Project Auckland: Dealing with Super City's growing pains

Michael Barnett says Auckland has a growing and vibrant economy but is not making the progress it should be. Photo / NZME.

Auckland needs skilled workers to deliver its potential, writes Michael Barnett.

At a recent Perth Job Fair I discovered the need to have a two-minute Auckland "elevator" pitch that was a compelling story for potential job seekers in Auckland and which would encourage them to share their aspirations with me.

In telling our story I felt a sense of pride that the Auckland story is one of a successful and growing economy that is not a one-minute wonder but has life and legs and desperately needs skills in order to deliver on its potential.

When we looked at Western Australia we saw the results of Australia's mining recession and the growing unemployment of people who have the skills that New Zealand needs.

In contrast, the Auckland story we were telling was a story about a wall of work arriving and bringing an estimated 30,000 jobs over the next few years in the construction and infrastructure industry sector alone.

Of the major projects on the horizon we talked about -- the City Rail Link, the East-West Connection, and a third harbour crossing -- two major hotels, a downtown shopping centre tower, a convention centre with 1500 construction jobs, and the fact that our city needs 18,000 more houses now and, to meet expected population growth, another 61,400 houses by 2018.

On top of this, Auckland has an increasing tier of innovative, energetic small to medium enterprises (SMEs) expanding their businesses internationally. The ICT sector has been growing at about 6 per cent a year for the past decade (compared to 2.4 per cent a year for Auckland's overall economy).

Currently there are around 1500 ICT-related job vacancies in the city. They range from highly skilled - programme writing and website creation - to basic but critical roles like word processing and data entry.

Overall, the Chamber of Commerce Quarterly survey and others indicate that around 40 per cent of Auckland firms are having difficulty recruiting workers with the skills and attitude they require to grow their business.

We returned from Perth with some 400 resumes of skilled workers "interested" in moving to Auckland.

Yes, we have a good story to tell - a growing and vibrant economy in Auckland and we need to be aware of the effect this will have on our businesses and on our city.

On the other hand, we are a new city - just four years in the making - with lots of growing pains.

Some of our pain is a reflection of how our single so-called Super City was established. The logic of Auckland's seven councils joining together was driven by calls to achieve economies of scale in services, to eliminate duplication, and to operate more efficiently as one economy - to better reflect the reality that in generating around 34 per cent of NZ's GDP, Auckland is New Zealand's only city of global scale.

But was Auckland established in a democratic way? Whether you agree or disagree, the Auckland "solution" was imposed on Aucklanders and it was rushed. Some of our growth pains reflect the forced way Auckland Council was established. After four years, it continues to be a work in progress, for example:

• Local boards have not been encouraged to embrace their part in the collective responsibility for the Council's decision-making.

Instead, they tend to be seen as "outsiders" with a role that restricts them to a limited advocacy, often after key decisions have been made.

• The same with the business relationship. The mantra of the new Council being "business-friendly" and easy to do business with is buried in its economic development strategy. It should be up-front in the Auckland Plan and an operating principle that pervades the whole of Council in everything it does.

• Day-to-day expectations and communications reflect an operating style more concerned with process than progress.

All of these early-birth pains mean that Auckland is not making the progress we should be. To move Auckland forward requires firstly recognition that it has real issues. The Council needs a decision-making culture and structure that embraces continued engagement with stakeholders going forward. Local boards need to be brought in from the cold.

Everyone agrees. Auckland's big three joined-up painful problems are affordable housing, transport and inequality (aggravated by our high rate of youth unemployment).

None of these problems could be solved by the old councils -- which is partly why the Super City was formed. But, as we are witnessing, none can be solved by the Auckland Council alone.

A very robust partnership relationship is required between the Super City, central government and business. It's about shared leadership - where there is recognition that we have limited resources but with the right prioritisation we can still move ahead in a way that sees us compete internationally with our rivals, attracting investment and creating jobs and opportunity for all of us.

In one respect, we can be positive about our "new city" growth pains. Most are self-made, unlike some of the painful issues perhaps facing other cities. But on one point I am certain: without a deliberate effort to step outside our comfort zone and traditional way of doing things, Auckland's big and painful issues won't be dealt to. That is unacceptable to me, and is also of great concern to many Aucklanders.

Michael Barnett is chief executive of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce.