Alex Swney: Restructuring is time to - carefully - plan port's future

Opinion

The Government needs to act swiftly on the Auckland governance issue.

There's plenty of turmoil around town at the moment and it will be good when the dust starts to settle. But we need to work out quickly how to handle the "one city" transition more positively. And to make sure that in the meantime we do not rapidly bungle any major infrastructure projects.

The Herald's point that the Government needs to tread more carefully from here applies not only to the new governance arrangements for Auckland but also to major development opportunities like the waterfront.

There's been a suggestion of "quick hits with immediate impacts" for the new Super City mayor. A "quite cheap option" of a cruise ship terminal and convention/exhibition facilities have been cited as examples.

The drums are beating about doing something on the central finger wharves in time for the Rugby World Cup. What a mistake that could be.

The previous Government made the same mistake with their proposed stadium by not sorting out port issues first. Their suggestion of a stadium spanning the centre of the central wharves was a fatally flawed compromise that Aucklanders were not willing to accept.

Being over-excited by the governance changes and the Rugby World Cup is not a reasonable excuse for compromised developments on our waterfront. We need to ensure a safe, responsible and engaging transition to one council and a new waterfront agency over the next 18 months.

Our start has been a rocky one. All credit to the royal commission for recommending that Auckland needs one stronger council, and for the Government accepting that.

But now there's too much of a beat up about the decision to replace the six local councils with 20 to 30 community boards. The Government is on the right track.

The issue is of course that the "one council - 30 community board structure" is only that - a structure. The rigour of the work of the commission and Government will ensure that the recommended structure will be up to it - what matters now is how we transition to the new full deal.

The current seven local councils and the regional council are donkey deep doing their own 10-year plans and annual budgets. It's important that we don't stint on getting suitably qualified and independent horsepower around the table to take the good from these plans and discard the bad. We must meld them into a cohesive and progressive long-term plan which marks real change for our city.

At Heart of the City we are champions of building stronger empowered communities. We think it's right to have transport and water services delivered regionally by focused entities and one overall spatial plan for Auckland. This oneness does not mean that community boards should not be doing the spatial and community infrastructure plans for their specific areas, and there will be elements of both working together and of negotiation between the Auckland Council and each community board to reach points of agreement that are good for the Auckland region and the diverse communities within it.

If we learned anything from the stadium debate of 2007 it was Aucklanders love their waterfront.

The city centre and waterfront belongs to the region and it is in all of our interests that it looks great and prospers.

Current city leaders have failed to develop and promote a great vision for the waterfront, and the commission's recommendation of a Waterfront Development Agency with more direct accountability to our elected leaders is a winner.

The Port company has just announced a major restructure and scaling back of container operations on Bledisloe terminal.

If a significant chunk of the growth of our imports and exports can be economically accommodated by Tauranga and North Ports, and the Auckland port size controlled to a limited area in the east, then Bledisloe terminal could be used to bookend a vibrant people's CBD waterfront and establish higher value tourism opportunities - a museum of modern art, a cruise ship terminal or convention centre are a few of many options for the CBD waterfront and economy.

The ports review needs to run in parallel to Auckland's governance transition and provide the new mayor and Auckland Council the platform to set out a vision for the waterfront that will engender pride in future generations of New Zealanders.

* Alex Swney is chief executive of Auckland's Heart of the City business organisation.