Bridge the gap for those who pay to work here

By PAMELA WADE

They are not going to like this south of the Bombay Hills, especially n in Wellington. But that does not make it a bad idea.

This is it: Aucklanders should be paid extra for having to live here. We could call it the Auckland allowance, and it would be a fixed sum paid to public sector employees on top of their salaries. Private employers would be encouraged to follow suit.

This is not a new idea. In Britain, London weighting was introduced in the 1920s to bridge the gap between the salaries of those who had to work in London and that city's inflated house prices.

Police constables fresh on the beat there receive over £6000 more a year than their colleagues in smaller cities - almost a quarter of their income. This is viewed with envy by teachers, who have been striking in the capital for a 30 per cent rise in their allowance to £4000 to allow them a fighting chance of buying a house in London.

Closer to home, two unions in Sydney have been putting their case to the Labor Party for a subsidy to compensate those forced to live in the city. This zone rebate, or relief from stamp duty on real estate, would recognise Sydney's special problems.

Auckland has special problems, too - the chief one being that it costs an arm and a leg to keep a roof over your head.

Last year's census figures on rental accommodation put the North Shore ahead of the rest of the country for weekly rent, averaging $243. Auckland City was close behind, but Invercargill scored just $106.

This is reflected in house prices, too. The median price on the North Shore is almost $268,000 and in Auckland City over $266,000. Compare this with between $50,000 and $90,000 for an average three-bedroom house in Invercargill, or around $125,000 for a two-storey mansion there, and you can see why there is such a thing as southern drift.

Most people, however, are unable to up sticks and move south, despite Tim Shadbolt's blandishments. Because Auckland is so big, it attracts businesses and population like a magnet, making it bigger still and even more of a magnet. There are simply no jobs elsewhere for many people to go to, but some are going nonetheless.

The key workers who are finding it so hard to pay their mortgages or rent are the ones the city can least afford to lose. It is essential to have enough teachers, nurses and police to service Auckland's huge population. But the concept of vocation is becoming a luxury these people cannot afford. Forever lagging behind inflation in their salaries, their situation has become worse here than anywhere else in the country, and they are voting with their feet.

Anecdotally, there are more former teachers than any other type of former professional; nurses are flooding overseas for the salaries; large numbers of experienced police officers are perfing to Queensland. They are already being missed in Auckland.

Many of these people would prefer to stay put if they felt they could afford it. It is clear to everyone but those holding the nation's purse-strings that they all need to be paid what they are worth, and the rest of us would be better off if education, health and the emergency services were staffed by properly rewarded professionals.

Nationally, this is not likely to happen soon, if ever. But an Auckland allowance would ease the problem here.

Auckland has, for a long time, been regarded by the rest of New Zealand as selfish, spoilt and grasping, a drain on the rest of the country. Aucklanders are used to causing apoplectic fits in the other two-thirds of the population. So let's go for it: there is nothing to lose and so much to keep.

If those people we need most are given what they need most, a handy cash top-up to compensate them for the high cost of living in the city, we will all be winners.

Help with accommodation costs would reduce the pressure and allow them to enjoy Auckland's many free advantages - the harbour, beaches and bush, the buzz and bustle, the sunny days and balmy nights.

Because ask yourself: if you had the choice between a measly salary, a nice house and Invercargill's climate, and a measly salary, help with your mortgage and a decent house in Auckland, which would you go for? Sorry, Tim.

* Pamela Wade is an Auckland writer and teacher.