Minutes of the Wellington Branch Training and Networking Event
held on 6th October 2022
at Fire and Emergency New Zealand Head Office, and online via Teams
Welcome:
Chairperson Jessica Keltie opens the meeting with a Karakia (prayer). Jessica also welcomes the meetings presenters Hans Gerlich, Winstone Wallboards, and Ricky Pene, Thermawise Homes.
Attendance:Wellington City Council: Maggie Kay, Peter Burnet, Steve Kallahar
Hutt City Council: Andrew Castre, Zoe So’otaga, Aimee Reisima, Hazel McColl
Upper Hutt City Council: Leyla Paine
MBIE: Tony Moore, Murray Usmar
Porirua City Council: Tom Straker
BOINZ: Belinda Dunn, Dana Mackay
FENZ: Rosie Chote, Jessica Keltie
New Zealand Police: Wayne Goodfellow
Future Skills: Peter Sparrow
Kapiti Coast District Council: John Peterson
BRANZ: Robbie Mitten
Thermawise: Ricky Pene
Apologies: Nick Hill, Inka Gliesche-HumphrisMembership renewals are beginning this month. BOINZ will be reaching out to councils and other BOINZ members to confirm their 2023 membership, please email membership@boinz.org.nz if you have any questions. Head over to MYBOINZ to update your details and see the 2023 membership prices.
The spring edition of Straight Up was recently released and is available to read in MYBOINZ. Reading Straight Up is worth one CPD point.
Board Representative Update:
Jessica welcomed Nelson/Marlborough and Wellington Branch Representative; Peter Sparrow.
Peter Sparrow introduces himself and gives a brief history of his career this far. Peter was in the NZ Army and is now lecturing at Future Skills. Peter occasionally does consultancy work. He understands and is aware of time constraints on our members and wants to be a voice for them.
Guest Presentation: Hans Gerlich, Winstone Wallboards
- The manufacturing of GIB products, Hans shows a video of the cycle of making GIB.
- New plant called “Project Basalt” which cost $400m.
- The land which the new factory is being built on is 13 hectares.
- This new factory is 50% faster in terms of outputs than the Auckland plant. This is due to increasing the length of the new factory. If the factory is not the right length you will end up cutting the plaster slurry. The board must be dry before cutting.
- “Project Basalt” is the greenest plant we know of in New Zealand due to the eco friendly nature of GIB plaster board. At the moment GIB goes to “green gorilla” for fertiliser. However, GIB can be reused to make plasterboard again due to the nature of gypsum.
- Staffing the plant will be a problem for GIB as there are 150 vacancies and highly qualified staff may not want to leave Auckland for Tauranga.
- They will eventually close the Auckland plant. It is reaching its end-of-life suffering from foundational subsidence.
- The challenges this build faced was, COVID restrictions, Suarez Channel blockage, Ukraine/Russian war, chip/electronic shortages.
Guest Presentation: Ricky Pene, Thermawise Homes
Please click here to download Ricky's presentation. Members are welcome to contact Ricky directly if they have any questions about Thermawise Homes presentation.
Ricky Pene, Thermawise Homes
M 022 3694753
Jessica thanked all those in attendance and brought the meeting to a close.

