Reports show Auckland is an 'asset to the nation'

The widely held belief that Aucklanders are a drain on the country is challenged in two reports claiming the Queen City sends $3.8 billion more in tax down to Wellington than it gets back in government spending.

The rest of the country needs to start seeing Auckland as a "national asset" that can drive growth, according to the reports prepared by the Auckland City Council and the Committee for Auckland, a non-political charitable trust.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen once famously quipped that "Auckland now sits atop the nation like a great crushing weight".

Committee for Auckland chairman Sir Ron Carter yesterday said there was nothing defensive about the reports.

"This certainly will dismiss any argument that Auckland is a drain on the nation, or that it consumes more than its share of government resources. Rather, Auckland is a positive contributor to the rest of the economy," Sir Ron said.

He said to avoid a "tug of war" between communities on sharing the tax take, there was a need to increase the performance of the nation as a whole and that required looking to Auckland.

"We would like to see every region of New Zealand lifting its game and making the whole nation more successful," Sir Ron said.

The reports - The Case for Auckland, and Auckland's Contribution to the Government's Surplus in 2005 - delve into the city's economic and social dynamics.

The figures show 34 per cent of New Zealanders live in Auckland and one in three Aucklanders was born overseas.

Among the "brakes" on the region were one in five students leaving secondary school without formal qualifications and some low-decile schools producing no A or B bursaries.

Auckland City Mayor Dick Hubbard said the reports showed the Government needed to spend more money in Auckland.

Statistics showed that there was a lack of investment in infrastructure in the 1980s and 1990s.

Over the next 20 years, he said, the region needed $20 billion invested in infrastructure such as broadband, transport and energy.