Here are a few thoughts to challenge your thinking and to keep you aware of issues that may impact your business.
The Waikato Economy
We received the Infometrics Quarterly Economic Monitor for Q2, and after a webinar with Brad Olsen, we were pleasantly surprised. The mighty Waikato is doing well economically. Without a great deal of fanfare in April, May and June, apparently the hardest quarter of our year, the Waikato performed remarkably well.
What we learned was positive in tough times. The Waikato economy continues to build momentum, with provisional estimates from Infometrics showing a 2.3%pa lift in economic activity over the 12 months to June 2026. In a supposedly tough economic environment, Waikato’s growth was the strongest regional performance in the North Island.
The number of businesses operating in the Waikato rose 1.3%pa over the same period, reinforcing this economic growth.
What was really encouraging was that job numbers improved further in the June 2026 year across the Waikato. With a 1.1%pa lift in the quarter taking annual average jobs growth to 0.3%pa up over the year, the Waikato is the strongest when it comes to the North Island’s regional jobs market.
Growth in education, health, and primary sector roles drove this increase, although construction and manufacturing roles remain below year-ago levels. There are further signs of improvement, with job ads across Waikato having increased 9.4% over the past year.
Hamilton Airport is a bright spot. Total international passenger arrivals into the Airport totalled nearly 58,000 over the 12 months ending June 2026, and nearly 120,000 total international passenger movements (arrivals and departures) have been recorded since international services restarted.
As expected, dairy and meat activity remains strong across the Waikato, and the still-high dairy prices are set to deliver a $4.7b pay-out in the current season – down slightly on the $5b last season, but still high compared to most years.
Nationally, primary sector bank deposits remain $1.5b higher due to the Fonterra capital return. Our farmers are being prudent with their windfall and are wary of a change in farmgate prices.
All this data bodes well for a strong foundation for the Waikato economy for several years.
Chamber Moves to Heart of the Region's Innovative Engine
The Waikato Chamber of Commerce will relocate to Waikato Innovation Park at the end of September, placing the region’s largest business network inside the Waikato’s fastest-growing hub for innovation, research and enterprise.
The move puts the Chamber alongside dozens of innovation-led businesses at the Park, part of the wider Waikato Knowledge Zone that includes the University of Waikato and the AgResearch Ruakura campus, and next door to the mighty Ruakura Superhub, one of the largest industrial and logistics developments underway in New Zealand.
Innovation is not a slogan for the Waikato; it’s what the region actually does. It is happening in agritech, in food, forestry, and fibre, in engineering, in logistics, in energy and incredibly fast in the digital sector, and a great deal of it is happening within a few hundred metres of our new front door. Being based at Waikato Innovation Park puts the Chamber in the room where that work is going on every day.
Our members are spread right across the Waikato, from Te Kūiti to Pokeno, Raglan to Matamata. The Park sits near the Waikato Expressway, a project the Chamber campaigned for over many years and is minutes from Hamilton Airport and the fast-growing Titanium Park.
We sincerely thank Fosters for our time at Union Square, which is a superb development and a genuine credit to Hamilton. It has raised the bar for commercial space in this city, and we have loved being part of it.
The team there has looked after us exceptionally well, and we have made real friendships among the businesses in those buildings. We will be back at Union Square often, and we look forward to continuing to work alongside everyone there.
Infrastructure and Southern Links
New Zealand has a large deficit in infrastructure, as successive governments and councils have invested in the nice-to-haves and deferred the need-to-haves.
The Waikato Expressway has been nothing short of amazing for economic development. Just look at the ongoing business development at the Ruakura Superhub, Hautapu, and Pokeno.
But the wobbly cycle of infrastructure procrastination needs to change.
Southern Links has been a roading project since before 2012. It links the industrial side of Hamilton to the Airport and to the Waikato Expressway as well as SH3. It opens up the southwest down to Taranaki.
The halt by NZTA to the Southern Links project is another example of our bureaucracy and politicians playing with infrastructure. Our enthusiasm for the project is undimmed. Minister hails Southern Links as removing a ‘handbrake to growth’ in Waikato, but it has been canned again. We cannot keep on doing this expensive yoyo management of infrastructure.
With major roading projects in the Bay of Plenty finishing soon, the roading industry needs a decent pipeline of work to hang onto good staff. When Labour and the Greens canned the Cambridge to Piarere 8 years ago Extension of expressway from Cambridge to Piarere won't happen within a decade | Stuff, there was an exodus of experienced staff to Australia. It is happening again.
Sadly, the decision back in 2018 by Julie Anne Genter and Phil Twyford to pull the funding for the extension increased the cost by a billion dollars. Back in 2018, the Cambridge to Piarere project was estimated to cost $570 million. It is now estimated to cost $1.8billion.
Are we going to see more dumb decisions by central government politicians?
Our politicians need to show courage and invest in the Southern Links project that will bring outstanding development to the country.
Are our local Hamilton and Waikato MPs doing enough to keep it on track? Are they being effective?
Simplifying Local Government
There has been a lack of leadership from Hamilton City Council on Simplifying Local Government. They have thrown themselves on central government to decide their future structure and now have no negotiating power.
We are unimpressed by the HCC white paper on Simplifying Local Government. It doesn’t make a case for a conclusion and lets the councillors down when giving them advice. There was no financial modelling of what each option would cost, and they had over 6 months to put it together. They certainly did not cost out the ramifications of going through the backstop process.
It has the hallmarks of protecting their positions rather than working in the best interests of their ratepayers. Or it could be that having the vision to see what our future generations would want is not a skill they possess.
We expect better. They are the biggest council in the Waikato and had the horsepower to run some high-level numbers on each option.
With under 700 submissions to HCC on the SLG proposals, the lack of engagement means that Hamilton ratepayers must see the unification of the Waikato as inevitable; otherwise they would be up in arms protesting against it.
Business is disenchanted with HCC not being as business-like as it should be. Although we appreciate the work some councillors are doing to rein in the ridiculous costs we see HCC paying for. Andrew Bydder and Graeme Mead are challenging the bureaucrats. https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BDs6sSx7T/
Medical School + Recruiting Exceptionally Well
The Waikato Medical School is under construction; we have a BA4 there with the University of Waikato and Fosters, on 16 September for members to attend. Register here
While we are pleased to see progress on the Medical School building, we are even more excited in the calibre of the staff that will work at the Waikato Medical School. Waikato med school reveals new boss | Waikato Times
Getting the right people on the bus is an old business maxim, and Vice Chancellor Neil Quigley is certainly doing that with his new school.
Your Tax and the Concept of Ceteris Paribus
It seems that tax will be one of the battlegrounds for this year’s election. There will be others, of course, but tax impacts us all. This Stuff article reminds us of the major proviso in all discussions around tax and gives an example of how Ceteris Paribus affects the taxes of both employees and employers.
One of the clearest, apolitical, and shortest articles on tax you need to keep in mind when listening to politicians this year.
Moa Point and Mt Maunganui
If a farmer has a failure that results in a waterway spill, they are fined or risk jail. When a business fails to protect the life of their employees Court’s decision on POAL CEO sets new precedent for health and safety, they are charged and convicted.
When will local government bureaucrats and politicians have to pay the fines that farmers do?
When will bureaucrats and councillors face similar consequences when leading organisations that fail to protect their people and their ratepayers?
Something went seriously wrong': Answers on Moa Point to be released next week | RNZ
Damning report into fatal Mount Maunganui landslide shows tragedy was preventable | RNZ
