More needed for regions - mayors

TWO-SPEED ECONOMY: Napier Mayor Bill Dalton (left) and Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule say Parliament is not listening and the Government has abandoned regional New Zealand. PHOTO/PAUL TAYLOR

Local mayors are united in calling for the Government to do more to promote regional development after a major Salvation Army report highlighted Hawke's Bay's economic and social underperformance relative to other parts of the country.

The report, Mixed Fortunes: The Geography of Advantage and Disadvantage in New Zealand, used a range of social and economic statistics to paint a picture of the growing divide between what it calls "two New Zealands - Auckland and the rest".

The report said Hawke's Bay - plus Northland, Gisborne and Bay of Plenty - was a region "where it is extremely difficult to achieve work and adequate income, whereas in Otago, Canterbury, Auckland and Southland prospects are a great deal brighter".

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce - who spent Thursday in Hawke's Bay visiting businesses and opening the region's new one-stop hub for organisations and agencies that promote business growth - said the report was political and ignored significant work the Government was doing in the regions.

Mr Joyce said the Government "absolutely" had a regional development focus and while it was working to improve the figures in the report - some of which were outdated - Napier, Hastings and Central Hawke's Bay did not have the "deep-seated challenges" that needed to be addressed in some other parts of the country.

But Hawke's Bay's four mayors all said yesterday the Government could be doing more to improve the region's prosperity. Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule, who is also president of Local Government New Zealand, said the Government was not doing enough to counter the "worrying trend" outlined in the Mixed Fortunes report.

"At Local Government NZ we have tried for a year to engage in a serious conversation about the plight of the regions. So far it has largely fallen on deaf ears in the Beehive," Mr Yule said.

"As a region we need to demand more from central Government in terms of leadership on the two-speed economy. Substantial interventions like the location of central government departments into regional New Zealand needs to be considered. They are real levers the Government can pull and they just need to be bold."

Napier Mayor Bill Dalton said the Government had "completely abandoned the regions" because there were more votes to be won in Auckland.

"If they took a fraction of the money they're spending trying to solve the transport and housing problems in Auckland and spent it encouraging businesses to set up or relocate to the provinces then at least part of their problem would be solved in Auckland," Mr Dalton said. "There are a lot of people who would love to get their businesses out of Auckland but can't afford to shift. If the Government put a fund together to encourage firms to move into the provinces that would be an incredible help."

Wairoa Mayor Craig Little said the Government had a responsibility to become involved in the type of economic "rejuvenation" work his council was pushing "but it seems the rural areas are just not that important to them".

"I think after the Northland byelection [which the Government lost] they need to start waking up."

Central Hawke's Bay Mayor Peter Butler said the Government should carve up its Landcorp business and revive the "ballot block" system to enable more people to get into farming.