Golden Triangle plots master plan for Western Bay

Western Bay is poised to become a leading player in driving the country's economic powerhouse along with Auckland and Waikato.
The Golden Triangle mayors, Auckland's Len Brown, Hamilton's Julie Hardaker and Tauranga's Stuart Crosby, yesterday vowed to work together on a long-term economic plan to benefit the three regions and New Zealand.
Mr Brown told a business luncheon in Tauranga he was prepared to lead discussions on forming a master plan that created inter-regional initiatives in infrastructure - road, rail, airports and ports - tourism, events and industry sectors, saving costs and increasing productivity, growth and prosperity.
Environmentally, there could be integrated land use and harbour management strategies.
"I'm not into mucking around. I want to see a draft memorandum of understanding, with proposed outcomes, within weeks and not years.
"It's a time of real transformation in Auckland and I want to build up a genuine powerhouse in the regions. Both the business community and civic leadership need to be represented," he said.
Ms Hardaker said: "We hear a lot of talking going on but there is a very firm focus on recognising the value of establishing this [plan]."
Mr Crosby said: "We must get the political relationships right from the start.
"We need to keep it simple and not let the bureaucrats get hold of it."
Mr Brown said improving the connection between Auckland, Waikato and Tauranga was a unique planning exercise - the only places it had been done in a similar way, that he knew of, was Greater London and Brisbane.
A successful inter-regional plan could also head north into Northland and south to Rotorua and Taupo, he said.
The luncheon, organised by Tauranga Chamber of Commerce, was the first time the three mayors had talked to the same audience on the Golden Triangle potential.
The audience was told the area north of Taupo contains half of New Zealand's 4.4 million population and 40 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Mr Brown wasn't happy when he said Auckland was only contributing 9 per cent of that GDP through exporting, thinking aloud there could be some useful links with Port of Tauranga, the country's biggest export port.
Over the past decade, 57 per cent of the increase in population has occurred in the cities of Auckland, Hamilton and Tauranga.
"We are it ... to the success of New Zealand, that's the reality of it," said Ms Hardaker. "We have to put provincial boundaries aside and develop a master plan."
Mr Crosby said: "Until we get our towns, cities and regions more integrated, we will not go anywhere to reaching our potential from an economic perspective. We don't seem to have a national economic development plan."
He said the Budget last week was another lost opportunity to make progress, "the initiatives seemed to focus on reallocation of what we have or don't have rather than building and creating opportunities for growth".
Mr Crosby believed there was a culture in governments that underpinned the notion of "we raise the money from taxes and charges, so we will determine on our own how it is spent".
He said local and regional authorities had almost as many assets as the Government. But governments have forgotten that to deliver their outcomes they needed to partner with others, "and even today they still struggle with this issue".
Mr Brown told the audience the cost efficiencies from the Auckland Super City were starting to show up. Total savings of $81 billion has been found from the original budget, including $10 billion in procurement.
The budget cut has meant the tax rise will be about 3.9 per cent instead of 9.3 per cent.
Interest of $4.5 million will be saved on debt of $3 billion through the establishment of a local government debt entity which will lower the cost of borrowing.
But Mr Brown had one word of advice to those contemplating council amalgamations in the Bay and Waikato.
"Don't sweat it, don't hurry it; watch what we do first," he said.