The biggest lesson from Auckland's 107 days in Covid-19 lockdown
Friday, 26 November 2021
OPINION: By the time Auckland farewells the Covid-19 alert level system on December 3, the region will have spent 107 days in some form of lockdown.
Barring the odd transgression and the ongoing protests, it has been an unparalleled collective commitment to doing the right thing not just for oneself, but also for the wider community.
The full extent of the pain will not be clear for some time. Businesses will fail, the toll on mental health will be ongoing, and those for whom life was already a struggle may have a long recovery.
But there are valuable lessons. Aucklanders will accept and make major changes to their daily lives if they believe the end goal is worth it.
**READ MORE:
* 100 days in lockdown: Auckland up two places in longest Covid-19 lockdown list
* The $1 billion plan to lift Māori and Pasifika prosperity in Auckland's south and west
* NZ cannot abandon Covid elimination strategy while Māori, Pasifika vaccination rates are too low
**
Communities such as Māori and Pasifika – if given the means to manage their own destinies – will do much better than under a centralised, top-down approach. Case in point, the vaccination rollout.
In a region as diverse as Auckland, this should be firmly front-of-mind for politicians and decision-makers.
Community leaders know their people and vice versa, and the experience of watching the momentum and dynamism of Māori- and Pasifika-run vaccination events and approaches should not be forgotten.
The challenge will be to understand how those lessons can be applied to some of the other big issues facing Auckland, and the country.
Reducing carbon emissions is critical to curbing the effects of climate change, and will depend largely on changing behaviour. In Auckland, that is mainly about transport.
Councils buying electric buses and governments encouraging people to switch to more expensive electric cars are conspicuous, useful, but limited contributors to the end goal.
Communities need to help design the solutions that will get them to change how they get around, rather than be told to get on a bike or a bus that may not go where they want.
Other ideas such as road pricing – paying to use parts of the road network – are likely to help, but again, need to be designed with the understanding and buy-in of those most disadvantaged by them.
There may not be a handy template to pick up and follow, but the Covid-19 roll-out strongly suggests solutions devised in or with a community are the most effective.
The plan being pitched for the government’s next Budget to develop recycling-focussed Māori and Pasifika-owned businesses in south and west Auckland is another example.
Whether or not it gets backing, it looks like the best idea of scale yet. It was developed close to those communities and may lift prosperity where it is most needed.
It is an easy thing to say, harder to do. The DNA is there in Auckland, harking back to the pre-amalgamation Waitakere City Council which used the “charette” method of community consultation to redevelop New Lynn town centre in the 1990s.
It was decades ahead of others in creating medium density housing nearby, and eventually an apartment building above a new transport hub, which included a below-surface rail station opened in 2010.
Transport Oriented Developments (TOD) remain a prized part of the urban planning portfolio, but New Lynn is still Auckland’s only example.
As Auckland heads into local body election year, some seriously different thinking needs to emerge on how the region will collectively do the right thing.
Promises of big infrastructure or commitments to spend large sums of money won’t be what make the difference, it will be widespread understanding of the problem to be tackled and widespread buy-in to the answers.