KEY POINTS:
The Metro Project is working well despite questions over the future and quality of the region's governance, says Auckland Regional Economic Development Forum chairman Michael Barnett.
"We are making extremely good progress. One of the things we said when we launched this was that we needed to have a whole-of-region approach to this and we needed to have an economic development agency properly funded."
Barnett would like that job to go to AucklandPlus, the Auckland Regional Council agency he chairs, which is driving much of the Metro Project. "There should be one agency funded to look after economic development and tourism in a regional way. We should apply some urgency to this."
Barnett's confidence in the project reflects overall progress on the action plan since it was published last October. The plan lists 31 steps, or actions, needed to make the Auckland regional economy world class.
Barnett cites progress in a number of areas, including the first and arguably most important "action" - delivering a single plan for the Auckland region in one to two years.
According to AucklandPlus, the plan, which is being co-ordinated by regional council executive manager Ann Magee, is progressing.
Barnett says the council has completed benchmarking work with Australia as an important step to measuring the effectiveness of the final plan in Auckland.
But the plan's credibility rests on agreement over reform of Auckland's troubled local governance (see separate story).
A local government paper outlining ways of streamlining governance short of enforced amalgamation or government legislation has received guarded approval from the region's councils and is now with the Government. But it has also been attacked publicly by one of the lobby groups initially behind the Metro Project, the Employers & Manufacturers Association (Northern), which wants to replace all eight councils in the region with a single, elected regional council and 21 elected community councils.
National Party leader John Key has also entered the fray, suggesting one big council for Auckland as one way to curb rate hikes, bring about efficiencies and foster better decision-making in local government,
Supporters of the Metro Project say that if the Auckland region can get its governance right - much easier by agreement than through special legislation - many of the remaining 30 actions identified in the October action plan will fall into place.
Actions such as demonstrating strong and united leadership, establishing a well-resourced and co-ordinated response to the region's challenges and planning for infrastructure with a single vision are givens if agreement can be reached over how Auckland should be governed.
In other, less political, areas - those dealing with education, industry training, skills shortages, regional branding, broadband, immigration, relationships with universities and Crown research institutes and preparing for the Rugby World Cup (see separate story) - the Metro Project appears to be comfortably on target.
But this assessment is not shared by all the members of the independent workstreams set up to implement the project.
One prominent member, who asked not to be named, said there were too many loose ends and too many tasks to be dealt with in the absence of reliable governance and a single plan for the region. He questioned whether members could devote the time long term to make the project work.
This issue was raised by the international panel which peer-reviewed the project last July. It noted that much had been done to promote the region's future but too many initiatives were "small in scale, separated or disaggregated from one another".
The action plan, the team reported, should be about a small number of large-scale interventions that "commanded wide support and are delivered in a participative manner".
The team also echoed the point made by Barnett and other project backers that the Government was an important potential partner and should be involved in the project from the outset.
Property developer David McConnell, who heads the project's "visit Auckland" workstream, believes a Government role - especially long-term state funding for facilities such as convention centres - is essential if Auckland is to become a world-class visitor destination.
"I see the future for Auckland as very exciting. I think we are half-way there."
Barnett, who is also chief executive of Auckland Chamber of Commerce and Industry, says much of the success of the project to date can be measured in the sheer range of achievements. One of several that involve his chamber is immigration. In recent weeks, the chamber has taken over Auckland immigration inquiries from the Immigration Service to better address the chronic skills shortages in the region.
The chamber is also working with the Department of Labour and the Ministry of Social Development to develop a regional labour market plan - in line with a key action identified in the action plan.
The chamber and Enterprise Waitakere will be represented at a job opportunities exposition in London in October.
Nick Main, chairman of Deloitte New Zealand and a champion of the Metro Project, said the project was moving forward. "If you have progress on the workstreams then there is progress overall."
But he warned there was only so much the workstreams could achieve without progress on the region's governance issues or a Government commitment to funding new infrastructure. "If you could get all the Metro Project under way you would be pretty ecstatic.
"My real concern is that workstreams come up with solutions, some you can do with enthusiasm [but] others can't be done without funding. Unless you give local government another form of raising revenue other than land tax or rates, the Government has a role to play in funding."
He said it was important that Auckland spoke with one voice to the Government.
