of all councils are informed about the specific skill sets needed for advancing strategic projects.
• 180. Organize a discussion or follow-up related to the resourcing issue being acutely conscious over time.
• 181. Clarify the role and involvement of Martin Lynch in the energy and carbon management work.
• 182. Evelyn to determine if the people engaged to provide support to councils can assist with the carbon audit referenced by Amelia.
• 183. Andrew Michael will make a few brief comments and touch on the current environment.
• 184. Andrew Michael will leave some time for questions after his comments.
• 185. Andrew Michael to discuss the importance of access to finance for councils.
• 186. Andrew Michael to highlight LGFA's objectives and the challenges faced in access to debt markets.
• 187. Andrew Michael will confirm the financials, namely, the profit forecast and actuals for LGFA.
• 188. Councils need to focus on savings from interest costs and ensure the certainty of accessing finance.
• 189. Councils should take advantage of low short-term interest rates (below 1%).
• 190. Councils are encouraged to consider longer-term borrowing opportunities, with 6-year money available at around 1.7%.
• 191. Councils should submit borrowing requests if experiencing a drop in fee income to cover financial gaps.
• 192. LGFA to leverage the $1 billion standby facility from the New Zealand government which is expected to be rolled over.
• 193. Monitor the Reserve Bank's inclusion of LGFA bonds in its buyback program for up to $3 billion.
• 194. Address potential breaches of financial covenants in the next financial year.
• 195. Prepare for significant challenges for councils, particularly in 2021.
• 196. Monitor and model council financial performance for the remainder of this year and next year.
• 197. Integrate findings from financial performance modeling into government recovery work streams.
• 198. Plan for potential cuts to CapEx for growth councils, considering the impact on economic growth.
• 199. Acknowledge and maintain the professional relationship with LGFA.
• 200. Ensure continuous support and collaboration with LGFA, acknowledging its contributions.
• 201. Harry to provide more details on the 1.7% borrowing ability figure.
• 202. Oscar to explain the specific shareholding details on page 33 regarding White Pass's 200,000 shares at 0.4% and Marble district's 9.9%.
• 203. Oliver to ensure Bruce learns how to use the new machine and stays unmuted during the meetings.
• 204. LGFA needs to finalize and prepare documents for green financing, ensuring they are ready for council use.
• 205. LGFA needs to work on identifying green projects and categorizing them into green, social, and sustainable projects.
• 206. Councils need to identify and propose eligible green projects for financing.
• 207. Implement a certification process for green, social, and sustainable projects.
• 208. Jack will report on the progress of the green investing initiative.
• 209. Jack will provide an update at the council day in July.
• 210. Jack is open to having a more in-depth discussion on the green investing initiative if requested.
• 211. Attendees need to review the recommendations from A to G.
• 212. Attendees need to provide input on the three letters in Appendices 4, 5, and 6.
• 213. Oliver requests a mover and a seconder for a motion.
• 214. Ken K. allows Nada to present the financial report.
• 215. Nada to take through the financial report detailing income, expenditures, vested assets, development and reserve contributions, subsidies and grants, capital expenditures, budget changes, and arbitrage arrangement.
• 216. Oliver requests a movement for the recommendation and it is seconded by Amelia (Claire).
• 217. Harry hands over responsibilities for the Health and Safety report to Steve and Beev.
• 218. Steve (Archie) is to address Claire's (Amelia) questions regarding council entrance ways and reported accidents.
• 219. Archie will continue to monitor the situation at Cambridge for any further incidents of trips.
• 220. Leo to refer to the health and safety lead indicators in the A3 report or big report on a page.
• 221. Leo will manage and report the expenditure on health and safety budget, including paying fees to White Cattle Occupational Health Consultancy, EAP service for counselling, and allocation for various health and safety training.
• 222. Leo to ensure the allocation of $27,000 for annual health and safety training, including first aid refreshes, committee training, investigation training, and conflict training.
• 223. Ensure support for health and safety representatives to attend meetings and disseminate information back to their teams.
• 224. Bev and Terry will work with all staff, especially team leaders and supervisors, on how to keep their staff safe.
• 225. Include COVID-19 impact assessment in the next health and safety report.
• 226. Maintain and monitor the health and well-being register for all staff, especially those with immuno-compromised health issues.
• 227. All managers need to advise where their staff will be working as the organization moves to Level 3 next week.
• 228. Work on developing and finalizing health and safety protocols for the team going out into the community.
• 229. Ensure these protocols address external influences that might affect mental health.
• 230. Review insights from the webinar with EMA and Paul Javi to manage health and safety at multiple levels.
• 231. Continue maturing the health and safety program and solidify it before transitioning to Level 3.
• 232. Incorporate Gary's health and safety commitment into the organizational framework.
• 233. Accept and document the health and safety report for further action.
• 234. Move into public-excluded session and go off live as per the motion passed.
• 235. Oliver needs to create a survey to gather fresh ideas from employees and to gain their buy-in for green practices.
• 236. Jack will participate in future County business briefings.
• 237. Additional action items as needed.