August 11, 2024 • 18 mins
A new report has suggested that the country’s biggest city is going backwards.
The second annual State of the City report, which compares Auckland’s progress against nine major cities around the globe, has shown that things are on the backwards trend.
While outside factors like the Anniversary weekend floods, inflation and post-Covid recovery contributed to the worse than expected outcomes, the report highlights a number of longer-term problem areas that the city needs to address.
Today on The Front Page, NZ Herald senior writer Simon Wilson joins us to analyse the state of Auckland, and how the city can improve.
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Producer: Ethan Sills
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Kiyota.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and This is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. A new
report has suggested that the country's biggest city is going backwards.
The second annual State of the City report, which compares
(00:27):
Auckland's progress against nine major cities around the globe, has
shown that things are on the backwards trend. While outside
factors like the Anniversary weekend, floods, inflation and post COVID
recovery contribute it to the worse than expected outcomes, the
report highlights a number of longer term problem areas that
(00:49):
the city really needs to address today. On the Front Page,
ends At Herald's senior writer Simon Wilson joins us to
analyze the state of Auckland and how the city can improved. Simon,
what's the purpose of this State of the City report
and how long has it been running?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
The report was set up last year and the first
one came out in the middle of last year. It's
the work of a group called the Committee for Auckland,
which is civic leaders in the private and public sector,
as well as the Council Agency Tatuki. Auckland Unlimited, as
well as KOI TI, which is a think tank associated
with Auckland University and the Council itself, So it's kind
of kind of high powered pedigree, if you like. And
(01:32):
the idea is to benchmark Auckland against nine other comparable
cities places like Helsinki and Copenhagen in Scandinavia, Brisbane in Australia,
Austin in Texas America, places like that, to see how
well we're doing across a range of measures.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And how did they pick those specific cities.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Those cities are similar in size to Auckland and are
generally cities that are quite highly regarded internationally as Auckland does,
and have a similar ambition, if you like. They want
to be cities that are working well in the modern world.
They want to be connected through technology. They want to
offer opportunities for entrepreneurs and everybody else to come and
(02:11):
live and work and play. They want the same things
that we want. So therefore they are our key competitors
because they are the cities that are also saying to
all those entrepreneurs and all those people of talent and
everybody else, don't go to Auckland, come to Brisbane. Or
come to Helsinki or wherever.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
What exactly does the report measure?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
The report measures a whole lot of different things, ranging
from prosperity through the quality of the cultural experience through
its sustainability, a whole lot of stuff about lifestyle, what
it's like to live in the place, So that's everything
from you know, when you want to get out in
the weekend, is the something to do and of course
in Auckland there's an awful lot to do, through to
what's the transport like and how safe is it on
(02:51):
the streets and those sorts of things as well the
quality of education, the resilience of the city in relation
to natural disasters and other three and the opportunities that
people have, the economic, cultural, social opportunities that people have
as well.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
The State of the City Report is a benchmarking tool
that looks at how Auckland ranks against competitive cities around
the world. The report can help us come together to
forge a consensus on what our priorities for action should be.
What the things are that are holding Auckland and by extension,
New Zealand back.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I guess the headline draw from this report seems to
be that Auckland is slipping backwards compared to these other cities.
Is that actually the case.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
That is the case in some key indicators. So they
had ten key indicators, and we are getting worse in
four of them. We're the same in three, and we're
better in three, but in the four that we're getting
worse in. That's the quality the experience of being in
the city. It's connectedness, everything from how well we get around,
but also broadband connectedness and generally how well connected to
(03:56):
the rest of the world. In sustainability and especially in prosperity,
we are falling.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I can certainly see that from everyday life. And I
mean I often see people like those massive tour buses
in Auckland, you know, those double decker ones, and I
often think to myself as I'm walking to work, what
are they seeing?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yep, Well, those buses, those tour buses. They people have
got off a cruise ship. They're on their way to
rip Rure or possibly to somewhere up north to bare
Of Islands for a day trip. They'll see something pretty good.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You mean, they'll see the sky tower on the way
past past.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, So if you get off your cruise ship and
get onto a bus and off you go. That's fine.
But the larger question in terms of what this report's
done is said, well, if we want people of talent
and opportunity to come and live and work here, and
if we want people to invest here, then how good
is the offer that we're making. And this report says
that from the middle of last year to the middle
(04:50):
of this year it's got worse.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
So what are some of the main reasons for Auckland
slipping or slowing compared to those other cities.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
House prices one of the key factors. House prices are
high in many of the cities that we're compared against,
but they're not as high or they haven't risen as far.
And that's partly because New Zealand economy and the Auckland
economy are so dependent on house prices continuing to rise.
That's how we are structured. You know that there's a
theory that Auckland is a housing market with an economy
(05:19):
tacked on, and that is a problem for us in
terms of attracting people to come here. So that's the
key issue. We've got better at resilience, which is one
of the interesting things because of the terrible floods and
storms we had at the beginning of twenty twenty three.
We scored low and resilience a year ago, but there
have been a range of things, including how we mitigate
(05:39):
against that and plans like the Council's plans for making
space for water, things like that, which are making the
city more resilient. So that's a good mark if you like.
But there's still a lot more to do.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And you mentioned transport as well. How are we doing
in that department.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Well, we're not doing well at all, and I think
everyone would agree there. One of the underlying factors that
is highlighted in the report is a disconnect between city
planning and national planning, and Auckland's Mayor Wayne Brown says
the same. I think government probably says the same, and
the attempts to integrate the planning are fraught with difficulty
because there are different priorities involved. But the cities that
(06:18):
we're compared against, by and large have much stronger public transport,
much stronger and safer cycling networks and walking networks, those
sorts of things which take the pressure off the roads.
They have often better freight on rail, which again takes
pressure off the roads, and that's the key to improving
Auckland's transport, but we're quite a long way from achieving it.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
We're at a three year low in terms of traffic performance,
and that measures the satisfaction that commuters have. It measures
the network efficiencies around Auckland. We have improved in terms
of work life balance in Auckland and also we're back
into the top thirty in the world in terms of
student appeal. So look, there's some great news and things
we should be proud of.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Well, you know Auckland better than most people, I'd say,
do you agree with this report's findings.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I do. This is a great place to live if
you have a decent job and you don't live too
far away. Otherwise it starts to get problematic, and we've
got to make it a greater place to live for
a whole lot more people and simply that category if
you like. One of the things that the report says
that's interesting is that the objective measures are one thing,
(07:27):
and that's what they've done, but they've also tried to
assess perception and they've said that the perceptions of people
from around the world looking at Auckland, if they've had
something to do with it, here, they can be quite
favorably impressed with it, But if they're just hearing about it,
what the hearing is slipping that the city has more trouble,
more problems than it deserves, if you like. And that's
(07:49):
really because we've had a great deal of trouble positioning ourselves.
You know, we like to say we're a high tech economy.
We're actually not. We like to say that we're a
place where it's torrific to bring up kids. Well that's
clearly not true as well relative to other cities, and
the things we like to say about ourselves kind of
get in the way a bit of actually making progress
(08:10):
in those areas. So there's a problem there. It is
a good place, but it ought to be an exceptional place.
It has everything going for it in terms of its location,
it's climate, it's natural beauty, and stable democracy and relatively
strong economy compared to many parts of the world. It
ought to be a terrific place, and we're not making
the most of it.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown describes in the press release that
came along with this report that Auckland is more of
a city state than a local council, and it needs
an Auckland deal in order to improve what's your response.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
To that, Well, the government says the same thing, but
the Auckland deal will be made not made, particularly around transport.
Wayne Brown is pushing for an Auckland integrated transport plan,
but he's also made it clear that he doesn't share
the government's priorities for where the main transport money should
be spent. So how you get an Auckland deal in
that way will be pretty problematic. In addition to that,
(09:19):
while it's true that the New Zealand economy is largely
dependent on exports from the rural sector, food and fiber,
trees and meat and dairy in particular, we need to
be able to grow our tech sector and we need
to do that in agriculture as much as everywhere else
in Auckland has potentially a much bigger role to play
in doing that than it currently shoulders now So there
(09:40):
is disconnect with the universities's disconnect with some of the
specialist institutions, and they all need to be working much
more closely with government, with Council, with the city, with
money in the city to exploit their potential.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Auckland is special nowhere in Australia or New Zealand as
any council looking after a third of the Now I
am the representative.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Of a third of New zeal And.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
We're treated as if we're just a horror for neur
council wherever that is. This is a driver of the country.
If Aukland does well, the country does well. We are
forty percent of the economy, we produce forty percent of
the packs, and we don't get our share back well.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Brown's tenure as mayor has been dictated largely by what
the city has done wrong. I suppose do you think
he's championing the positive sides of Auckland.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
One of the great issues for all cities is that
they need champions. The champion is the cheerleader who gets
out there into the world and says, look at the
wonderful things we do in our city, and gets among
the citizenry and inspires us all to play our little
part to make the city better and bolder and more
(10:49):
terrific to be in. Which means that you've got to
find a way to say this is wrong and we're
going to fix it. But you've also really got to
find the way to make people feel good about things
and do better and set those benchmarks high. Many New
Zealand politicians find it easier to complain, and in my
own view, our mayor when Brown, finds it far easier
to complain than actually make things better.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well. The Harold also recently reported that Brown wants to
put elected officials in charge of Auckland Transport, bring ekir
Panaku Auckland and Taratuki Auckland Limited in house. Do you
think those changes are something the city needs and would
that actually address the concerns raised in this report.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
It's a really interesting challenge. Firstly, I think the mayor
is absolutely right we should have more democratic control over
Auckland Transport and the other agencies of council. The Auckland
Transport spends about half of the Council's income and yet
it's an independent board and is not as answerable to
Counsel to our elected representatives as it should be. So
(11:51):
the Mayor is quite right about that. More democracy would
be great. However, the bigger issue is the disconnect I
was talking about between central government and low government, and
Auckland Transport at the moment is kind of stuck in
the middle a little bit between them and then the
third factor is I don't know if Wayne Brown is
fully aware of the danger of getting what he wishes for,
(12:12):
because every Auckland council we've had since the super city
was formed in twenty ten has been a council that
believed in public transport, believed in lowering emissions. And there
is still a council policy called the Transport Emissions Reduction
Plan the URB, which calls for us really significant emissions
(12:34):
reductions by twenty thirty in our transport in this city.
That TURB is not being implemented by Auckland Transport. But
if transport planning came under the auspices directly of Auckland Council,
then most councilors would say, we've got to do much
more to make that a reality, To lower our emissions,
to increase public transport, cycling and walking, to make the
(12:58):
streets safer and easier to be in for everybody. That
is what the public consistently says they want when they
are asked to vote or to make public submissions. It's
very consistent and very clear, and yet it hasn't really
been done. So yes, Brown's right, we need more democracy,
but I also think he may not be fully aware
(13:18):
that what he's arguing for is a lower emissions transport economy,
which will make the streets safer and more pleasant to
be on and will have those really big improvements in
public transport well.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
The report's three main recommendations involving building up Auckland's competitive
position in key industries, national policies to form a national
local consensus on infrastructure, and conscientious and collaborative leadership about
the city's direction, appeal and identity development. Now buzzwords aside.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, I'll tell you it is really hard to say
buzzwords aside because the report is an exercise in buzzwords.
It's so riddled with jargon. One of the reasons for
it is that you can describe a problem in jargon,
which is theoretically technical language or professional language, and avoid
talking about the politics. But the reason we have this
(14:17):
and not that is political always because there have been
political choices made to build that road, not to have
those buses, to have mari wards or not have marrii wards,
all those sorts of things. They are political choices. One
of the things this report says is that Auckland is
one of the most diverse cities in the world is
right up the top. We really don't exploit the potential
(14:38):
of that, and it is also founded on this remarkable
relationship or a relationship with a remarkable potential between Mani
Fenua and everybody else, and we don't exploit that. Well,
those things are political, may require leadership, and if we
had them, it's part of making Auckland really special because
those provide us with our.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Uniqueness in terms of buzzwords aside and I'm assuming you
wrung them through perhaps AI to decipher what everything was,
what everything meant, or it may make it worse. Does
that sound about right to you? Or do you think
we should look at other changes? Perhaps we do need
(15:18):
to be more competitive in those key industries though, don't.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
We Yes, we do, Yes, we do.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
So.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
One of the elements of that is that A good
example of the challenge for Auckland and for New Zealand
is from Terra's recent decision to get out of value
added milk powder products and other words, the cheeses and
all the rest that its various brands are producing and
simply concentrate on commodity production and export of milk powder.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Here we giant Fonterra one of the largest dairy producers
in the world, is changing the way it does business.
It's looking at selling off some of our most well
known brands, among them Anchor, Mainland Carpetsy, Fern Leaf and
Mum Baby Formula and Fresh and Fruity. The consumer channel,
your kitchen staples, milk, cheese, yogurt, butter earned a three
point three figure and that is the arm being sold.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Now, that's anti everything that we've been told for a
long time. Now this country and its economy needs to
be doing an exports. It undermines it completely. Fonterra is
an Auckland company based here, and we'll find it very
easy to tell you all about the high tech work
they're doing and how sophisticated they are and blah blah blah.
The reality is they are have decided not to lead
(16:27):
in that tech area, but to just get back to
that commodity production. That's a real challenge for the city.
If the big dairy company isn't going to do that,
how are we going to prosper and grow as a
city relying on highly skilled people to generate money for
us for the city economy. And it's you know, it's
hard to know the answer to that when the corporates
(16:48):
aren't doing their bit in this case font Era.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
And lastly, Simon, after reading the report, would you be
staying in Auckland or would you be moving to Copenhagen
or the like?
Speaker 3 (16:58):
I would stay in all. However, would I like to
spend some time in some of those other cities us
in Geek, Copenhagen, Austin which I've been to, Yeah, definitely.
Dublin's another one, though. There are cities there that are
doing exciting things and we could learn from and it
would be great for us to have the chance to
do that. The other things this report says is that
even if you look at bigger cities, and it gives
(17:21):
the example of Saint Paulo in Brazil and New Delhi
in India, which are both enormous, enormous cities, they have
really exciting things going on that we think of them
as kind of just full of people and not doing much,
but it's actually not true. And where cities in those
developing countries are doing really fascinating things to build their economies,
(17:45):
and we're sitting here Smokeley going it's isn't it nice
to be here? The challenge just gets bigger and bigger
for us.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
As we sep our twenty eight dollar cocktail on the waterfront.
Thanks for joining us, Simon. That said, for this episode
of the Front Page, you can read more about today's
stories and extensive news coverage at enzedherld dot co dot z.
(18:11):
The Front Page is produced by Ethan Siles with sound
engineer Patty Fox. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front
Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and
tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
Kiyota.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I'm Chelsea Daniels and This is the Front Page, a
daily podcast presented by The New Zealand Herald. A new
report has suggested that the country's biggest city is going backwards.
The second annual State of the City report, which compares
(00:27):
Auckland's progress against nine major cities around the globe, has
shown that things are on the backwards trend. While outside
factors like the Anniversary weekend, floods, inflation and post COVID
recovery contribute it to the worse than expected outcomes, the
report highlights a number of longer term problem areas that
(00:49):
the city really needs to address today. On the Front Page,
ends At Herald's senior writer Simon Wilson joins us to
analyze the state of Auckland and how the city can improved. Simon,
what's the purpose of this State of the City report
and how long has it been running?
Speaker 3 (01:10):
The report was set up last year and the first
one came out in the middle of last year. It's
the work of a group called the Committee for Auckland,
which is civic leaders in the private and public sector,
as well as the Council Agency Tatuki. Auckland Unlimited, as
well as KOI TI, which is a think tank associated
with Auckland University and the Council itself, So it's kind
of kind of high powered pedigree, if you like. And
(01:32):
the idea is to benchmark Auckland against nine other comparable
cities places like Helsinki and Copenhagen in Scandinavia, Brisbane in Australia,
Austin in Texas America, places like that, to see how
well we're doing across a range of measures.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
And how did they pick those specific cities.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Those cities are similar in size to Auckland and are
generally cities that are quite highly regarded internationally as Auckland does,
and have a similar ambition, if you like. They want
to be cities that are working well in the modern world.
They want to be connected through technology. They want to
offer opportunities for entrepreneurs and everybody else to come and
(02:11):
live and work and play. They want the same things
that we want. So therefore they are our key competitors
because they are the cities that are also saying to
all those entrepreneurs and all those people of talent and
everybody else, don't go to Auckland, come to Brisbane. Or
come to Helsinki or wherever.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
What exactly does the report measure?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
The report measures a whole lot of different things, ranging
from prosperity through the quality of the cultural experience through
its sustainability, a whole lot of stuff about lifestyle, what
it's like to live in the place, So that's everything
from you know, when you want to get out in
the weekend, is the something to do and of course
in Auckland there's an awful lot to do, through to
what's the transport like and how safe is it on
(02:51):
the streets and those sorts of things as well the
quality of education, the resilience of the city in relation
to natural disasters and other three and the opportunities that
people have, the economic, cultural, social opportunities that people have
as well.
Speaker 4 (03:06):
The State of the City Report is a benchmarking tool
that looks at how Auckland ranks against competitive cities around
the world. The report can help us come together to
forge a consensus on what our priorities for action should be.
What the things are that are holding Auckland and by extension,
New Zealand back.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
I guess the headline draw from this report seems to
be that Auckland is slipping backwards compared to these other cities.
Is that actually the case.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
That is the case in some key indicators. So they
had ten key indicators, and we are getting worse in
four of them. We're the same in three, and we're
better in three, but in the four that we're getting
worse in. That's the quality the experience of being in
the city. It's connectedness, everything from how well we get around,
but also broadband connectedness and generally how well connected to
(03:56):
the rest of the world. In sustainability and especially in prosperity,
we are falling.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
I can certainly see that from everyday life. And I
mean I often see people like those massive tour buses
in Auckland, you know, those double decker ones, and I
often think to myself as I'm walking to work, what
are they seeing?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yep, Well, those buses, those tour buses. They people have
got off a cruise ship. They're on their way to
rip Rure or possibly to somewhere up north to bare
Of Islands for a day trip. They'll see something pretty good.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
You mean, they'll see the sky tower on the way
past past.
Speaker 5 (04:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, So if you get off your cruise ship and
get onto a bus and off you go. That's fine.
But the larger question in terms of what this report's
done is said, well, if we want people of talent
and opportunity to come and live and work here, and
if we want people to invest here, then how good
is the offer that we're making. And this report says
that from the middle of last year to the middle
(04:50):
of this year it's got worse.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
So what are some of the main reasons for Auckland
slipping or slowing compared to those other cities.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
House prices one of the key factors. House prices are
high in many of the cities that we're compared against,
but they're not as high or they haven't risen as far.
And that's partly because New Zealand economy and the Auckland
economy are so dependent on house prices continuing to rise.
That's how we are structured. You know that there's a
theory that Auckland is a housing market with an economy
(05:19):
tacked on, and that is a problem for us in
terms of attracting people to come here. So that's the
key issue. We've got better at resilience, which is one
of the interesting things because of the terrible floods and
storms we had at the beginning of twenty twenty three.
We scored low and resilience a year ago, but there
have been a range of things, including how we mitigate
(05:39):
against that and plans like the Council's plans for making
space for water, things like that, which are making the
city more resilient. So that's a good mark if you like.
But there's still a lot more to do.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
And you mentioned transport as well. How are we doing
in that department.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Well, we're not doing well at all, and I think
everyone would agree there. One of the underlying factors that
is highlighted in the report is a disconnect between city
planning and national planning, and Auckland's Mayor Wayne Brown says
the same. I think government probably says the same, and
the attempts to integrate the planning are fraught with difficulty
because there are different priorities involved. But the cities that
(06:18):
we're compared against, by and large have much stronger public transport,
much stronger and safer cycling networks and walking networks, those
sorts of things which take the pressure off the roads.
They have often better freight on rail, which again takes
pressure off the roads, and that's the key to improving
Auckland's transport, but we're quite a long way from achieving it.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
We're at a three year low in terms of traffic performance,
and that measures the satisfaction that commuters have. It measures
the network efficiencies around Auckland. We have improved in terms
of work life balance in Auckland and also we're back
into the top thirty in the world in terms of
student appeal. So look, there's some great news and things
we should be proud of.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Well, you know Auckland better than most people, I'd say,
do you agree with this report's findings.
Speaker 3 (07:07):
I do. This is a great place to live if
you have a decent job and you don't live too
far away. Otherwise it starts to get problematic, and we've
got to make it a greater place to live for
a whole lot more people and simply that category if
you like. One of the things that the report says
that's interesting is that the objective measures are one thing,
(07:27):
and that's what they've done, but they've also tried to
assess perception and they've said that the perceptions of people
from around the world looking at Auckland, if they've had
something to do with it, here, they can be quite
favorably impressed with it, But if they're just hearing about it,
what the hearing is slipping that the city has more trouble,
more problems than it deserves, if you like. And that's
(07:49):
really because we've had a great deal of trouble positioning ourselves.
You know, we like to say we're a high tech economy.
We're actually not. We like to say that we're a
place where it's torrific to bring up kids. Well that's
clearly not true as well relative to other cities, and
the things we like to say about ourselves kind of
get in the way a bit of actually making progress
(08:10):
in those areas. So there's a problem there. It is
a good place, but it ought to be an exceptional place.
It has everything going for it in terms of its location,
it's climate, it's natural beauty, and stable democracy and relatively
strong economy compared to many parts of the world. It
ought to be a terrific place, and we're not making
the most of it.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown describes in the press release that
came along with this report that Auckland is more of
a city state than a local council, and it needs
an Auckland deal in order to improve what's your response.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
To that, Well, the government says the same thing, but
the Auckland deal will be made not made, particularly around transport.
Wayne Brown is pushing for an Auckland integrated transport plan,
but he's also made it clear that he doesn't share
the government's priorities for where the main transport money should
be spent. So how you get an Auckland deal in
that way will be pretty problematic. In addition to that,
(09:19):
while it's true that the New Zealand economy is largely
dependent on exports from the rural sector, food and fiber,
trees and meat and dairy in particular, we need to
be able to grow our tech sector and we need
to do that in agriculture as much as everywhere else
in Auckland has potentially a much bigger role to play
in doing that than it currently shoulders now So there
(09:40):
is disconnect with the universities's disconnect with some of the
specialist institutions, and they all need to be working much
more closely with government, with Council, with the city, with
money in the city to exploit their potential.
Speaker 5 (09:54):
Auckland is special nowhere in Australia or New Zealand as
any council looking after a third of the Now I
am the representative.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Of a third of New zeal And.
Speaker 5 (10:04):
We're treated as if we're just a horror for neur
council wherever that is. This is a driver of the country.
If Aukland does well, the country does well. We are
forty percent of the economy, we produce forty percent of
the packs, and we don't get our share back well.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
Brown's tenure as mayor has been dictated largely by what
the city has done wrong. I suppose do you think
he's championing the positive sides of Auckland.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
One of the great issues for all cities is that
they need champions. The champion is the cheerleader who gets
out there into the world and says, look at the
wonderful things we do in our city, and gets among
the citizenry and inspires us all to play our little
part to make the city better and bolder and more
(10:49):
terrific to be in. Which means that you've got to
find a way to say this is wrong and we're
going to fix it. But you've also really got to
find the way to make people feel good about things
and do better and set those benchmarks high. Many New
Zealand politicians find it easier to complain, and in my
own view, our mayor when Brown, finds it far easier
to complain than actually make things better.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Well. The Harold also recently reported that Brown wants to
put elected officials in charge of Auckland Transport, bring ekir
Panaku Auckland and Taratuki Auckland Limited in house. Do you
think those changes are something the city needs and would
that actually address the concerns raised in this report.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
It's a really interesting challenge. Firstly, I think the mayor
is absolutely right we should have more democratic control over
Auckland Transport and the other agencies of council. The Auckland
Transport spends about half of the Council's income and yet
it's an independent board and is not as answerable to
Counsel to our elected representatives as it should be. So
(11:51):
the Mayor is quite right about that. More democracy would
be great. However, the bigger issue is the disconnect I
was talking about between central government and low government, and
Auckland Transport at the moment is kind of stuck in
the middle a little bit between them and then the
third factor is I don't know if Wayne Brown is
fully aware of the danger of getting what he wishes for,
(12:12):
because every Auckland council we've had since the super city
was formed in twenty ten has been a council that
believed in public transport, believed in lowering emissions. And there
is still a council policy called the Transport Emissions Reduction
Plan the URB, which calls for us really significant emissions
(12:34):
reductions by twenty thirty in our transport in this city.
That TURB is not being implemented by Auckland Transport. But
if transport planning came under the auspices directly of Auckland Council,
then most councilors would say, we've got to do much
more to make that a reality, To lower our emissions,
to increase public transport, cycling and walking, to make the
(12:58):
streets safer and easier to be in for everybody. That
is what the public consistently says they want when they
are asked to vote or to make public submissions. It's
very consistent and very clear, and yet it hasn't really
been done. So yes, Brown's right, we need more democracy,
but I also think he may not be fully aware
(13:18):
that what he's arguing for is a lower emissions transport economy,
which will make the streets safer and more pleasant to
be on and will have those really big improvements in
public transport well.
Speaker 2 (13:31):
The report's three main recommendations involving building up Auckland's competitive
position in key industries, national policies to form a national
local consensus on infrastructure, and conscientious and collaborative leadership about
the city's direction, appeal and identity development. Now buzzwords aside.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, I'll tell you it is really hard to say
buzzwords aside because the report is an exercise in buzzwords.
It's so riddled with jargon. One of the reasons for
it is that you can describe a problem in jargon,
which is theoretically technical language or professional language, and avoid
talking about the politics. But the reason we have this
(14:17):
and not that is political always because there have been
political choices made to build that road, not to have
those buses, to have mari wards or not have marrii wards,
all those sorts of things. They are political choices. One
of the things this report says is that Auckland is
one of the most diverse cities in the world is
right up the top. We really don't exploit the potential
(14:38):
of that, and it is also founded on this remarkable
relationship or a relationship with a remarkable potential between Mani
Fenua and everybody else, and we don't exploit that. Well,
those things are political, may require leadership, and if we
had them, it's part of making Auckland really special because
those provide us with our.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Uniqueness in terms of buzzwords aside and I'm assuming you
wrung them through perhaps AI to decipher what everything was,
what everything meant, or it may make it worse. Does
that sound about right to you? Or do you think
we should look at other changes? Perhaps we do need
(15:18):
to be more competitive in those key industries though, don't.
Speaker 3 (15:20):
We Yes, we do, Yes, we do.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
So.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
One of the elements of that is that A good
example of the challenge for Auckland and for New Zealand
is from Terra's recent decision to get out of value
added milk powder products and other words, the cheeses and
all the rest that its various brands are producing and
simply concentrate on commodity production and export of milk powder.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
Here we giant Fonterra one of the largest dairy producers
in the world, is changing the way it does business.
It's looking at selling off some of our most well
known brands, among them Anchor, Mainland Carpetsy, Fern Leaf and
Mum Baby Formula and Fresh and Fruity. The consumer channel,
your kitchen staples, milk, cheese, yogurt, butter earned a three
point three figure and that is the arm being sold.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Now, that's anti everything that we've been told for a
long time. Now this country and its economy needs to
be doing an exports. It undermines it completely. Fonterra is
an Auckland company based here, and we'll find it very
easy to tell you all about the high tech work
they're doing and how sophisticated they are and blah blah blah.
The reality is they are have decided not to lead
(16:27):
in that tech area, but to just get back to
that commodity production. That's a real challenge for the city.
If the big dairy company isn't going to do that,
how are we going to prosper and grow as a
city relying on highly skilled people to generate money for
us for the city economy. And it's you know, it's
hard to know the answer to that when the corporates
(16:48):
aren't doing their bit in this case font Era.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
And lastly, Simon, after reading the report, would you be
staying in Auckland or would you be moving to Copenhagen
or the like?
Speaker 3 (16:58):
I would stay in all. However, would I like to
spend some time in some of those other cities us
in Geek, Copenhagen, Austin which I've been to, Yeah, definitely.
Dublin's another one, though. There are cities there that are
doing exciting things and we could learn from and it
would be great for us to have the chance to
do that. The other things this report says is that
even if you look at bigger cities, and it gives
(17:21):
the example of Saint Paulo in Brazil and New Delhi
in India, which are both enormous, enormous cities, they have
really exciting things going on that we think of them
as kind of just full of people and not doing much,
but it's actually not true. And where cities in those
developing countries are doing really fascinating things to build their economies,
(17:45):
and we're sitting here Smokeley going it's isn't it nice
to be here? The challenge just gets bigger and bigger
for us.
Speaker 2 (17:50):
As we sep our twenty eight dollar cocktail on the waterfront.
Thanks for joining us, Simon. That said, for this episode
of the Front Page, you can read more about today's
stories and extensive news coverage at enzedherld dot co dot z.
(18:11):
The Front Page is produced by Ethan Siles with sound
engineer Patty Fox. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the Front
Page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and
tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.
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