Cura. I'm Susan Nordquitzt and for Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. Provincial New Zealand is Hurting. Alliance Group is proposing to close its Timidoo meat processing plant in Smithfield with a loss of hundreds of jobs, and earlier this month, Windstone Pulp International said it would close two mills near Ohokuni, which will see two hundred and thirty
people lose their jobs. To discuss the impact facing small towns in New Zealand and if there's a way out from them today on the Front Page, we are joined by doctor Sean Connolly, senior lecturer at the School of Geography at the University of a Targo. Sean, what are the ramifications going to be for those small centers who are facing the loss of major employers.
Well, I think in the first instance, it's a period of crisis and people feeling all kinds of uncertainty around what their futures look like. That's on an individual level, but also for the wider community. It's likely that those that are able to will move and they'll find work elsewhere. They'll take their skills elsewhere, but that not everyone will be able to move, and they'll be quite worried about
their economic future and their livelihoods. Overall, likely to see a decline in the younger population, they're more likely to move to other opportunities. So you see an out migration of younger people, people with families, and that could have the flow on effect on the viability of some schools and some more rural and remote places.
What does history show us about the impact of big businesses leaving smaller centers.
Often in the smaller places that are very much resource dependent or in this single industry pen see a rapid population decline and it takes quite a while for that to stabilize at a much lower population level, much lower level of economic activity.
Sean, one of the major concerns is going to be around population decline in these centers. What would a mass exodus of people mean for a community.
Once you have a substantial out migration from a community, it really starts to question the viability of the town in the future. You've got issues around the viability of health services, whether that's doctors at pharmacy, pharmacists or schools, and whether that's sort of closing classrooms and losing teachers
or the closure of entire schools. You see the out migration of people that are volunteering in the community, so you won't have as many people volunteering for sports clubs and that kind of thing, and a real impact on the ko U and sort of the social networks in those communities. So it is really important to avoid or to manage decline in such a way that this crisis period doesn't lead to a self fulfilling downward spiral.
Is that your fear with some of these.
Towns, some of the smaller towns. Yeah, certainly, once you reach a certain critical mass, the options for the future get narrowed much quicker. But that doesn't mean that it's sort of that it's all lost. There are communities that have rallied around and saved their health services, for example, and set up their own trust so that they run doctors' offices and health centers and pharmacists to maintain that level
of service in the community. Because I think it's important to remember that these small towns don't exist in isolation. They are a critical service provider for the much wider rural district that rely.
On heart break and devastation tonight for Ruape District communities in this central North Island. It follows confirmation this afternoon that the region's biggest employer is closing its two mills with the loss of around two hundred and thirty jobs. The Kuriyoway pult Mill and tounguy Wi Sawmill are located along State Highway forty nine. The shut down a massive blow for nearby communities like Wayuu or Hakune and rights he.
A terrible day for meat workers and tomorrow that's right. Alliance Group has announced its proposing to close its Smithfield Meat Works. If confirmed, sheep meat, calves and night shift venison processing will stop at the end of the season and the remaining venison at the end of the year at the latest. The Timidoo plant employs more than six hundred people at peak season. Mayor and Nigel Bowen says it's a proposal that will deeply hurt the community.
Now.
State sen Zed says areas like the West Coast and Southland could lose population over the next few years. What other towns are at risk of seeing population declined lines and why do you think that is so?
If you look at the profile it is relatively uneven the small towns and rural centers. A lot of the small, more isolated communities in the central North Island, on the West Coast and in Southland are seeing population decline, but that's not uniform. There are some places that are located within the commuter belt of the larger cities that we've
seen some growth in. We've seen other places that are actually struggling to deal with growth because of the physical amenities of a place, the tourism potential retirees moving out of the city to some of these places as well.
I think it's fair to say that many people, especially those in urban cities, don't really consider a lot of these towns that we're talking about arry the tourists spots or the towns that we drive through to get somewhere. In your opinion, what is the importance of having thriving small towns.
They play a really important role. We often forget that the smaller towns, towns of ten thousand people or less.
Just under twenty percent of our population lives in these kinds of communities, so there's lots of employment activity, there, lots of businesses, and they're a key driver for our GDP in terms of the tradable not so much the services, but the goods really rely on the services that those small towns provide, and so they do play an important role in a social sense sort of just the value of those communities in those places, but also in an economic sense, we really need that divers city of cities,
towns and smaller rural communities.
Given the imports that you place on small towns. What was your reaction to the proposed closure of the meatworks and Timorrow and the mill closures in the North Island.
Feel bad for the people people affected, certainly, and those communities. It's likely to have a greater impact on those towns in the North Island because they are smaller. Timuru is a more diversified economy, but that's not the case elsewhere.
Is diversity the caving.
I think we really need to be having a conversation about do we value small towns in our rural communities or are they too important to be just left to
market forces. Right now, we've got policy and planning that is almost entirely geared towards this assumption that everywhere will grow, and we don't have the necessary policies to deal with decline, How do we ensure that public services, infrastructure can all be maintained so that people still living in these rural communities can still maintain a high quality of life, can still provide for their well being. That's not something that can be left just to rates. I don't believe.
You. May remember a few years ago, economist Shamawil Jakub said that many small towns in the country resembled places in the Third World, with a loss of small town functions and populations, creating zombie towns that need to close. Is that a fear description in your view?
No, I don't think it is. I think zombie town discussion was really useful in terms of drawing attention to alter Roa's rural towns. It did shine a spotlight on the fact that they are often ignored and take it for granted. But the reality is those small towns in absolute decline are really not the norm. We often see periods of decline then and stabilization, and so I guess I would like to see the conversation moving towards how
can we best support stabilization in a new context. If industry is going to close in these towns, how do we support those that remain behind, that want to remain behind, how do we ensure that maintain their quality of life they still have access to the same level of services and that's not something I think that can be left entirely to the volunteer capacity of those communities themselves.
And could that support come from central government? Could they play a role here in saving some of these towns, and if so, how can they do that?
I think in part it is thinking about the resources that central government has and how they're allocated to communities. We know all across the country that rates are rising as communities both small and large, struggle to deal with crumbling infrastructure and infrastructure deficits and upgrading pipes and roads and all that kind of thing, and that can't be just based on rates. Sort of the tax system needs some looking at as well.
Reefton is possibly the last true left in New Zealand and how to describe a count was as it was when we were young, and where there is a kinship, where there is a care for each other, but you've got all the basic services that you need to be able to live life. What I love about it is that during the day she has flat out Refion is
the gateway through the Westerns. All the shops are doing well, the key rooms, all the food outlets, and then at about five o'clock you would stand in the middle of the road, the middle of the state highway and have a natter.
There are some success stories, though, aren't there. Reefed And being an example of a town that was facing a decline in their population and they've managed to turn around their fortunes. What was their secret?
So Reefedon's an example where they faced a process of declining population through loss of government services, changes in the mining industry, and closure of some minds the feast population decline, and they were able to restable lies and reorient sort of the purpose of the identity of that town through process of local leadership, lots of effort and local volunteers, people working together to position Reefton as a nice heritage town and sort of building on the physical attributes of
that place. It helps that it's not too far from christ Church, so it can capitalize sort of the weekend domestic tourism. But it has been successful in people that grew up in Reefton back to town and it's largely focused on a livability kind of focus. It's a nice place to live, the quality of life is good, it's
perhaps more affordable than some of the urban centers. A nice combination of the physical amenities and the location of that town, but also a lot of hard work and effort and local leadership in Reefdoon over many years.
Do some small towns need to develop something they are well known for, like how Almadu has its steampunk festival every year.
Yeah, there's all kinds of examples of places trying to differentiate themselves. I remember a number of years ago Westport put up billboards in christ Church talking about how cheap the housing was in Westport to try and attract people to move. The Kitangata in the South Island a number of years ago was offering housing and land package. That got a lot of attention and has attracted a few new families to that community. So yeah, there's there's things
that can be done. I guess I would just question how can those communities be supported rather than be just left to their own devices.
I mean, in Amaru since two thousand and seven senergy was lifting then and then the steampunk came along, and the ups the ocean came along, and it's just really booming.
Now.
Drove down to the Bigrodi one from Dunadin, there's a lot of steampunk is in the We call it the Stame Park Capital of the world. I'd like to refer to as just the place of pilgrimage because it's so blink and difficult to get to.
Do you think we care enough as a country about these small towns?
Probably not enough. I think we hear these stories about industry closure, and we care about the impacts on the individuals that are affected and the families that are affected. But there's no sustained attention on those communities.
And if we don't have these tough conversations, could we see a country littered with ghost towns.
Well, yeah, and we already see that our major centers are struggling to deal with growth, and many of our small towns are really struggling to deal with growth. You've got places like Cromwell, for example, where there's really acute housing shortage, dealing with the growth pressures of Queenstown and
elsewhere in Central Attagraph. So I guess the question is do we want to abandon our small communities where they're already is infrastructure, there's schools and facilities and all that kind of thing and just concentrate population in intellct centers or have that population distributed and supporting a lot of the primary industries and the rural economic activities that are happening in the rural places that are a significant component of our economy.
Just finally, Sean, is there a silver bullet solution here or is it a case of accepting perhaps a population decline and helping these towns adapt to what may be a new normal.
Yeah.
I think there's a lot of discussion about right sizing rural communities all around the world. We can't have this assumption that absolutely everywhere will will continue to grow. It's just not going to happen. So the key thing is what can we do to make sure that people's quality of life, no matter where they're living in New Zealand, can be maintained. How can they be supported?
Thanks for joining us Sean for this episode of the Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage at inz Herald dot co dot nz. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Sells Van Goodwin as a sounder engineer. I'm Susie Nordquist. Subscribe to the front page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.