Outdoor events are popular in the Wynyard Quarter. Photo / Getty
This is a transcript of Simon Wilson’s weekly newsletter Love this City – exploring the ideas and events, the reality and the potential of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
The third annual State of the City report is out and guess what? It tells us what its predecessors did: Auckland under-performs economically, particularly in technology, innovation and skills development.
I think of this as the Fonterra Syndrome. For a symbol of the conflicted nature of Auckland business, technology and the city itself, there’s no better place to look than the giant Auckland-based dairy co-operative.
Fonterra moved into brand-new custom-built Greenstar premises in the Wynyard Quarter in 2016. It’s the city’s premium commercial and upmarket residential precinct. The streets are beautifully planted and limited to 30km/h. The design standards of all new buildings are tightly controlled and some of those buildings even house tech companies, both large and small.
Wynyard has the waterfront, a series of parks and play areas, a theatre, a seawater pool, events centre and outdoor events venues, and it’s home base for some major water sports. It connects directly to trains, buses, ferries, boardwalks, cycleways and the motorway.
It’s central Auckland as its movers and shakers want it to be: lovely, highly functional, a drawcard day and night for locals and visitors, humming with achievement and with potential for more. A fully modern precinct in a city that says it really, truly does want to be modern.
And Fonterra? In May last year, this export-led company announced it would ditch its value-added strategy and focus instead on commodity sales.
Even though it’s a tech-driven company, Fonterra has reverted to a bulk, low-value approach to making money.
Head office is in the Wynyard Quarter (great modern company!) but the business model is mired in the 19th century. And don’t even start me on methane.
There is some good news in that State of the City report. Auckland is a leader among other comparable cities in its cultural appeal, environmental commitments and climate-disaster resilience. Strong rankings in these areas are a testament to Auckland Council’s targeted environment rate, to the Making Space for Water plans and to its cultural and community programmes, all of which enjoy strong public support.
Whether or not you think they’re part of the “basic” spending the Government wants councils to focus on, they make a difference to our lives.
But then there’s the rest of the report. Mark Thomas of the Committee for Auckland, which initiated it, says “inadequate skills and innovation development, and disjointed and delayed planning are causing Auckland to lose ground, with the risk of falling further behind”.
Auckland ranked 99th globally for productivity, which according to the report means we’re about 15-20% behind where we should be.
There are seven peer cities we’re directly benchmarked against: Copenhagen, Fukuoka, Vancouver, Austin, Tel Aviv, Dublin and Helsinki. Among them, our productivity ranking is last.
The report’s author, Tim Moonen, says; “Other cities internationally have now moved in some cases quite substantially ahead on investment, business appeal, job outcomes, wages versus costs. On balance, more capital, more talent is consistently flowing out to larger and better places”.
Mayor Wayne Brown says the State of the City report “highlights an urgent need to lift Auckland’s economic performance and competitiveness”.
But does he take this seriously?
Brown has announced a “Leadership Group” for the Auckland Innovation & Technology Alliance, a body he set up in May after an Auckland Innovation Forum attended by more than 130 tech and innovation leaders.
The leadership group is led by Simon Bridges, chief executive of the Auckland Business Chamber.
“This isn’t another talk shop,” says Brown.
“It’s a delivery-focused team of proven Auckland leaders who know how to cut through and get things done.”
A cynic might wonder if they’re all talk shops: State of the City reports, Innovation Alliances, the works.
Brown’s announcement was full of jargon and didn’t propose anything specific.
Sir Peter Gluckman, who’s on his leadership group, said; “If we want to build a future-ready economy, we must ensure Auckland’s innovation system is better aligned, better resourced, and globally connected. Cities are the primary units of innovation internationally”.
It’s true. It’s obviously true. But how much does it help just to keep saying it?
The former head of Business NZ, Phil O’Reilly, is just back from a trip to Europe and he’s been saying the same thing too.
In EU countries, he told RNZ, the best business opportunities are shifting from agriculture to high-tech, logistics, infrastructure and digital sectors.
You might almost think he was having a dig at Fonterra. But are we geared up for it?
There’s enormous scope for Auckland to apply tech-driven solutions to some of its biggest problems. Transport, freight management, flooding, housing, healthcare, addressing the long tail of failure in education.
But perhaps we have to stop thinking that “tech” means RocketLab.
Relatively cheap modern tech solutions abound. Why are we still not building thousands of prefab houses?
Where’s the commitment to experimenting with mass transit like overhead services. Why is it taking forever to introduce congestion charging?
This week we learned that most students in South Auckland have failed their literacy and numeracy tests. One of the reasons is said to be the tests are conducted online and many students from low-income homes don’t have access to a computer. There’ll be a lot more to it than that, but this looks a lot like the city not only has an IT gap, we are now punishing people for being on the wrong side of it.
Do we want the city to thrive or not? Give them a computer!
Postscript: On Friday the Government announced it would fund a new Institute for Advanced Technology (NZIAT), to be based in Auckland, to the tune of $231 million over four years. We’ll learn more about this soon.
You read that right. The board of Auckland Transport, acting on advice from its executive, has decided to buy more diesel ferries for use on the Waitematā Harbour.
This was revealed in a council meeting on Thursday, shortly after chief executive Dean Kimpton had assured councillors; “We’re committed to reducing emissions”.
“But,” spluttered councillor Shane Henderson, “we’ve given you a clear direction to buy electric ferries and yet the AT board had made a decision contradicting that”.
“I understand that 70% of new ferry orders around the world are for electric ferries,” said councillor Richard Hills. “Why would you not be part of that?”
AT actually has bought two new electric ferries, made here in Auckland, and they’ll soon be in use. It also has two hybrid electric-diesel ferries on the way and it’s been rolling out the charging network to service all four boats.
But, AT’s Stacey van der Putten told the council, more ferries will be needed by 2028 and “modern diesel” offers the best option for cost and reliability, at least for now. Especially as the Government will not help fund electric ferries.
AT board chair Richard Leggat added, “It comes down to dollars”.
Then he said it comes down to reliability.
“If we have a ferry out [of action], we lose consumer confidence.”
Both appeared to worry that e-ferries may be less reliable, although neither produced any evidence for this.
Councillors all around the table were sceptical of the cost and reliability arguments and asked to see the evidence.
Michael Eaglen from EV Maritime, which designed the new e-ferries Auckland is getting, told me after the meeting that a comparative analysis of electric and diesel was a good idea and most of the work had already been done, by his company and by AT.
“Life cycle analysis shows that carbon-fibre electric ferries have much lower emissions intensity on a whole-of-life basis than any form of aluminium ferry, or any form of diesel or hybrid ferry,” he said.
He didn’t think there was any substance to the suggestion e-ferries are less reliable.
Some councillors suggested the new diesel ferries could be made “electric-ready”: able to be converted at some point in the future.
Eaglen doubts the value of that, too.
“EV Maritime, and I think both Fullers and AT, have all looked at this and all found it to be demonstrably unattractive. Simply put, you wind-up building bad diesel boats, which later become bad electric boats.”
Hills reiterated his point, mentioning “New South Wales, Brisbane, British Columbia, Seattle” and “many Chinese cities” as places where electric ferries are running successfully. His “70% of all new ferries” figure comes from Clean Technica, a clean-energy information service.
He could have added Norway: it has about 70 highly functional e-ferries.
Or spelled out that in Sydney they’ve committed to a fully electric ferry fleet by 2035. Given all this, Hills wondered, why would AT think e-ferries are less reliable than diesel ferries?
Who’s AT been talking to that it would suddenly back away from electric ferries? More to come on this.
In better ferry news, they’ve become Auckland’s most popular form of public transport. Stacey van der Putten produced a graph at the council meeting showing that in the March 2025 quarter, ferries enjoyed 92.3% customer satisfaction. It’s the highest mark they’ve reached for at least 10 years.
Buses were at 91.3% and trains at 88.1%.
The graph makes the benefit of improving services very clear. The rail network had low and erratic support until electrification was completed in 2015, after which its popularity soared. The rollout of new bus services the following year had the same effect.
Ferries, meanwhile, endured years of instability from 2017 until the end of 2023, but then their popularity rose sharply too. Trains, on the other hand, took a dive during the maintenance closures and major disruptions of recent years, before bouncing back a bit this year.
AT also reports the ferries currently have 96.4% punctuality and 96.8% reliability.
Restaurant Month is less than two weeks away. The special menus of participating restaurants are available to view online and Heart of the City reports that bookings are up 88% on the same time last year.
This year’s theme is “Don’t Try This At Home”. The full programme, with options for meals at $35, $45 and $55+ price points and a whole lot of special one-off events, is here.
Last week Auckland Transport (AT) announced it had revived its original plans for a pedestrian-focused precinct around the new Karanga-a-Hape railway station, part of the City Rail Link.
On Tuesday, the Waitematā Local Board endorsed the decision, 4-3, with the City Vision members and independent chair Genevieve Sage voting for it and the C&R members voting against.
This overturns a decision to abandon those plans in favour of a more car-focused approach, and brings to an end a remarkable episode of urban planning of the city.
The original plans included a pedestrian mall on Mercury Lane, between Karangahape Rd and the station entrance just past the old Mercury Theatre. The revised plan made it easy for cars to pass through.
The original has now been largely restored, although in a slightly peculiar way. Bollards will be in place at each end of the block, but technically it will be a shared space, with vehicles still able to enter and exit the street, by triggering the bollards to be lowered.
AT calls this “consultation by doing”: if the street is used overwhelmingly as a pedestrian mall, that will lead to it becoming one.
But if it’s not, then the bollards might stay down. Once the CRL opens next year, the theory goes, the users of the street will vote with their feet, or their car horns.
On Cross St, which runs east from the station entrance, the original plan reduced the parking and widened the footpaths. The revised plan removed almost all the pedestrian-friendly features and made it a street for vehicles. The final plan ensures there is enough parking for service vehicles while restoring the footpath extensions and adding better lighting.
The original also retained the cycleway and north-only roadway on East St. The revised plan removed the cycleway and made the road two-way for cars, but the final plan reverts to the original.
The Karangahape Rd Business Association and the City Centre Advisory Panel both told AT they would prefer a “modal filter”: a barrier halfway up the street, so vehicles could drive in and out from either end, but could not drive through.
This is a way to support local traffic while stopping rat running.
AT couldn’t see their way to allowing that. But the council and its new Urban Development Office have both expressed interest, which means it could happen later.
When the original plans were consulted on in 2023, more than half of submitters “strongly agreed” they would improve the precinct and their own lives, and that rose to about three quarters when the “agreed” numbers were added. That indicated strong public support.
These views reflected a larger issue: that after all the investment in the CRL, catching the train and using the railway station should be a safe and rewarding experience.
But earlier this year, due to opposition from some retailers and some residents in a nearby building, AT withdrew the proposals. It then faced a barrage of complaints from people wanting the original plans and the original consultation process honoured. After all, what’s the point if it’s just going to be ignored?
This week, after more “stakeholder engagements”, AT accepted that logic and largely restored the original plans.
“We take feedback from the community seriously, which is why we took time to revisit the design and engage widely,” said Jane Small, AT’s group manager of rail infrastructure.
“In a public project like this, it is challenging to satisfy everybody completely.
“We have worked hard to balance the different perspectives in the local community, and ensure the project aligns with plans and aspirations for Auckland’s city centre, maximising the positive impacts of the City Rail Link.”
Councillor Richard Hills led the effort inside the council to push AT into a rethink.
He says; “This result is so much better than where we were a few months ago. It’s not perfect but it’s a good result if everyone sees it as a compromise.
“It will encourage safe entry and exit to and from the new world-class station for the thousands of people who will use it each day, which will also help invigorate the Karanga-a-Hape business and residential areas”.
Greater Auckland’s Connor Sharp, who led the public campaign, says; “It’s vital to remember the key lesson here. We don’t have to accept plans and promises being watered down, backed away from, and broken.
“When we choose to speak up, we can make a difference and change things for the better”.
Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson told her colleagues on council a story this week about a bus driver who had helped every passenger in the pouring rain get safely off the bus and into covered shelter.
“Going above and beyond,” she called it.
She said Auckland Transport has a scheme to reward drivers who go above and beyond, and anyone who sees it happening might like to let them know.
Aucklanders are much fonder of the Government than the rest of the country is, according to a Freshwater Strategy poll released this week.
Nationally, a mere 29% of us think the country is “heading in the right direction”, but in Auckland it’s 48%.
This mirrors the result of the 2023 general election, where the National Party was more popular in Auckland than in the rest of the country.
The unfavourability ratings are similar: 54% of the country thinks we’re heading in the wrong direction, but only 38% of Aucklanders think that.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is also more popular in his home town than elsewhere. His net favourability rating is –1% here, but –27% nationally.
No word yet on whether there’s a settled view of who should be playing in jerseys 6, 11, 13 and 14 for the All Blacks.
Midtown, the central city area around the Civic and stretching a block or two down Queen St, is still disrupted by roadworks.
Some of them are because of the City Rail Link and some are because Auckland Transport is giving Victoria St a makeover, but perhaps the biggest disruption is caused by Watercare, which is replacing some very old pipes.
They have a tunnel boring machine down there and it’s a tough, complex job.
Queen St used to be Te Waihorotiu stream, which became more or less an open sewer as the city started to grow. Then the stream was walled off and over a hundred years of pipes, cables and other paraphernalia were buried beneath the road.
Putting in new pipes means they have to work their way through all that, digging out what’s not wanted and taking care not to disrupt what’s still in use.
In the meantime, with Queen St, Quay St and Victoria St more pedestrianised, and with Wellesley St destined to become the main crosstown route for buses, Auckland Transport has produced a map showing the easiest ways for cars from the east to get across the city.
Essentially, it suggests drivers should not try to use Wellesley St, Victoria St or the western end of Quay St, but should take Customs St or Mayoral Drive and Nelson St. Going round is quicker and easier than trying to go straight through.
At the council meeting where this was discussed, councillor Mike Lee complained that the roadworks “are doing a great deal of harm to the city centre”.
Councillor Chris Darby responded that those roadworks are “future facing work for the city centre for generations to come”.
“Dystopia!” shouted Lee.
Councillor Richard Hills told him there’s a pipe being replaced on Victoria St that’s 13m deep, and that the work was necessary because there are 18 development projects in the central city and they need good infrastructure.
“Remember Quay St?” he said.
“Everyone complained when that work was being done, but we needed to do it. A 100-year-old seawall was replaced, basically the front of the city was falling off.
“But look at how good it is now, look at how popular it is. Midtown will be the same.”
Councillor Andy Baker said he had just one word to say to everyone who complains that Auckland is fixing its infrastructure: “Wellington”.
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