A new report comparing life across 10 'peer cities' finds lessons Auckland can learn from diverse counterparts as Vancouver, Tel Aviv and Fukuoka.
Auckland needs to be as great as the sum of its parts.
Those are the words of Auckland Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni, speaking about the results of a review comparing it with 10 comparable cities around the globe.
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After three years of batterings from the pandemic, lockdowns and extreme weather, the report comes at something of a crossroads for New Zealand’s biggest city and source of 38 percent of national GDP.
And while there were positive findings in the results, they also highlighted what’s holding the city back.
Threats to liveability and an economy unable to deliver on the promise of prosperity for all are two big takeaways, alongside concerns around community safety and connectivity.
“We can forget that a city/region is not one place, it’s a collection of communities that add up to the region we call Tāmaki Makaurau,” she said. “We have to make the sum of the whole as great as its parts.”
It’s a statement true for many cities, but the relatively recent change to the Super City just over a decade ago and the sheer geographical breadth of Auckland across rural and urban territories make it particularly resonant.
The benchmarking report was commissioned by the Committee for Auckland and undertaken by UK company The Business of Cities.
It compares Auckland’s performance with a range of cities around the world, especially selected peer cities including Vancouver, Portland, Austin, Dublin, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Tel Aviv, Fukuoka and Brisbane.
They are all cities with something to teach Auckland.
Pam Ford is the director of investment and industry at economic and cultural development agency Tātaki Auckland Unlimited.
She said none of the cities on the list were the same, but they all had comparable factors that can teach Auckland’s decision-makers what to do – or what not to do.
Vancouver is developing a green economy, and Dublin operates in similar-sized country where finding an economic niche is paramount. Meanwhile, Fukuoka in Japan has similar developments to incentivise start-ups, which have been mirrored in Auckland’s own GridAKL co-working spaces.
Ford said the report validated work the agency was already doing.
“It reinforces the track we have been on .. I’m optimistic it will also have others recognise the importance of that, which is a good thing as well.”
She said the long-term nature of economic development meant its not always an easy benefit to prove to decision-makers, but she hoped the data from the report would sharpen the focus on things like making the region an attractive place for skilled workers.
“What's been obvious through the recent budget cuts is that the work of economic development is hard to describe and it is long-term, therefore it is easy to say it's not performing or it's not worth it, but when you start to compare it to other cities where its been going on, then you can see the difference.”
Auckland rated lowly when it came to attracting overseas investment, and compared with the global average, four percent fewer of Auckland’s residents view businesses as creating plenty of new jobs.
The city scored well on healthy work-life balances and gender inclusivity, however there were deep concerns around housing affordability and low wages holding back quality of life.
Auckland’s GDP per worker was also found to be the lowest among its peers.
Committee for Auckland co-director Mark Thomas said the productivity problem was central to Auckland’s woes.
“We've got this problem with productivity and it's growing,” he said. “Auckland is not developing enough of the technology and innovation we need and we tend to make it a lot tougher by not providing the support that other cities provide those sectors.”
Keeping talented people who graduated from New Zealand universities and attracting skilled migrants were two big issues as well.
“People leave – we have the lowest number of people who have graduated from a top-100-in-the-world university based in Auckland,” he said. “So we're not getting our share of the world’s talent staying here, but then also... we're not keeping our own talent.”
He said the eventual impact was cyclical, with a lower revenue pool for rates or taxes reducing the amount of money available for infrastructure or transport.
So what’s the answer?
Ford and Thomas both suggested a closer relationship between local and central government, and then the business sector in turn, could help.
Ford said more Aucklanders being engaged with consultation processes and having some clarity over the kind of city they wanted to live in would also insulate the city from the changes wrought by the three-year election cycle.
“Thinking for the future is tricky with the electoral cycles we have. There's very little time, perhaps just 18 months in the middle, where central government and local government can even build relationships and understand each other,” she said.
“That makes it even more important for the people of the city – communities, young people, iwi, along with the expected leaders in business and industry – being very clear about what the kind of city they want is, and the more we can get people who live here feeling pride in its place and in its future will help some of those issues.”
