Call for 'meaningful' targets

Tukituki MP Craig Foss wants targets on economic development, crime reduction and safer roads.

Tukituki MP Craig Foss says he is pleased Hawke's Bay's leaders are "generally on the same page" over the need to set targets to improve the region's economic and social performance.

Mr Foss announced last week he had brokered an agreement between the region's mayors to work together to achieve set targets around economic development, crime reduction and safer roads.

However the targets - such as regional GDP reaching over 90 per cent of the New Zealand average by 2025 - were labelled too mediocre and not ambitious enough by Mr Foss's political opponents, Napier Labour MP Stuart Nash and the party's Tukituki spokeswoman, Anna Lorck.

The targets were discussed by civic leaders and senior civil servants yesterday at a meeting of the region's intersectorial leadership group.

The group includes the province's MPs, mayors and the chairman of the regional council, council chief executives and the local heads of government agencies such as the police and the Ministries for Social Development and Education. It is chaired by Hastings Mayor Lawrence Yule.

Mr Yule said the meeting discussed whether the targets were ambitious enough and also the need to "put them in a language that means something to the people of Hawke's Bay".

"If we're going to set targets they need to be relevant to the people of Hawke's Bay and they need to be the right targets, and they need to be things we can influence and make a difference about. That is really where the conversation was."

Mr Yule said an example of a relevant, easily understood target was Hastings District Council's goal of creating 1000 new jobs in five years.

Government agency heads at the meeting were asked to compile a list of targets their own agencies were currently working to and these would be discussed at the group's next meeting in the new year as the next step towards setting suitable goals for the region.

Mr Nash, who attended the group's meeting, along with Mr Foss, agreed the targets needed to be "meaningful".

"I'm against targets that are just plucked out of the air without any thought or research behind them." he said.

"I made the point that comparing ourselves against the rest of the country is not that meaningful. It should be let's look at the status quo now and where do we want to be as a region in five, 10, 20 years' time."

Mr Nash said writing a plan was easier than implementing it and getting the results.

Mr Foss said he was pleased there was general acceptance from the intersectorial group about the need for regional targets, even if further debate was required over how they were framed.

"It's good to have everyone generally on the same page. We can argue some details later. I'm very pleased, and I'm sure the public are pleased, that their leaders are trying to work towards these kinds of goals."

Mr Foss described his targets as "pragmatic, realistic and aspirational at the same time".

"There's no point setting us up for failure," he said.

He was pleased the debate was now about "how high our growth should be, as opposed to whinging about what things are not happening".

"If these were easy, we would have already achieved them. You've got to climb the foothills before you climb the mountains."