Indian Newslink July 15 Digital Edition

JULY 15, 2016
04 HOMELINK-auckland mayoralty
Auckland should not
shut its doors
Mark Thomas
My Mayoral opponent
Phil Goff and I visited
Warkworth in the
far north of Auckland
(Rodney) recently. We spoke
about our different plans to empower
local communities and
give more power to local boards,
and of course about Auckland’s
housing crisis.
Mr Goff talked about lobbying
the government to reduce immigration
as a way of dealing with
Auckland’s housing issues.
I was disappointed to hear this.
My wife Wendy Lai emigrated
with her family from Singapore
35 years ago.
They, together with the
more than 520,000 or 40% of
Aucklanders who were not born
in New Zealand, now form a rich
part of Auckland’s culture.
Our two New Zealand-Chinese
sons and all the many other Kiwi
multi-ethnic children that have
resulted, make our region even
richer.
Welcoming Citizens
At the Auckland Town Hall
last week, I helped preside over
the swearing in of 420 new New
Zealand citizens, who came from
51 different countries.
Citizenship ceremonies have
been one of the real highlights of
my time as an elected member of
the Auckland Council.
I do not want to see the numbers
attending these ceremonies
drop because Auckland is no
longer welcoming new migrants.
So I did not speak in
Warkworth about trying to limit
this strength of Auckland.
It is not something that the
Mayor of Auckland controls in
any case.
But I did speak about how
we can make the voice of our
many and varied communities
stronger.
The recent Reputation Survey
that the Auckland Council undertook
said that only 15% of us are
satisfied with the Council.
Unhappy people
People in the more rural areas
of Rodney say that they are very
unhappy.
The Rodney ward rates
Auckland Council only 36/100 on
reputation – the lowest of all - and
considered the Council ‘weak.’
The Council’s overall reputation
average is only 45 which is called
‘average.’
But I know this concern is also
spread among a number of our
ethnic communities.
Some of these communities feel
disconnected from the Council
and they do not have their voices
heard strongly enough in housing,
community, safety and other
policies.
I do not believe that the current
Mayor’s special ethnic advisory
panel approach has worked
well enough to address this and
I will change that if you elect me
Mayor.
I spoke about this recently
at a mayoral debate at the
Multicultural New Zealand annual
conference chaired by Indian
Newslink Editor.
The Council needs to build
stronger relationships with the
existing community groups and
ethnic community associations
that already do a good job.
I also encouraged people at the
conference to think about standing
for Auckland Council either as
ward councillors or as local board
members. Nominations open
from Friday, July 15. All the information
you need is contained on
Council’s ironically named website:
www.showyourlove.co.nz
Diverse representation
I want to see more of our diverse
communities represented
on the Auckland Council. This is
the best way to make the changes
We should walk the talk on housing
Vic Crone
While we are distracted
with unrealistic
and fringe solutions,
Auckland’s average
house price romps towards a million
dollars.
Sadly, we are no longer talking
squarely about the price of ownership
but also rising homelessness.
With a 30,000 home shortage in
Auckland, we are not seeing clear
enough progress in the absolute
basics of housing supply. We are
dropping the ball with low land
availability, a slow consenting
pipeline, lagging infrastructure,
but all the while we are seeing bigger
and more expensive homes
built.
Action needed
Recently, with the ‘Lifewise Big
Sleepout,’ I experienced first-hand
what it was like to sleep rough for
a night. It was a big wakeup call.
It is time that we had substantial
effort in core areas strangling
housing supply.
Firstly, that means (a) Getting
tough on land banking. Land earmarked
for development must
be developed as soon as possible
or face substantial targeted rates
(b) Land sold by the Government
and the Council must have sunset
clauses and criteria on the mix
of homes to increase affordable
housing (c) A lean process review
on Council’s consenting approach,
speeding it up, taking it online and
providing full transparency to users
(d) Better partnerships with
government, developers and infrastructure
providers to get infrastructure
in as soon as possible.
This includes applications for
the recently announced Housing
Infrastructure Fund.
It is likely that we will be be
nearly 40,000 homes short in a
couple of years. Aucklanders deserve
to know when we will realistically
begin to make a dent
in supply. Will we be facing huge
price increases for another two,
five or ten years?
Transparent Reports
To ensure that we are getting
this progress, I am calling for
quarterly housing report cards
giving us a clear picture of how
we are tracking and what action is
taking place.
you want to happen.
But as Mayor, I will strengthen
local boards by giving them more
transport powers, move funding
from lower-ranked regional
priorities into higher prioritised
community projects and I will
establish formal relationships
with existing strong community
groups or help form new ones.
In my own Council ward, we
have established five new resident
associations to ensure that
all our ten suburbs are covered.
I have found that by collaborating
more effectively with
Auckland’s communities, we can
address our housing and other
challenges more effectively.
I want to strengthen this role
and not reduce it.
Mark Thomas is a Mayoral candidate
for Auckland City.
This transparency will no doubt
speed up results and improve decision
making. Clear and simple
information should include
(1) Progress and actions underway
to clean up the full-time consenting
pipeline. This includes the
average full-time consent period
and the numbers at each consent
stage (2) The amount of land earmarked
versus land freed up for
development by the government
and Council, along with development
activity. For example, no
development action (bare); in consent;
construction underway; and
on the market/sold (3) Key infrastructure
initiatives required for
new housing developments and
the progress on these and (4) The
mix of homes being consented to
provide more affordable homes to
Aucklanders (apartments, townhouses
and homes).
Government homes
Finally, the government simply
does not have the capability and
flexibility to build housing at the
scale and pace we need, as suggested
by some people.
In addition, those building projects
would suck funding away
from the critical supporting infrastructure
needed. The biggest impact
that we can get here and now
is to get the supply chain we already
have moving.
Then we can look at other solutions
to boost supply.
While I cannot speak for the
government, I think we would
get much better and faster results
through social enterprise
partnerships.
Vic Crone is a Mayoral Candidate
for Auckland City.