Kia ora, te whānau,

Ngā mihi o te rā.   

In the last month we have made great progress on the 2019 NZILA Tuia Pito Ora Conference.  I am really pleased to announce that we will be holding the Conference and Awards in Christchurch in November 2019.  The timing is a departure from our normal April conference, and we are currently looking into hosting a smaller event in conjunction with the timing of the AGM which is confirmed for Friday 5th April 2019.  The main reason for the change in timing is to allow us to hold our conference in conjunction with the Lincoln University 50 year celebrations for the School of Landscape Architecture: a great milestone in the education of landscape architects in New Zealand and for our profession as a whole.   

We have forwarded the Landscape Guidelines briefing paper on to senior Department of Conservation staff to see if we can arrange a meeting with the Minister for the Environment, the Honourable David Parker.  We will continue to make progress in the capital to get our voice heard.

We had an Executive meeting in Tauranga on Friday 29 June.  There was a well attended 2 x 2 event with the local Branch the night beforehand and we had a full agenda for the Executive meeting.   Half of the day was dedicated to a workshop session on the Governance Review project where we looked well into the future and made some excellent progress.  Since the meeting we have also made progress on our own Health and Safety policy for the institute.  More on this soon. 

Earlier this year I was asked what I think should be the focus of the Institute in current times and I responded that that NZILA should be finding its’ own voice in relation to some of the critical issues facing Aotearoa New Zealand: such as transport, housing, urban intensification and coastal resilience. 

I am pleased to say that our voice is starting to be heard.  The Landscape Architecture Aotearoa web site has featured articles on some key issues such as the recently announced Carbon Tax and the tension between the expansion of the urban limits of Auckland and the protection of our natural landscape at Okura.  We have submitted on the Carbon Zero bill discussion document.  We have also been engaging with central government on our own Landscape Guidelines project.  To assist with making sure our voice is heard we are looking at setting up an advocacy group.  This group will be tasked with responding to issues where we have an interest.

I have been fielding calls and e-mails from our members on a range of issues, so, as always, if you have anything you want to share with me, then please drop me a line.   

Mā te wā,

Brad