The upper North Island's environment is critical to our nation's success.
On Friday I was one of seven mayors and chairs who assembled in Auckland to discuss how the upper North Island's councils can plan, invest, work and campaign together to represent the 2.5 million Kiwis we have been elected to represent.
That's right - 2.5 million, more than half the population of the entire country - lives in the areas governed by Northland Regional, Whangarei District, Auckland, Waikato Regional, Hamilton City, Bay of Plenty Regional and Tauranga City councils.
Our group called UNISA, the Upper North Island Strategic Alliance, was receiving a report called The upper North Island Story 2016-2017. It's online and I recommend you have a surf through it - not only is the information in it very interesting, it is presented in a very straight-forward way.
Here are some of the facts it contained: