Indian Newslink August 1, 2016 Digital Edition

AUGUST 1, 2016
04 HOMELINK-auckland mayoralty
Doing nothing will cost more and that’s not Auckland
Auckland is growing because
this is a great
city to live.
In fact, over 50% of
New Zealand’s total growth is
happening here.
What that means is an extra
800 people a week or more than
40, 000 people a year are coming
to Auckland.
With growth at this level but
without the extra infrastructure
needed to meet the demands of
growth, we risk undermining
some of the basic things about
Auckland that make us want to
live here.
Rapid growth has, for example,
far exceeded the ability of
our transport system to cope.
Our roads and motorways become
daily more congested and
the economic costs and frustration
over grid-locked roads are
soaring.
You do not have to be a rocket
scientist to know that if new car
numbers coming into the city
are rising by 800 a week, things
are just going to get worse.
Housing problems
Likewise, with housing. Each
year, on current population
growth we need 13,000 extra
homes. Last year, we consented
9000 new homes but managed
to build only 6500. That shortfall
is the main explanation for
house prices going up by $3000
a week, rents soaring and more
and more people unable to find
a home at all.
One solution is to ease back
on the rate of growth until
we have the infrastructure in
place that we need to cope with
it. The government, however,
has refused to intervene to
slow record levels of net migration
growth despite the Reserve
Bank of New Zealand and others
pointing out that in the
short term, it is important to
do so.
Transferring growth
We could also try to divert
more of the growth in New
Zealand’s population to other
areas. However, I cannot think
Actions, not statistics ensure community safety
Mark Thomas
Phil Goff
Almost 50% of Asian
and Indian families in
Auckland do not feel
safe walking alone in
their neighbourhoods at night.
This was the worrying finding
of the latest Families Report
produced by the Social Policy
Evaluation and Research Unit.
Yet, Mayor Len Brown’s
‘Auckland Plan’ has the goal
of improving community safety
and the feeling of being safe.
The Plan has a target to reduce
the rate of total criminal offences
per 10,000 population from 939
in 2010 to 800 in 2040.
Interestingly, this 30-year target
was actually achieved by 2014
and it improved again by 2015 –
despite half of Auckland Asian/
Indian families feeling unsafe.
Wrong measures
This shows that the current
Auckland Plan is not measuring
the right things and that is
something I will change if you
elect me as Mayor of Auckland
this October.
Interestingly, despite this
progress in reduced criminal offending
– my mayoral opponent
Labour MP Phil Goff regularly
criticises the government and
the Police for what he thinks is
a lack of their commitment to
fighting crime.
I was disappointed to read his
recent criticism of the Police. I
think the New Zealand Police do
a very difficult job well. Like all
large organisations, there are
always times when things do
not go as they should but just
criticising is not effective.
We need to work more effectively
together and that has been my
approach as an elected member
of Auckland Council.
Town Centres speak
Also, I am not campaigning to be
of any example of regional development
that is successful in
doing this. Job growth, particularly
for skilled work, is happening
here in Auckland.
There is not much use sending
people to areas where there are
no jobs for them.
What we really need therefore
is to find the resources to
provide the infrastructure the
Infrastructure
bonds provide
a long term,
low interest
and a secure
investment
city needs and to get on with the
job of building it.
Auckland has limited access
to those resources. Rate increases
can’t do it. A one per cent increase
in rates provides only
$14 million and just one new infrastructure
project, the City
Rail Link, is estimated to cost
Minister of Police, I want to be
Mayor of Auckland.
So I recently held a meeting on
crime and security with town
centre managers from south
Auckland to discuss what they
need the next Mayor to fix.
Town centres are an important
part of the Auckland’s
neighbourhoods.
We have 50 of them across
Auckland that fund themselves
via an Auckland Council targeted
rate policy – but there are many
other informal associations.
In my current Auckland
Council role as a local board
Deputy Chair, I have served on
the board of my local central
Auckland business association
and worked closely with several
others over the last six years.
Town centres, often working
closely with residents; associations
or neighbourhood groups,
can play a vital role in improving
community safety.
There are a range of tools
over $2.5 billion!
Further, Auckland has practically
borrowed to the limits
imposed by rating agencies
and government. Even though
borrowing is justified to pay
for long term capital assets,
Auckland doesn’t have the
means to keep borrowing. What
it comes down to then, is the
willingness of central government
to provide the capital and
Auckland to raise funds to service
the debt.
Infrastructure bonds
Infrastructure bonds provide
a long term, low interest and a
secure investment.
They are used by many countries.
They seem to be the best
way to invest in critical infrastructure.
Central government
can raise capital more cheaply
than anyone else. Its proposed
Infrastructure Fund of $1 billion
to be on-lent to high growth
cities at no interest is a good
idea. However, even if all of that
went to Auckland it would meet
only one twentieth of what we
need in just the next 10 years
alone.
As Mayor, I will be pushing
for this fund to be increased to a
realistic level.
Auckland is having to pay
for needs generated by having
more than half of the country’s
growth. The government gains
from that growth more GST and
more income tax. As Auckland
is meeting the costs generated
by growth, it needs to get its
fair share of the income growth
generated back from central
government. Aucklanders will
need to pay our share as well.
Some form of user pays road tax
is probably the best way to do
that.
What I know is that doing
nothing is the worst of all
options.
Road congestion alone is costing
us up to $3 billion a year
in lost productivity and other
costs, and we get nothing back
from that. It is wasted money.
If we do nothing, we undermine
the very things that make
this city a good place to live. We
need bold solutions, and cooperation
between central and local
government and the private sector
to deliver them.
Phil Goff is a candidate for
Auckland Mayoralty.
available which council can support
– but what was clear from
my meeting is that the Council
is not making it easy enough for
town centres to always access
the support they need.
These tools include such things
as CCTV monitoring systems and
volunteer community patrols as
well as targeted street lighting
and alarm systems. Crime prevention
through environmental
design or CPTED is another key
approach council uses when assessing
how to improve safety
in a location, or when planning
new public works.
Neighbourhood Watch
A number of local boards
also work closely with
Neighbourhood Watch and
my board regularly holds
these briefing and information
sessions.
I have also attended meetings
of the City Centre Taskforce
on Alcohol and Safety which
Councillor George Wood convenes.
This combines police,
local board and councillors, residents,
business association reps
and other key local stakeholders
to keep an eye on trouble spots
and coordinate new activity. This
Taskforce approach can be valuable
and I will establish this in
other areas in Auckland.
The town centre managers do
not always feel well supported
by council and that is something
I can change.
Rather than criticise the government
for what it is doing, I
know from my experience and
what those at the coal face tell
me that there is more the next
Mayor of Auckland can do to
help people feel safer.
Providing greater access to
some of these tangible tools will
be at the heart of my approach.
Mark Thomas is a candidate
for the Auckland Mayoralty.