A report commissioned by the city’s business and civic leaders has found Auckland is outperforming similar-sized cities around the world in some areas but lags behind in critical infrastructure, housing and economic growth.
These are a few of the many insights contained in the first The State of the City, a comprehensive new report by UK-based urban intelligence firm The Business of Cities that benchmarks Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland’s performance against peer cities in Australia, Asia and the Middle East, Europe and North America.
Deloitte New Zealand partnered Committee for Auckland in commissioning the report. Deloitte NZ partner Anthony Ruakere helped provide a kaupapa Māori and an indigenous lens to the report - in particular how the indigenous populations within each of those cities perform not only relative to each other but also relative to the non-indigenous populations.
He says, like many things, there are stories within stories.
“A strength that we found was experience - Auckland having a magnetism or memorability I think was the word used in the report and that attracts a good tourist response. For example, there’s a culture strength that is innate, in Auckland both from a Maori and Pasifika perspective, and there’s also a sustainability and a resilience or mainly sustainability strength.
Well-being, work-life balance rate
“So for each of those strengths, there are other things that need to be considered.”
The report using data from various global surveys and research, found Auckland ranked in the top 20 in areas of wellbeing and work-life balance, digital services and quality of life and its environment. However, Demographia ranked Auckland 88 out of 99 cities for housing affordability, the Spanish Business School IESE put Auckland in the bottom third of 183 for efficient transport while a Chinese study had Auckland 110th out of 600 for long-term economic growth.
In terms of indigenous comparisons, Ruakere says the report confirmed some things that many have suspected for a while. It also aligned with the report in that it also had positive and negative findings.
“What this report does, is it coalesces all of that information in one space. Notwithstanding that there are some data gaps. So, amongst the performance issues relative to our peers are Māori workforce inclusion. That was one thing that we looked at.
Performing poorly against indigenous peers
“And what the report revealed is that whilst there’s an improvement in Maori workforce inclusion, which is basically those Maori who are able to and are in employment, we perform relatively poorly against indigenous peers in those peer cities, despite having proportionally larger indigenous population within our city.
“Homeownership is again, something that it won’t surprise people at all to know that Maori homeownership rates are very poor. But relative to our indigenous peers we’re actually at the lowest level alongside our indigenous whanaunga in Vancouver.
“So, as I say, there are things that people are anecdotally aware of but have been revealed further by data in this report that.”
Committee for Auckland director Mark Thomas says while Auckland is a significant player in the economic growth and international profile of Aotearoa, the region’s response to big problems has typically been short-term or ad-hoc, with significant opportunities missed.
“Among our peers Auckland has pressing knowledge, skills and innovation deficits. The region is not providing the skills needed to match the growing demands in technology-led sectors. Also, a range of innovation enablers need attention including access to incubators, university pipelines, seed and early state funding.”
Thomas says last year’s Reimagining Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland report found a much stronger consensus is needed between the government, the council and Aucklanders on the city’s priorities and the system-wide changes required to deliver the progress needed.
Informing future planning
“The State of the City report can help forge this by highlighting the areas holding Auckland, and by extension New Zealand back and by proposing actions that can help improve Auckland’s contribution to the nation.”
Ruakere is hopeful the report, the first of a series of reports into Auckland’s performance, can be used to inform future planning for the country’s largest city.
“We want to use this information as an evidence base to support conversations about urban development, about infrastructure about using te ao Māori, using mana whenua and tangata whenua influences to really bring Tāmaki Makaurau, culturally, economically, socially and environmentally to the world.”
