Broadsides: Final word on Auckland Central

Labour MP Jacinda Ardern and National MP Nikki Kaye.

Labour's Jacinda Ardern and National's Nikki Kaye on why they should be voted in for the Auckland Central seat.

JACINDA ARDERN

There are some questions you get asked more than others on the campaign trail. Sprinkled amongst the unexpected (like "are those your real teeth?") is the most common of them all "why you?" It's a fair question. From the voter's perspective, every three years they are presented by a group of enthusiastic politicians, waving signs and pedaling their wares. But underneath all the political paraphernalia, there are some massive differences between us, and these differences have become one of the most striking features of this campaign.

I don't believe it's enough for political candidates to expect support because they have, or will, work hard. That should simply be a given. Instead, we should be talking about what it is we will work hard towards. What is our vision, and how will we get there? For me it's simple. What are we doing to strengthen the city's economy, to be real guardians of our beautiful environment, and are we taking everyone with us?

We know already that we are in a bad way economically, and as the producers of roughly a third of the countries GDP, when Auckland suffers, we all do. Unemployment is high for Maori, Pacifica, and our young people in particular. We've had our credit rating down graded, and we have a deficit of $18billion. We need a plan, and a much better one than selling our assets.

If we want to grow jobs in Auckland, we have to start helping the people that create them. We should be supporting our exporters (and Auckland has too few) as our countries job creators and encouraging greater investment in the productive economy. And if we are to become the high tech city our Mayor wants us to become, we should bring back a research and development tax credit while we're at it- which is exactly what Labour will do.

I want to throw in a pre-emptive statement here too. Time and time again on the campaign trail I have heard candidates from the National party scaremongering people about Labour and business. All I can say is this- look at the record. We are the party that had amongst the lowest unemployment in the OECD, a status we maintained while raising the minimum wage 9 times in 9 years. We had the strongest continuous economic growth since world war two. We lowered the company tax rate for business, and achieved the top rankings for the ease of doing business survey amongst our overseas counterparts.

What is scary, is a party that stands back while countless kiwis join the dole queue, flee overseas, and struggle to survive.

Racing to the bottom isn't part of our plan for Auckland nor is mining our way to prosperity, or spending $10 billion on new highways. Of course decent infrastructure is critical to our city, but we need to start future proofing ourselves by kicking off projects like the city rail link. Labour has already said it would re direct funding from the holiday highway to the rail link instead, and make sure we get Auckland moving. Support for rail, in this case, means funding it. Anything less from National is just rhetoric.

The rail link isn't just about productivity, it's also about our environment. 35% of this city's emissions come from vehicles. Improving public transport will improve our air quality, reduce our reliance on oil, and give people choice. We need the same focus on our water quality too. While National's environment policy basically consists of just measuring how dirty our waterways are, ours says lets stop measuring, and start acting. That will take leadership, water quality standards, and action from local government, and not in almost two decades time as National has proposed. Put simply, we are guardians of this place, it's our job to leave it better than we found it.

But what about our most precious asset of all. There are over 200,000 children living in poverty in New Zealand, and plenty growing up in Auckland with a pretty poor start in life. It's time we acknowledged that a good proportion of these kids are growing up in the homes of solo parents reliant on the DPB- they are raising their children on $288 a week. If we are going to address child poverty, we cannot ignore this issue, and the importance of improving access to healthcare and education for our youngest and most vulnerable. (you can read our full plan on this issue here)

This city has enormous potential, but Labour and National have two very different plans. I guess then in considering them both, my final plea before the election would be a simple one- your vote on the 26th of November isn't about the next three years, it's about the next 30 years and the kind of city and New Zealand we want to leave for the next generation. We can't afford any regrets.

Jacinda Ardern is on Facebook and Twitter @jacindaardern

NIKKI KAYE

Despite having travelled and lived overseas, I believe Auckland is the best city in the world. Having lived more than half my life in Auckland I've seen some progress but also a lack of coordinated planning, and I'm acutely aware of the more than half a century of underinvestment in infrastructure. I came home to stand for Parliament because I want to make a difference for Auckland. There are many ways I hope to contribute to New Zealand in my life but I doubt I will stay in Parliament unless I think I can continue to make a difference for Auckland.

Few backbencher MPs in their first term would have had the opportunity that I've had to be involved in the biggest change to a city in a generation. The Auckland Local Governance reform was a difficult and at times painful process that required courage but also a determination to achieve more for the people of Auckland. Regardless of whether people agreed on the process, I think people will look back and see the reform as one of the biggest enablers of progress for Auckland.

We can't build a better city without acknowledging the massive infrastructure funding deficit. Most people understand that it's unreasonable to ask the Government to turn around this underinvestment in a global recession. Progress over the last three years can be seen with projects like the Victoria Park Tunnel and Wynyard Quarter. We're acutely aware of how tight many families' household budgets are. Beware of political parties promising quick fixes to this infrastructure deficit, the money they are promising comes from you in some shape or form.

What is needed right now is a Government with the courage to work in partnership with the Council to develop a smart, fiscally responsible, integrated and realistic plan that makes the right calls in areas like housing, transport, waterfront development and innovation.

National are campaigning on delivering Auckland some of the best communications infrastructure in the world through our broadband package. This will enable our people, schools and businesses to be better connected to people in other parts of the world. If Labour are elected they have said they will delay or cancel this broadband package.

The future of Auckland lies in more Aucklanders being able to afford their own home and ensuring rentals are more affordable. We need to progress the build of hundreds of thousands of houses in the next ten years. The new Auckland Plan is enabling us to put realistic planning mechanisms in place and free up space and land to be able to deliver this.

The future of Auckland also lies in delivering a balanced and integrated transport system that better supports all modes of transport including walking, cycling, buses, cars, rail and light rapid transit. Our Government has invested more in public transport in Auckland than any other Government in a generation, funding the electrification of the rail network and increasing transport subsidies from $277 million to $347 million. The issue with the Central City Rail Link (CCRL) has always been who will fund it and when it will be delivered. We need to agree on the benefits of the CCRL before committing tax and ratepayer money to the project.

I am personally committed to progressing this project and it is positive that we have agreed to designate and protect the most likely tunnel route. We are working with the Council on two pieces of work that are critical to agree the benefits of the CCRL, a multi-modal transport plan for central Auckland and better agreement on the employment and housing growth figures for central Auckland.

The future of Auckland lies in delivering world class science and innovation infrastructure. Recently our Government announced the Wynyard Quarter Innovation Precinct, a partnership project with Auckland Council. If re-elected we are also committed to developing a new national advanced technology institute to boost our hi-tech businesses in Auckland to progress the science and innovation agenda and support our young entrepreneurs.

We are also campaigning on supporting our most vulnerable Aucklanders through policies like ensuring every state house is insulated. We believe that we need to undertake welfare reform to ensure people who can contribute do contribute. Labour are campaigning on more dependency by extending Working For Families to beneficiaries. We believe a less dependent nation that is built on more incentives for people to work is a more compassionate and stronger country.

Aucklanders have a clear choice at this election between whether you support National which helps businesses through reasonable taxes and reasonable labour laws to create more jobs or whether you choose Labour who will add an additional ten costs to these businesses which will lead to less jobs and some of these businesses not surviving.

We will not always agree on everything but the difference is we now have a 30 year plan where decisions will finally be made. Through the Auckland Plan and the City Centre Masterplan, we have only just begun to transform our city. This Saturday, we would appreciate your vote to help us build a modern Auckland that we are proud of and enjoy living in. Thank you for giving me the privilege of being your MP for Auckland Central and I hope to continue to serve you in the future.

Nikki Kaye is on Facebook and Twitter @nikkikaye