Ratepayers to Fund Minimum Wage for Contractors
www.stuff.co.nz...
Hamilton City Council is to extend the minimum wage of $20 per hour to all staff employed by the organisation’s contractors. The cost is unknown but the best guess is between $258,000 to $859,000 per year to be funded through rates or through debt.
www.legislation.govt.nz...
Section 10 of Local Government Act details the purpose of local government is—
• to enable democratic local decision-making and action by, and on behalf of, communities; and
• to meet the current and future needs of communities for good-quality local infrastructure, local public services, and performance of regulatory functions in a way that is most cost-effective for households and businesses.
How is the living wage (above the Government’s) most cost effective for households and businesses?
and
How is it on behalf of communities?
Good-quality, of the performance of regulatory functions, means infrastructure, services, and performance that are—
• efficient;
• effective; and
• appropriate to present and anticipated future circumstances.
How is the living wage to contractors efficient, effective and appropriate for the ratepayer particularly in these austere and worrying times?
Those who voted for this lose sight of representative responsibility and fail to represent the residents and ratepayers who took the effort to vote and in fact all of Hamilton residents.
Some contractors do not contact solely to Council, their employees also work at other locations for other contracts.
How is this to be policed?
Oh that’s right it is only other people’s money – watch out for the spend-up on ‘nice to haves’ during the annual plan.
Buckle up it is going to be a rough ride, particularly in these austere and worrying times.
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
Poll: 🤖 What skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
The Reserve Bank has shared some pretty blunt advice: there’s no such thing as a “safe” job anymore 🛟😑
Robots are stepping into repetitive roles in factories, plants and warehouses. AI is taking care of the admin tasks that once filled many mid-level office jobs.
We want to know: As the world evolves, what skills do you think give a CV the ultimate edge in a robot-filled workplace?
Want to read more? The Press has you covered!
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52.7% Human-centred experience and communication
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14.7% Critical thinking
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29.8% Resilience and adaptability
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2.7% Other - I will share below!
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Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
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