E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e rau rangatira mā
Tēnei te mihi ki a koutou i runga i te kaupapa o te rā
Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa

Christchurch City Councillors Jimmy Chen, Phil Clearwater and Mike Davidson

World Bowls President, John Bell, & Chief Executive Officer, Gary Smith, Mike Spring, President, & Cushla McGillivray, Chair of Bowls New Zealand, Kerry Clark, CEO, Bowls NZ & Chair World Bowls Championships Organising Committee.

It gives me great pleasure on behalf of the city of Christchurch to officially welcome all the participants, officials, volunteers and delegates taking part in the 2016 World Bowls Championships. Welcome to Christchurch.

To the 200-plus competitors who have come from around the world to compete here this week, a very special welcome to you.  Many of you have come a long way to represent your country at these World Championships and we are delighted to welcome you and host you in Christchurch.

I would particularly like to acknowledge John Bell, the President of World Bowls, and Gary Smith the CEO:  thank you for your outstanding support of our city.

I would also like to pay tribute to the hard-working team at Bowls New Zealand, particularly the President, Mike Spring; the Chair, Cushla McGillivray; and CEO Kerry Clark who has chaired the Organising Committee – congratulations on putting together this wonderful competition and I am sure it is going to be a very successful event for you and for Christchurch.

I would also like to thank all the volunteers that are giving up their time to assist with the Championships – this event could not happen without your help; thank you very much for giving up your time to support this competition.

Christchurch first hosted the World Bowls Championships back in 2008; it had been twenty years since the Championships had come to New Zealand so they were very keenly anticipated then, just as they are now.

There are many, many keen bowlers and bowls fans in Christchurch and right across New Zealand, so this event will be a must-see for them and a thrill to be able to watch the worlds’ best bowlers competing on our greens.

I also hope people who are new to the sport are encouraged and inspired by the competition.

The World Championships held every four years are described as the pinnacle event of the bowling world.

It is an honour and a privilege to be your host city.  It is something that our city takes great pride in.

I look forward to seeing you all at the awards ceremony after the finals next Sunday at the Burnside Bowling Club, where in my role as Mayor I am Patron; something I hold dear to my heart as it was where my grandfather played bowls for many years until he passed away.

So see you then and best luck to you all.

Nō reira Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa
owlingclub.com/2016WorldBowlsChampionshipContents.html

Dr Rod Carr and Vice-Chancellors from other universities
Sponsors of NZ Women in Leadership, Distinguished guests one and all.

May I begin by reflecting on what has happened in our region.  We in Christchurch know what the people in the Hurunui and Kaikoura Districts are going through.

It is going to be a very challenging time ahead, but the advantage is that these are tight-knit communities.  People know each other and the bonds are strong.

I have been asked to speak to your symposium theme ‘resilient leadership’. Some of you will expect that this is something that would be no issue for me. I’ve been a Member of Parliament for 23 years, including a period as a Cabinet Minister under the leadership of the Rt Hon Helen Clark.

I volunteered to leave that behind and stand for the Mayoralty here in Christchurch – where I was born and raised and have lived all my life.

My first act as Mayor was to sign our city up for the 100 Resilient Cities network pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation.

I must know it all.

Well I don’t.

I was given a necklace by my former staff when I left Parliament – it has a large bead and three smaller beads.
The large one reads: "The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud". It is a quote from the well-known philosopher, Coco Chanel.

That quote is really about how important I believe it is to speak out for what you believe in. Often that requires courage.

The three smaller beads speak to community, resilience and leadership. These are words I thought I understood, but didn't truly appreciate until after the earthquake.

Community is not the co-location of houses – that's a suburb. It's the relationship between the people in those houses and their relationship as a group with decision-makers – that's community. And of course community is not limited to location or place – it also refers to communities of identity and interest. A community’s social capital is not measured by socio-economic status; it is measured by the strength of those relationships.

Resilience is not strength in the face of adversity – that's stoicism; something we Cantabrians have in spades. Resilience isn't just about maintaining critical functions and bouncing back into shape after something occurs. It’s about the capacity to recover in the long-term better than ever before and if necessary to adapt to a new environment or new conditions.

But more importantly, it is about the capacity to co-create a new future.  That requires we in decision-making positions to let go of a significant part of our authority – that is something I now recognise as the true hallmark of resilience.

And finally leadership is not a position you hold – it is a mark of character.

People often look to the heroic form of leadership after a disaster - it can be comforting to have someone else taking charge, knowing what to do.

But the leadership necessary for the long haul is based on qualities like these – engaging, respectful, inclusive, empathetic and intuitive.

I often make the point that we automatically think of women when we use these words but we don't always think of women when we think of leaders – the question I pose is whether we have had the heroic form of leadership drummed into us for so long that we don't see the qualities that are essential to bring out the leadership in others.

The message I take from my necklace is 'courageous leadership that speaks truth to power and empowers communities to co-create the environment in which they live will build resilience in the true sense of the word'.

What a powerful message to carry in a necklace.

Christchurch has just hosted the first Singularity University Summit to be held in Australasia.

Their website gives a clue as to what this is all about, opening with these words:

Be Exponential.
We empower a global community with the mindset, skillset, and network to create an abundant future. Join us on a transformative journey from inspiration to impact, and discover what being exponential means to you.

Attendees at the NZ summit were offered the possibility of understanding, adapting to, and thriving in an exponentially changing world.

In welcoming Singularity University to the city I said that we in Christchurch wanted to be at the forefront of the innovation and creativity required to take advantage of the exponential leap in technologies the Summit challenged us to contemplate. 

Not from a position of defensiveness or fear, but rather with a real sense of optimism for a future that we can co-create for ourselves.

I used that word co-create deliberately.

Co-creation brings with it the sense that we are in this together; a recognition that neither governments nor councils can take on these challenges for our communities. Representative democracy simply won’t cut the mustard when we don’t know what lies ahead. 

We need a participatory democracy with active citizenship – something that has the added advantage of providing an antidote to the blame game that seems to drive reporting in an increasingly populist media and the unmoderated environment of social media. If we are making the decisions ourselves, it’s hard to blame the government.

Perhaps resilient leadership is distributed leadership.

People have asked me what is singularity – my simplistic definition is that it sits at the cusp of technology and artificial intelligence. 

When computers can analyse problems and assess responses faster and more accurately than the human brain, that is singularity.

Exponential increases in capacity combined with an exponential reduction in cost will change the world we live in. Gordon Moore predicted this in terms of computing capacity – but Moore’s Law applies far more broadly than that.

We could ignore it, but then again it’s coming ready or not. I’d rather be ready.

That means we need to look to the next generation of leaders.

And that’s why resilience is so important.

At the end of the Singularity University Summit we were challenged to think about courage.  And that is what leadership is all about at the end of the day.

Robert Kennedy said
Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society.  Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery-in-battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.

And Meg Cabot
Courage is not the absence of fear but the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all.
I attended the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai in March last year – exactly 20 years after I attended the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing.

If there is one thing that was reinforced both times, it was the need for women to be at the table when decisions are made.

The challenges we face are greater today than they have ever been – disasters – caused by natural events or man-made - climate change and extreme weather events from storms to droughts, extreme violence, terrorism, income inequality. If women don't sit at the table when the decisions are made about how to combat all of these, they are condemned to continue to be their greatest victims. That was the message in 1995 and it was exactly the same message in 2015.

And it is true in every sphere of life. I don't think the NZX top 100 listed companies are part of a conspiracy to keep women from their boardrooms – I just think that their dominant male composition – a high percentage have no women on them at all – is self-perpetuating.
​
When we look for someone to serve on a committee or a board or a fundraising team, we go to the people we have worked with before and ask them.

I believe the real challenge is to ensure that the decision-makers and the shoulder-tappers appreciate the value in diversity and the strength it can bring to an organisation.

This is not about tokenism or even entitlement; it is about what is in the best interests of the company or our city or our nation going forward.

If we don't have diversity at the Council table, the boardroom tables, the management tables and the Cabinet table, then we don't get the benefit of the range of perspectives and insights that we all bring to the table. That's how to tackle complex issues – no single perspective can resolve complexity.

And understanding that, and being willing to embrace all the perspectives required to make good decisions when confronted with situations we hadn’t planned for, that’s what resilience is all about and it’s what leadership demands.

Following on from the restaurant analogy used by Jason Krupp, I think it would be important to remember that the Council being the chef would only be allowed to follow certain recipes regardless of what the community wanted to order; we would be limited to using certain utensils prescribed by law and we would only be able to charge people for their meal an amount that was based on the value of their property, no matter what they ordered. I will come back to that.
 
I found a speech I gave 10 years ago when I was Minister of Commerce.
 
I said that if someone was designing this country from scratch, they could not create a more inefficient model for providing the economic and social infrastructure required for just over 4 million people in relation to our landmass – I referenced Mike Moore’s famous line that ‘Singapore is the same size as Lake Taupo – think about it’.
 
I was speaking back then of the disproportionate impact of transaction and compliance costs on SMEs of the multiple layers of regulatory frameworks.
 
Fast forward ten years and having read this report, it feels like ‘déjà vu, all over again’.
My entry into local government from over 20 years in central government three years ago, offers a unique perspective. But even more significantly, then role that central government has been playing in Christchurch over the past 6 years has been unique as well.
 
The decision to establish a government department to run the post-disaster recovery of a city was without precedent, (both locally and internationally).
 
How central government, local government and the community interact in these post-disaster environments is core critical, and I took great comfort from the Minister’s comments yesterday when he said in this particular instance: "the problem is the person who calls the shots on that is based in Christchurch, the issue is in Waiau and the national headquarters is in Wellington, and you just think 'this is just not the way to work'."
 
There were a number of things he thought could be enhanced with a reconsideration of some of the reporting lines and some of the decision points.
 
Spot on.
 
And in many respects that is what this report is all about. The real question is not what's wrong with local government; it's what's wrong with the division of government power in New Zealand. Who is best placed to make the decision; who is best placed to implement the decision once made and how will that be funded? These are three separate questions and one does not necessarily follow from the other.
 
I thought that the most useful contribution I could make to this discussion would be to comment on the new architecture we have developed in the Greater Christchurch area in the wake of the expiration of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Act and the demise of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority, CERA.
 
The government and the Council have essentially established a joint venture regeneration organisation, Regenerate Christchurch, accountable through a statement of intent to both the Council and the government. We have access to a special regeneration planning framework which replaces objections, hearings and general appeals with community engagement, a prescribed ministerial decision-making framework and very limited appeals.
 
I am hoping we help set a precedent for a new era in land-use management that engages the community in the process from start to finish.
 
We’ve established an arms-length development company, Development Christchurch Ltd (DCL) which is a wholly owned subsidiary of our holdings company Christchurch City Holdings Ltd (CCHL).
 
The government has established Otakaro Ltd to provide the necessary project management to complete the large scale anchor projects that remain and manage the divestment of the Crown’s interests in land acquired since the earthquakes.
 
We’ve established a community housing charitable trust with a range of social housing partners, primarily to become eligible for the Income Related Rental Subsidy, but I truly think this is a much better model for service delivery to vulnerable tenants and communities than the council could deliver on its own.
 
I have said on several occasions that we would welcome central government transferring its Christchurch Housing NZ housing to the Trust as well, which would help resolve the main disadvantage of the split between managing the housing (HNZ) from allocating tenancies (MSD).
 
This would give us the ability to build real communities and really get to know the residents to bring in the kind of wrap-around support many need for a period of their lives. And with the regeneration planning processes we have now, we could fast track changes that would significantly enhance the quality of life for these residents and build new houses in what would become mixed developments blending social, affordable and market housing options.
 
So in many respects, this report could not be more timely.
 
Central government silos were always the toughest nut to crack when I was in government – it seemed to me that there was little capacity to obtain funding for one department’s budget, when the benefits would be savings to another department – sometimes years down the track.
 
If we were to truly break down those silos, would we not start to think about where the difference can be made; and would that not lead us to contemplate funding through the taxpayer base and delivering through local government? And if the benefits are inter-generational, that’s fundamental to how we plan.
 
This report has reminded me of the absurdity of central government setting all our rules that they don’t oblige themselves to follow, (particularly when it comes to prescriptive consultation that isn’t in anyway meaningful) and the nonsense of our local council fundraising being limited to a property tax when we deliver to a set of national standards that are to the benefit of NZ Inc. And don't get me started on the tax upon the tax that GST on rates represents.
 
The report refers to water standards as an example. But let’s take the decision announced by government that they will transfer the fluoridation of the drinking water supply decision to the local DHB and leave the funding of the decision to the councils.
 
Councils don’t have funding – they can only raise money from their ratepayers. I think that if the government wants to make the decision – they should share the cost across the taxpaying base. In Christchurch, we don’t have a single point to fluoridate our water supply. The cost-benefit ratio is quite different for us.
 
If the government wants us to fluoridate, then the government should pay - at least their fair share.
 
It does feel like some of the decisions that are being devolved to us, because central government doesn’t want to cop the flak for making the hard calls. But unless they do, we can't make effective decisions - Local Alcohol Plans were meant to be a local adjunct to a more regulated market.
 
I totally agree that Regulatory Impact statements should be required to spell out the hidden costs to local government.
 
Christchurch has just hosted the first Singularity University Summit to be held in Australasia.
 
In welcoming Singularity University to the city, I said that we in Christchurch wanted to be at the forefront of the innovation and creativity required to take advantage of the exponential leap in technologies the Summit challenged us to contemplate.
 
Not from a position of defensiveness or fear, but rather with a real sense of optimism for a future that we can co-create for ourselves.
 
I used that word co-create deliberately.
 
Co-creation brings with it the sense that we are in this together; a recognition that neither governments nor councils can take on these challenges for our communities. Representative democracy simply won’t cut the mustard when we don’t know what lies ahead.
 
We need a participatory democracy with active citizenship – something that has the added advantage of providing an antidote to the blame game that seems to drive reporting in an increasingly populist media and the un-moderated environment of social media. If we are making the decisions ourselves, it’s hard to blame the government.
 
Participatory budgeting is one component of what we intend to implement – the report suggests referenda and citizens’ juries. The latter is very much on our radar, but referenda need to be carefully scrutinised given the significant influence of paid advertising on the outcome.
 
Finishing on the circumstances we are confronted with now in light of the recent earthquakes, perhaps it is time to think of devolution and subsidiarity in the context of mitigating the risk of having all our country's capacity centralised in one place and not distributed in a way that would ensure resilience.
 
So thank you for the report and indeed the whole series. We are very keen in Christchurch to take the debate forward and look forward to the opportunity to do so.  Here is a link to the NZ intiative's report on restoring local government accountability.  it talks about active citizenship and what it means: https://nzinitiative.org.nz/insights/reports/the-local-manifesto-restoring-local-government-accountability/

​May I begin by reflecting on what has happened in our region.  We in Christchurch know what the people in the Hurunui and Kaikoura Districts are going through.

It is going to be a very challenging time ahead, but the advantage is that these are tight-knit communities.  People know each other and the bonds are strong.

It is a privilege to welcome so many leaders of state girls’ schools in New Zealand to Christchurch.  What a brilliant network to have established in 2010 – when our world here in Christchurch was shaken in more ways than one.

I’d like to acknowledge our hosts the Principal of Christchurch Girls’ High School (Pauline Duthie) and Principal of Avonside Girls’ High School (Sue Hume).

I have been given a pretty broad brief but I thought I would start with a reflection on the last three days.  Christchurch has just hosted the first Singularity University Summit to be held in Australasia.

Their website gives a clue as to what this is all about, opening with these words:

Be Exponential.
We empower a global community with the mindset, skillset, and network to create an abundant future. Join us on a transformative journey from inspiration to impact, and discover what being exponential means to you.

Attendees at the NZ summit were offered the possibility of understanding, adapting to, and thriving in an exponentially changing world.

In welcoming Singularity University to the city I said that we wanted to be at the forefront of the innovation and creativity required to take advantage of the exponential leap in technologies the Summit challenged us to contemplate. 

Not from a position of defensiveness or fear, but rather with a real sense of optimism for a future that we can co-create for ourselves.

I used that word co-create deliberately.

Co-creation brings with it the sense that we are in this together; a recognition that neither governments nor councils can take on these challenges for our communities. Representative democracy simply won’t cut the mustard when we don’t know what lies ahead. 

We need a participatory democracy with active citizenship – something that has the added advantage of providing an antidote to the blame game that seems to drive reporting in an increasingly populist media and the unmoderated environment of social media. If we are making the decisions ourselves, it’s hard to blame the government.

People have asked me what is singularity – my simplistic definition is that it sits at the cusp of technology and artificial intelligence. 

When computers can analyse problems and assess responses faster and more accurately than the human brain, that is singularity.

Exponential increases in capacity combined with an exponential reduction in cost will change the world we live in. Gordon Moore predicted this in terms of computing capacity – but Moore’s Law applies far more broadly than that.

We could ignore it, but then again it’s coming ready or not. I’d rather be ready.

That means we need to look to the generation of students you are teaching right now.

They are the ones who will be driving the exponential leap in capacity we will experience. I for one want them to do so with a set of values that does not repeat the exponential increase in inequality we have seen drive so much division in modern society and the inequity that leaves so many so far behind.

No pressure.

At the end of the Summit we were challenged to think about courage.  And that is what leadership is all about at the end of the day.

Robert Kennedy said
Few are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of their society.  Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery-in-battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential vital quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change.

And Meg Cabot
Courage is not the absence of fear but the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all.

The necklace I am wearing today was a gift from my former staff when I left Parliament.

It reads: "The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud". It is a quote from the well-known philosopher, Coco Chanel.

That quote is really about how important I believe it is to speak out for what you believe in. Often that requires courage.

The three smaller beads speak to community, resilience and leadership. These are words I thought I understood, but didn't truly appreciate until after the earthquake.

Community is not the co-location of houses – that's a suburb. It's the relationship between the people in those houses and their relationship as a group with decision-makers – that's community.

And of course community is not limited to location or place – it also refers to communities of identity and interest. A community’s social capital is not measured by socio-economic status; it is measured by the strength of those relationships.

Leadership is not a position – it is a mark of character.
People often look to the heroic form of leadership after a disaster - it can be comforting to have someone else taking charge, knowing what to do.

But the leadership necessary for the long haul is based on qualities like these – engaging, respectful, inclusive, empathetic and intuitive.

I often make the point that we automatically think of women when we use these words but we don't always think of women when we think of leaders – the question I pose is whether we have had the heroic form of leadership drummed into us for so long that we don't see the qualities that are essential to bring out the leadership in others.

And resilience is not strength in the face of adversity – that's stoicism; something we Cantabrians have in spades. Resilience isn't just about maintaining critical functions and bouncing back into shape after something occurs. It includes the capacity to recover in the long-term better than ever before and if necessary to adapt to a new environment or new conditions. But it is the capacity to co-create a new future, which actually requires we in decision-making positions to let go of a significant part of our authority – that is something I now recognise as the true hallmark of resilience.

The message I take from my necklace is 'courageous leadership that speaks the truth and empowers communities to co-create the environment in which they live will build resilience in the true sense of the word'.

What a powerful message to carry with me.

I attended the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai in March last year - 20 years after I attended the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing.

If there is one thing that was reinforced both times, it was the need for women to be at the table when decisions are made. “A seat at the table” is a perfect name for this conference.

The challenges we face are greater today than they have ever been – disasters – caused by natural events or man-made - climate change and extreme weather events from storms to droughts, extreme violence, terrorism, income inequality. If women don't sit at the table when the decisions are made about how to combat all of these, they are condemned to continue to be their greatest victims. That was the message in 1995 and it was the same message in 2015.

And it is true in every sphere of life.

I don't think the NZX top 100 listed companies are part of a conspiracy to keep women from their boardrooms – I just think that their dominant male composition – a high percentage have no women on them at all – is self-perpetuating.
When we look for someone to serve on a committee or a board or a fundraising team, we go to the people we have worked with before and ask them.

I believe the real challenge is to ensure that the decision-makers and the shoulder-tappers appreciate the value in diversity and the strength it can bring to an organisation.

This is not about tokenism or even entitlement; it is about what is in the best interests of the company or our city or our nation going forward.

If we don't have diversity at the Council table, the boardroom tables, the management tables and the Cabinet table, then we don't get the benefit of the range of perspectives and insights that we all bring to the table. That's how to tackle complex issues – no single perspective can resolve complexity.

Even the young women you teach know that today. I had the pleasure of listening to a secondary school student at TEDx a couple of years ago, who was described as a future problem-solver. She described a perfect decision-making framework.

First turn your problem into something that can be solved and get as many points of view around the table to contribute to finding solutions; then work through them until you find one that everyone agrees is worth giving a go. Even 14 year olds do it better than council!

So in your role as principals providing leadership for the education of our 21st century women leaders, you have an opportunity to shape the lives of those who will change the world.
​
And I think that is a good place for me to end and to invite you to contemplate what that might mean.