High point in cruel year for Barnett

Michael Barnett. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Michael Barnett had just been given the all clear after months of treatment for throat cancer when he received notification he was to be made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business.

It was a high point to a year the Auckland Chamber of Commerce head and former regional councillor said was "pretty cruel".

The chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce since 1988 and a councillor on the Auckland Regional Council since 2004, the last three years as deputy chair, Barnett has been an outspoken advocate for business and the Auckland region. He supported the amalgamation of Auckland's various councils into a single city.

A planned campaign to stand as a councillor on the Auckland Super City was halted when he was diagnosed in May with cancer.

"The big thing for me is that I can go into 2011 and what I think is going to be a fresh start," he said.

Barnett says he is concerned about the targets for growth set by successive governments, including the Labour Government's ambition to sit in the top half of the OECD and the current Government's goal of economic parity with Australia by 2025.

"What I'd like to see put in front of New Zealand businesses and New Zealanders generally are some realistic targets - increase our exports by a goal we can achieve or improve our exports in specific areas."

After more than 20 years as Chamber of Commerce chief executive the 61-year-old said the past five years were those he was most proud of.

Combining his roles at the chamber and as a councillor, Barnett has spent this time focused on initiatives to drive economic development in the Auckland region.

"It was about the Auckland economy. It was about bringing the world to Auckland. It was about exporting and innovation and skills," he said.

Today will be spent celebrating the honour with his mother, who during his cancer treatment made a weekly trip from Hamilton to visit him, watching as Barnett dropped from 87kg to 67kg.

"We will spend the New Year with her and as my 10-year-old son would say: do some Nana payback."