My Taumata Arowai story
Hear directly from our kaimahi about why they joined Taumata Arowai and what drives them.
A place that aligns with my te ao Māori values
“I wanted to continue my te ao Māori journey, working in an organisation that upholds Te Tiriti o Waitangi, that helps our tāngata , whenua , te taiao and our wai . When I realised my holistic values and beliefs aligned with Taumata Arowai, I knew I had found a role that could help me achieve those goals.” Harmony, Regulatory Operations Advisor
Consulting in a genuinely different way
“The key thing I would say about our approach to consultation is it’s very genuine and very well planned. After our consultation on the proposed new Drinking Water Quality Assurance Rules and Standards, you'll see that we made significant changes because we went back to people who'd made submissions, we asked them more questions, we got more feedback, then we went deeper into that feedback to find out more - Why do they think that?
At the end of the day, it means we deliver far better outcomes – because we really, genuinely listened and responded. And if you've ever heard our Chief Executive speak, he says that repeatedly and he tells staff we're here to listen. It's one of the reasons I really love working here.” Jim, Chief Advisor Water Science
Self-confessed policy wonk!
“I’m a policy wonk! What’s better than regulatory policy where you're basically starting with a blank sheet of paper - where we can put our own mark on it!
I've worked previously in government, but you don’t often get this sort of opportunity to do grunty policy work from scratch.
We're lucky because our work programme is big, with some multiyear pieces of work where we're setting up critical aspects of how the water sector is regulated. You can look across your work program and think ‘what aligns with what I want to do and areas I'm interested in working on because they’re all there!” Simone, Principal Policy Advisor
It’s all about my communities!
“I am very passionate about working with my community, New Zealand and the environment. Finding an organisation that has those values aligned with what I am passionate about is quite difficult. When I saw the Taumata Arowai job come up, it kind of ticked all my boxes and it had that community aspect – as I really want to engage with groups such as iwi, hapū, Māori. Being a Māori descendant myself, that really spoke to me. I also really appreciated the te ao Māori focus of the organisation – that was probably the selling point!
There's quite a bit of travel in my role (I’m based in Kirikiriroa Hamilton) – that could be a positive or a benefit for some people. This involves going to site visits for water suppliers. For example, we went to Taupo last week, we had two days there, and the week before we went to Thames Coromandel. I went to Tauranga for a day trip too, and next week we have a day trip to Matamata Piako area. It’s quite good to be on the ground with these people and seeing things in real life happening – not just talking to someone at a “paperwork” level but meeting the operators that are running things is really cool!
Being part of our kāinga work with whānau, hapū, iwi, kōhanga, papakāinga and marae has kept me passionate and wanting to help and continue to give back to the communities and provide them a bridge to Taumata Arowai. So yeah, that’s great - I really like that!” Courtney-Ruth, Senior Regulatory Operations Advisor