Indian Newslink July 15 Digital Edition

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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.
JULY 15, 2016 HOMELINK-auckland mayoralty 05 Satellite Centres will solve the Star Problem John Palino Auckland has some amazing opportunities. Our population growth is worth gold if we can plan it properly but the growth plan this Council created is a big failure. Earlier this year, the ATAP (Auckland Transport Alignment Project) Report highlighted this failure and demonstrated the need for a new growth plan for Auckland. New Growth Plan I created the new growth plan for Auckland during my 2013 campaign. Both National and Labour are in agreement with my plan that we must open up the Metropolitan boundary. National is now going to force the Council to open up land. Please visit the article that I wrote in Indian Newslink (August 1, 2013) by following this link (http://goo.gl/ss533z). Editor’s Note: The article can also be accessed from our archives on our website (www.indiannewslink. co.nz). Let me start by saying that we cannot and must not intensify established suburbs which cannot handle the growth. This kind of growth serves no one and plays a huge part in the increased congestion, debt, over-loaded schools, extended pressure on police, fire, ambulance and hospitals. It has caused our house prices to skyrocket, our families to move away from Auckland and the increased poverty that we are seeing in the outer suburbs. New Cities Growth needs to be focused on new satellite centres and close to employment where we can model new cities on an identified and planned balance of jobs, homes and travel. We must stop thinking that we can continue to channel trips into the Central Business District (CBD). Only 12% of the working-force actually go to the CBD, leaving 88% having to use their cars and that is the problem. Our growth plan needs to change now and we need to grow new centres in our north, north-west and south. This will reduce trips to the CBD, provide affordable housing and reduce the squeeze on cars and buses into the central city. Embrace technology New centres can be fit out with the kind of technology we need to manage transport effectively and deliver thousands of affordable homes, while jobs are created near them. This is our opportunity to build new, beautiful, modern centres where people will live and work. By opening up the land and concentrating on growth, we will reduce house prices, enabling us to actually have a plan. While residential areas are being built, the business centre will create jobs for those moving into the City. It allows us to know when and where the schools should be built and where the police, ambulance, fire and emergency facilities are needed. By stage three of this growth plan, we can build a new hospital, an on-campus university and opportunities for international investment. This is how cities are growing around the world. Brisbane has Springfield and many other cities are doing the same. How do you want Auckland to grow? John Palino is a candidate for the Auckland Mayoralty. A RARE OPPORTUNITY NOT TO BE MISSED! & Present Master of Ceremonies ProfessorSekhar Bandyo adhyay Victoria University of Wellington Reflections Rod Oram Business Journalist Guest Speaker GraemeWheeler Governor, Reserve Bank of New Zealand Keeping our financial system safe in achanging world Monday, July 25, 2016 Pullman Hotel, Auckland To Register Call (09) 5336377 or 021 836 528 Email: editor@indiannewslink.co.nz Tickets at $150 plus GST are now available. (including cocktails from 630 pm to 730 pm and dinner) The Institute of Chartered Accountants Australia New Zealand (CA ANZ) has recognised this Lecture as apart of ‘Continuing Professional Development’ (CPD) for its members. The Lecture is also suppor ed by he In itute f Dir tors Auckland Branch, the Auckland District Law Society an India New Zealand Business Council. Sponsors Dress Code: Formal, Black Tie for Men, Cocktail Dress for Women
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