This Week's Meeting
This week we welcomed two new members, Tony Caughey and Dean Edwards Click on more ... for details). Both as senior business leaders, well recognised in the business community add to the talent and experience of our members. We heard from the President of the Rotaract Club of Auckland, who was our 5 Minute Speaker. Our key note speaker was the Principal Economist with the NZ Institute of Economic Research, Shambeel Eaqub, whose speech was titled 'Economic Outlook: the long shadow of the GFC'.
On Monday we welcomed two new members into our Club – Tony Caughey (Retail) and Dean Edwards (Insurance Distribution)
Tony’s father Bill was a member of our Club for many years. Amongst Tony's many activities, Tony is Chair of our leading, retailer Smith & Caughey’s. Tony has a long history of public and community service and was proposed by President-Elect Stewart. Tony's membership re-engages the Caughey family that has had a long association with Rotary. Tony is the fifth member of the family to be a member of the Club.
Dean has worked in the insurance industry for many year. Dean has been part of the Lumley General Insurance CEO's executive team. Dean is leaving Lumley and his next move, according to President Craig who proposed Dean, is the subject of much industry speculation.
Welcome Tony & Dean!
Our 5 Minute Speaker this week was Teri Anderson, who is the current President of the Rotaract Club of Auckland City. Teri talked about Rotaract and how far the Club she is President of has come over the last twelve months regarding increasing their membership and their fundraising and community work. This year the Rotaract Club of Auckland will be celebrating its tenth anniversary and hopes many of our Club members will join in the celebration. This Club meets fortnightly at the Empire Hotel on a Tuesday night, but is looking for another venue and if you know of somewhere, then please contact Jacqui in the office.
Our first speaker this year was Shambeel Eaqub, who is the Principal Economist with the NZ Institute of Economic Research. Shambeel speech was titled ‘Economic Outlook: the long shadow of the GFC’, which turned out to be quite a sombre and thought provoking talk. Lessons that should have been learnt after the GFC have generally not been and while NZ appears to be in a relatively good fiscal position, compared to many other countries around the world, just focusing on the ‘average’, is hiding a number or worrying factors. For example, our export markets are still not diversified enough, Auckland’s housing market is making it difficult for first home buyers to buy a property anywhere in New Zealand, eighty percent of new jobs are Auckland white colour jobs and New Zealand’s debt is still far too large. So what is happening is the gulf between rich and poor is continuing to grow. We are still not in ‘normal’ economic conditions because of the GFC and our economy does not exist in a vacuum. Rather than focusing on the ‘average’, look at the range. For example, if you ignore employment growth in Auckland and the building growth in Christchurch, you find most kiwis are not benefitting from our improving economy (similar to ignoring the mining industry when looking at Australia’s economy). Shambeel described the fallout of the GFC similar to that of the 1920s world depression. We need to embrace gradual growth and ensure people who are not benefiting from our improving economy don’t become disengaged (look at what is happening in Spain and Greece) - because if the experiences of the majority of our population continues to be ignored, eventually there will be repercussions which will impact everyone.
And finally our Sergeant Ngaio Merrick used the theme of Auckland’s amazing summer weather to ensure a healthy boost to our Sunshine fund.