northland chamber

Hundertwasser – an iconic Northland product

What an interesting week it’s been. The Northland Chamber of Commerce has completed a submission to the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee regarding the Emissions Trading proposal as it stands, talk of a new Hunderwatsser museum in Whangarei and wholesale changes at the Northland Chamber Board.

Climate Change Emissions trading amendment

Our submission to the Government says that The Northland Chamber of Commerce opposes the Climate Change (Emissions Trading and Renewable Preference) Bill. We support action to reduce global emissions of Greenhouse Gases but we believe the government should not be imposing restrictive measures upon New Zealand businesses ahead of other countries. We have asked the Finance and Expenditure Committee To put aside these measures and reconsider once our trading partners implement. The reason for this of course is that it immediately gives non complying countries a competitive price advantage over us when trading internationally. Another Disturbing effect of the trading and emissions amendment is the potential for job losses in Northland which we would obviously like to avoid.

Hunderwatsser Museum

Every region in New Zealand can boast about parts of their region that entice visitors. Usually these are to do with physical beauty (Mt aspiring) or one off events (Wanganui masters Games).

Smart Regions are being very clever in the cultural Tourism industry. They are taking a local feature whether that be a person, place, event or thing and developing an iconic product around that. This makes sense on a few counts - the foremost being that a region can be very specific about what makes it special therefore giving itself a unique selling point (Just like a business).

We can see a great deal of common sense in the Hundertwasser proposal. Yes for Whangarei but more importantly for the wider Northland Economy. Unfortunately there has been some discord regarding the sighting of the proposed museum. If we are smart about this proposal every small town in Northland could work in with the Museum to have a Hundertwasser iconic piece or feature.

We know that the Cultural Tourism sector is very financially rewarding. We also know that art patrons that travel to NZ to see an iconic work such as the Museum in Whangarei will probably travel to Kawakawa to see the Hundertwasser work there. So why not Kerikeri, Kaitaia, Kaikohe, Dargaville and Ruawai capitalising on this and working in with the Whangarei Museum to get ‘Hundertwasser lovers to travel a circuit. Surely that would encourage these visitors to stay longer, spend more and come back more frequently.

The Northland Chamber of Commerce held its board meeting on 27th February. We have a new board and a few good challenges for the year ahead. Our new board are on our website http://www.northchamber.co.nz/

The Northland Chamber of Commerce is the networking, education, advocacy and marketing group for Northland business, and is part of a nationwide network of 30 and a world-wide movement of 21,000 chambers. Subscription to the free fortnightly chamber e-news can be arranged on info@northchamber.co.nz. Enquiries to 09-4384771 or www.northchamber.co.nz, www.kaiparachamber.co.nz and www.farnorthchamber.co.nz
You can have a say on this by going to the Northland Chamber of Commerce Feedback website on www.northchamber.blogspot.com