It's time to deliver what was promised to south Auckland

Friday, 20 November 2020

A report concludes that climate change will hit poorer communities in Auckland harder. (Video published March 2019)

OPINION: Sometimes it’s worth going back to the beginning, to a clarity of vision unfogged by the things that crop up, distract, and complicate as the years roll on.

Auckland politicians – local, regional and parliamentary – should dust off the original, visionary, 2012 Auckland Plan and revisit the ambition the freshly amalgamated council had for south Auckland.

The city’s poorest communities were at the wrong end of the scoreboard for almost every social and economic measure when it was written and also housed the country’s biggest Māori and Pasifika communities.

Auckland Council set itself two big “place-based initiatives”: One to transform the city centre, the other to transform life in south Auckland.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern poses for a selfie while campaigning in Māngere – a Labour stronghold.

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Then-Auckland mayor Len Brown opens the new Southern Initiative offices in Manukau.

This was the language in 2012: “The gap between those who have and those who don’t is growing by the day.

“This is not the society Aucklanders want, nor does it augur well for the future.”

The plan launched The Southern Initiative, a project to blend existing government spending and community know-how.

“The initiative is an opportunity to improve the quality of life of local residents dramatically, reduce regional disparities, and grow businesses and jobs which will benefit all of Auckland and New Zealand.”

The Māngere township mall, a microcosm of Polynesia, is in The Southern Initiative area.

Housing, health, education outcomes, early childhood care, skill training – the initiative's ambition was stunning.

Problem one: As then-social welfare Minister Paula Bennett told me at the time, the government thought it was doing well enough in south Auckland and wouldn’t be signing up.

Ministers such as Nick Smith mocked a local body bothering itself with lifting NCEA achievement.

Equipped with a modest project budget, the initiative took years and a re-set to start finding its mojo.

Then-finance minister Bill English, an advocate of targetting spending where it was most needed, took an interest and some new pilot schemes were tried out.

Committed, hard-working staff working local networks have transformed lives. They put people into jobs who might never have otherwise been employed, and developed neighbourhood support systems through facilities such as libraries.

They championed “social procurement”, ensuring major public contracts, such as for infrastructure, took on local youth and those in most need of work, and providing a catalyst for small local businesses.

But the successes have never been on the scale needed to reverse decades of bad policy and under-investment in those who could forge a future for themselves if only they had the tools and the chance.

Fast-forward to the Auckland Prosperity Index 2020, a catalogue of data prepared by the council’s economic development agency ATEED.

The dial just hasn’t shifted on the gap between – in 2012 language – “those who have and those who don’t”.

ATEED has a plan, soon for release, which suggests how new initiatives might close that gap.

The stars in some respects seem more aligned. Covid-19 has ended the easy economic growth. Big government money is being trucked around the country, supporting worthy ideas and regions in need.

Auckland, still stereotyped as a “City of Sails” – with news stories on the suburbs where million-dollar, and now two million-dollar homes are the norm – also needs the funding trucks to stop in its southern and western sub-regions.

And beware the distractions: The Covid-19-hit council finances, the challenge of funding infrastructure – light rail, another harbour crossing.

Time to go back to the beginning for a reminder: “The Southern Initiative is being championed by the Mayor, working at the highest levels with central government,” the 2012 Auckland Plan promised.

The first item in the Auckland Development Strategy was: “Create a strong inclusive and equitable society that ensures opportunity for all Aucklanders.”

Eight years on, this is the time for those we elect to get serious about delivering on that promise.