May 7, 2025 • 6 mins
It's been 15 years since Auckland became a supercity, and new data has revealed what people believe the city needs in order to improve.
A total of 575 Aucklanders participated in the survey, casting 46,000 votes on statements, creating what’s been called a “digital snapshot” of the city’s sentiments.
Former Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Graham Quirk, outlined some other point of concern - as Brisbane prepares some upgrades ahead of the 2032 Olympics.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Onto something else. It's been fifteen years since Auckland became
a super city and prominent Aucklanders have been debating how
to shape the city over the next fifteen years. Today
at a conference various views, support for a bed tax
and so on. Graham Quirk is the former Lord Mayor
of Brisbane who was there. He spoke to the conference
today about his experience and bringing the twenty thirty two
Olympics to Brisbane.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hi Graham, Hello Heather, how are you very well?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
So what did you tell the conference? What was your message?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Well, I mean fifteen years as a significant milestone for Auckland.
Brisbane this year will celebrate one hundred years since it
was a mulgamated from twenty councils into a single local authority.
And so today's message was really about looking to identify
those things that Auckland needs. Public surveys are great, we
(00:50):
need to find out what people want, but we also
need to look, I think beyond that, and that is
what does the city actually need to progress its future?
And so some of those answers, of course will be
within the public surveys, but there will be other things.
And I was outlining some of the things that I
undertook as Lord Mayor which weren't obvious to the general public,
(01:12):
but which became very successful parts of our city, and
which has helped to shape us and position us to
be ready for a twenty thirty two Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Like what did you do well?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
One of the things that we discovered was we hadn't
had a new four or five star hotel built in
the city ten years just after I became mayor, and
so in order to rectify that, I needed to put
out an incentive. Now, I decided to remove all infrastructure
and develop a contribution charges for anyone that built a
(01:47):
new four or five star hotel in the city. Now,
normally if you go out and ask ratepayers could you
do that, they'd say, by hell you can. But I
did it and the result was astonishing. We had twenty
five new hotels built in the next five year period.
You know, everything from international investors from the UK, Singapore,
(02:11):
Taiwan and many from around Australia came and invested and
we as a result, had this brand new set of
hotels in the city, and not only in the central
part of the city, but also in some of the
suburban areas. Four and a half star hotels were built
there and so I've proven to be successful. So what
(02:32):
it was about was multiplying the accommodation, giving a modern
tourism opportunity and offering, and it proved to be very successful.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Do you have a view on what Auckland needs? What
are we missing to make ourselves a great city?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well, I didn't come to this morning's conference with a
perspective of knowing about Auckland. We've had a sister city
relationship with Auckland now Brisbanana Auckland for a long time,
and but it's been six years since I left office,
and I didn't pretend any way to be on top
of Auckland's issues. Today. There was some discussion, certainly around
(03:10):
traffic congestion, and I did sort of talk about some
of the things that we had done in Brisbane to
address those issues. Things from most councils around the world
probably would be beyond reach. But we're a similar size
to the council now the amalgamated Council in Auckland, and
we took some brave steps of building, you know, five
(03:32):
kilometer tunnels. We built several of those we've we've we've
undertaken several cross river bridges for both vehicular movement and
public transport, pedestrian and cycling opportunities, and we've we've been
able to fund those, not just get approval and do them,
but to actually fund them. So so we've we've we've
(03:54):
come to the table with a fairly strong agenda and
we outline outline this morning some of the ways which
that can be done.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Now, Graham, there is an interesting thing that's going on
at the moment, which it appears is that the punters
of Auckland, having gone for the super city, are now
not altogether happy with the super city. And I think
part of it is probably you know, they don't feel
represented or whatever. But the thing that struck me reading
about this today is we have one hundred and forty
nine elected members for a city that's about two million people.
(04:22):
That sounds like way too many.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
What do you think, Yeah, well, we've got you know,
one point five million people in the Brisbane City Council
and we have twenty six representatives. You know, look back
back one hundred years ago when they amalgamated twenty and
to one here. Yeah, I was pretty brave whoever did that.
But look, it's not even questioned here in Brisbane.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
You're telling me if you only have twenty six elected members,
do you not have local boards and wards and all
that kind of carry on.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
No, really, the local representatives they have a similar size
elected We have state governments here in Australia of course,
and the ward counselor as local councilors have the same
size elector to say a state member of Parliament. So
it is big. They have, you know, about twenty five
to thirty thousand elected representatives in each of their electoral divisions,
(05:17):
their wards we call them. And but people accepted here
there is you know, still the ability to get around
to the school of pncs and the sporting clubs and
do all those things you need to do. You do
you get the same access that you might have had
where you have a councilor representing say three or four
thousand people, as perhaps the pre amalgamation will know you don't.
(05:41):
But that's a price you pay for the economy of
scale and the bigger things you can do with an
amalgamated council.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Graham, how fascinating and thanks very much, really appreciate it.
Grand Quirk, former Lord Mayor of Brisbane. For more from
Hither Duplessy Allen Drive listen live to news talks it'd
be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on
iHeartRadio
Onto something else. It's been fifteen years since Auckland became
a super city and prominent Aucklanders have been debating how
to shape the city over the next fifteen years. Today
at a conference various views, support for a bed tax
and so on. Graham Quirk is the former Lord Mayor
of Brisbane who was there. He spoke to the conference
today about his experience and bringing the twenty thirty two
Olympics to Brisbane.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hi Graham, Hello Heather, how are you very well?
Speaker 3 (00:23):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (00:23):
So what did you tell the conference? What was your message?
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Well, I mean fifteen years as a significant milestone for Auckland.
Brisbane this year will celebrate one hundred years since it
was a mulgamated from twenty councils into a single local authority.
And so today's message was really about looking to identify
those things that Auckland needs. Public surveys are great, we
(00:50):
need to find out what people want, but we also
need to look, I think beyond that, and that is
what does the city actually need to progress its future?
And so some of those answers, of course will be
within the public surveys, but there will be other things.
And I was outlining some of the things that I
undertook as Lord Mayor which weren't obvious to the general public,
(01:12):
but which became very successful parts of our city, and
which has helped to shape us and position us to
be ready for a twenty thirty two Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Like what did you do well?
Speaker 3 (01:25):
One of the things that we discovered was we hadn't
had a new four or five star hotel built in
the city ten years just after I became mayor, and
so in order to rectify that, I needed to put
out an incentive. Now, I decided to remove all infrastructure
and develop a contribution charges for anyone that built a
(01:47):
new four or five star hotel in the city. Now,
normally if you go out and ask ratepayers could you
do that, they'd say, by hell you can. But I
did it and the result was astonishing. We had twenty
five new hotels built in the next five year period.
You know, everything from international investors from the UK, Singapore,
(02:11):
Taiwan and many from around Australia came and invested and
we as a result, had this brand new set of
hotels in the city, and not only in the central
part of the city, but also in some of the
suburban areas. Four and a half star hotels were built
there and so I've proven to be successful. So what
(02:32):
it was about was multiplying the accommodation, giving a modern
tourism opportunity and offering, and it proved to be very successful.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Do you have a view on what Auckland needs? What
are we missing to make ourselves a great city?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well, I didn't come to this morning's conference with a
perspective of knowing about Auckland. We've had a sister city
relationship with Auckland now Brisbanana Auckland for a long time,
and but it's been six years since I left office,
and I didn't pretend any way to be on top
of Auckland's issues. Today. There was some discussion, certainly around
(03:10):
traffic congestion, and I did sort of talk about some
of the things that we had done in Brisbane to
address those issues. Things from most councils around the world
probably would be beyond reach. But we're a similar size
to the council now the amalgamated Council in Auckland, and
we took some brave steps of building, you know, five
(03:32):
kilometer tunnels. We built several of those we've we've we've
undertaken several cross river bridges for both vehicular movement and
public transport, pedestrian and cycling opportunities, and we've we've been
able to fund those, not just get approval and do them,
but to actually fund them. So so we've we've we've
(03:54):
come to the table with a fairly strong agenda and
we outline outline this morning some of the ways which
that can be done.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
Now, Graham, there is an interesting thing that's going on
at the moment, which it appears is that the punters
of Auckland, having gone for the super city, are now
not altogether happy with the super city. And I think
part of it is probably you know, they don't feel
represented or whatever. But the thing that struck me reading
about this today is we have one hundred and forty
nine elected members for a city that's about two million people.
(04:22):
That sounds like way too many.
Speaker 2 (04:23):
What do you think, Yeah, well, we've got you know,
one point five million people in the Brisbane City Council
and we have twenty six representatives. You know, look back
back one hundred years ago when they amalgamated twenty and
to one here. Yeah, I was pretty brave whoever did that.
But look, it's not even questioned here in Brisbane.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
You're telling me if you only have twenty six elected members,
do you not have local boards and wards and all
that kind of carry on.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
No, really, the local representatives they have a similar size
elected We have state governments here in Australia of course,
and the ward counselor as local councilors have the same
size elector to say a state member of Parliament. So
it is big. They have, you know, about twenty five
to thirty thousand elected representatives in each of their electoral divisions,
(05:17):
their wards we call them. And but people accepted here
there is you know, still the ability to get around
to the school of pncs and the sporting clubs and
do all those things you need to do. You do
you get the same access that you might have had
where you have a councilor representing say three or four
thousand people, as perhaps the pre amalgamation will know you don't.
(05:41):
But that's a price you pay for the economy of
scale and the bigger things you can do with an
amalgamated council.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Graham, how fascinating and thanks very much, really appreciate it.
Grand Quirk, former Lord Mayor of Brisbane. For more from
Hither Duplessy Allen Drive listen live to news talks it'd
be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on
iHeartRadio
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