There's been a lot of talk about the lack of high-profile candidates, and about the public's general indifference towards local government, but let's be clear: the election of the next Mayor of Auckland matters.
The mayor presides over decisions that affect one third of New Zealanders and nearly 40per cent of the country's GDP. He or she sets Auckland's strategic direction of the city, broadcasts the Auckland "story" to the world, and is the foremost champion for our city – including when it comes to dealing with decision-makers in Wellington.
So the business community will be following the mayoral contest closely and, as campaigning heats up, we want to see candidates put forward meaningful responses to the massive challenges facing our city.
None of those challenges is more important than transport.
For the last decade in particular, transport infrastructure has completely failed to keep up with growth, despite the constant political promises. The impacts have been felt by every Auckland household and business – poor transport kills productivity and erodes livability.
Longer-term, we need to transform the way we design and use the transport system. But for now, we need to focus on catching up.
Most of the transport projects Auckland needs have already been brought to the table, in one form or another. The challenge for the new mayor will be to get the design and prioritisation of these projects right, so that they fit much more closely with the way most Auckland households and businesses use the transport system, and achieve the best possible outcome.
Critically, the new Mayor must then ensure that key projects actually start getting delivered.
There are five urgent transport priorities, where leadership from the new Mayor of Auckland will be essential.
Barney Irvine. Photo / Jason Oxenham, File
Congestion is the number-one transport concern for Aucklanders, but Auckland Council and the Government often seem to have given up on it. Rather than seeking to reduce travel time (which is what people and businesses need, above all else), the focus has increasingly gone on providing travel time reliability, or increasing "travel choices". What good are reliably bad travel times? Who wants increased choice if all the choices are second rate?
The new Mayor must make addressing congestion an explicit priority, and set firm targets based on travel times.
Congestion pricing is probably the best opportunity we will have to shift the dial on Auckland's congestion, and on vehicle emissions. It can also be put in place relatively quickly and affordably.
But it seems every time the momentum starts to build around congestion pricing, it falls into a policy-making black hole. We need the new mayor to prevent this from happening again, and to be at the front of a sustained and meaningful conversation with Aucklanders about why this is the right solution.
There's no question that Auckland needs to take a giant leap forward with rapid transit, but it's far less clear that the starting point should be light rail to the airport. Questions abound in the business community about the project's affordability and practicality, about opportunity cost, and why it has been prioritised over other critical rapid transit connections.
These concerns need to be addressed as the planning moves forward, and the only way to do that is through robust decisions and a watertight case. There's therefore a key role for the new mayor in asking the right questions – however inconvenient – and holding officials to account.
The mayor must also drive much more urgency when it comes to planning and decision-making around the next Waitematā Harbour crossing – a project that, time and again, has been kicked for touch.
It's deeply concerning that the Transport Agency's current plan appears to be to hold off on building a road crossing for another 20 years at least, while a rail crossing will be built earlier, in the 15-20 year window. If this project is to deliver lasting, network-wide transport benefits, connections for road, rail, walking, and cycling need to be provided ASAP.
Skills shortages are hurting every part of the economy, and the transport sector is one of the hardest hit. Whether it's drivers, mechanics, or engineers, the lack of qualified staff is adding huge pressure to already strained supply chains.
The new mayor must help to open central government's eyes to the need for a stronger connection between the education system and the transport industry, incentives to transport firms to invest in training, and a clear immigration strategy. Otherwise, supplying Auckland households and businesses with what they need, when they need it, will become impossible in the long term.
• Barney Irvine is coordinator of the Auckland Business Forum, a group of business organisations formed to advocate for greater urgency around the planning and delivery of the Auckland transport programme.
