Project Auckland: Auckland city can 'lead the way'

Jim Stabback Chief Executive of Auckland Council. Photo / Supplied

Jim Stabback is confident that Auckland will reach a "tipping point" and sufficient workers, visitors and students will return to restore the city centre's vibrancy and economic future.

Stabback has been chief executive since September 2020, taking up his role six months after the first Covid lockdown resulted in much of the 140,000 or so people who used to come into the city each day, predominantly for work, staying home.

In the past two years, the central city has at times seemed like an urban wasteland.

Aucklanders were locked down again last August when Delta struck and Omicron has since made some nervous about returning to offices.

Says Stabback, "it is pretty clear the impact on the central city of Auckland has been very extensive as a consequence of Covid — going back to the first lockdown.

"Economic activity is down by 93 per cent and notwithstanding the occasional — maybe well intended but sometimes little bit of animosity toward Auckland — the reality is that Auckland is 38 per cent of the GDP of the country and the central city is 20 per cent of that.

"In that sense it is incredibly important obviously to Auckland and it is also incredibly important to New Zealand."

Stabback accepts the logic of businesses and employees adopting "working from home" practices during the multiple lockdowns and alert level constraints.

But he says, it's reasonably clear now that "we are past the peak of Omicron" in Auckland.
Changed traffic light restrictions shifting from red to orange; incentives for public transport, reopening of the universities after Easter and the phasing out of MIQ resulting in hotels returning to normal operations are all having an impact.

So too, the reopening of the border with Australia and then internationally from next week.

"All the businesses I have been speaking with — and certainly it is true for Auckland Council — are having conversations about how we re-engage in the workplace with our people," he says. "Notwithstanding the challenges, I think it is also an exciting time for Auckland because we are the first through the peak of Omicron and with the potential of these things on the short-term horizon, there is an opportunity for Auckland to lead the way out of the economic impacts of Covid."

Stabback cites work underway across the council "family of organisations", collaborations with sponsoring organisations like Heart of the City to reactivate the city, and, progressively, with big employers to focus on a few areas of opportunity.

"Firstly, in recognition of the fact the city has been depopulated for some time, we need to get the fundamentals right," he says.

"So we need to focus on safety, cleanliness — the sort of things that we will often take for granted."

Getting those basics right will be an important part of creating a sense of place in the city, he underlines.

"The second thing we are there to do is to establish conversations across government to make sure that the decisions we are making — whether it be in relation to housing or social support or policing — remain cognisant of the challenges that we have had to deal with, but also mindful of the opportunity ahead of us.

"And we are having very constructive conversations right across the board with central government and others about the role they can each play in making sure we get decisions that are in line with our aspirations to re-energise the central city."

His third priority is to continue to deliver projects — like Linear Park in the central city's uptown — which together with redevelopment of Quay St that was brought forward for the America's Cup and the City Rail link development are transforming the central city.

"Obviously, there is the disruption that comes with that," Stabback says.

"The reality is we are still spending and planning to spend another half-billion dollar in city-shaping and city-impacting infrastructure.

"Of course, those projects are under supply chain pressures, just like every project in Auckland. No one is immune to that.

"That may in some respects influence timing as a function of the availability of material or capacity in the market to deliver those projects. Or it may require us to prioritise in some sense.

"But what's really important to me, and I know to the council, is that we maintain as much momentum as possible in that delivery programme.

"It's not one of those things that you want to half do."

Auckland Council is also having to factor inflationary and supply chain pressures into the formation of its annual budget, which faces a $900 million deficit.

Stabback says the upshot is that council organisations and councillors will have to make choices.

"That's simply the fact of the matter.

"It is going to require the council to continue to be more efficient and more effective in delivering the services that matter the most and perhaps evaluating some services that aren't of as significant a value to the community as they used to be."

501 deportees

Talks are underway with the central government on how "higher-risk" parts of the community — such as 501 deportees from Australia — are accommodated.

Stabback says it is about alleviating the concentration risk, "by perhaps making different decisions about how those higher-risk parts of our community are dealt with.

"We are also talking with the police about that. It is obviously something the police are quite mindful of. But they are now better-equipped from a resourcing point of view than they were a few months ago.

"The other thing is having 100,000 people back in the city in and of itself changes the dynamic."

Stabback is encouraged by a positive response from government departments that recognise the need for change.

"Notwithstanding the challenges, I think it is exciting," he says. "There is a lot of investment that we have made and will continue to make.

"If we get the fundamentals right, it will be a tipping point. We can change the narrative and we need to for Auckland and New Zealand."

• Auckland Council is a sponsor of the Herald's Project Auckland report.