It has been 15 years since the Auckland ‘Super City’ was established through the amalgamation of Auckland’s seven territorial local authorities and one regional authority. The creation of a city-region was designed to address the difficulties of coordinating and aligning leadership and strategic planning, and enhancing political accountability.

AN OPEN INVITATION TO HAVE YOUR SAY

Through a partnership between the Helen Clark Foundation, AUT, the Committee for Auckland and Deloitte, the Complex Conversations team at the University of Auckland is hosting an interactive online discussion about Auckland’s journey since 2010.

You have until 18 April to share your views and vote on others’ using Pol.is – click here. Please feel free to forward this invitation to others and bring more voices into the conversation.

You can also check in regularly to see how the conversation develops and to have your say on new contributions. Your input will help create a clear picture of how Aucklanders want their city move forward.

Aimed primarily for people living in Auckland (or who have done so in the past) thoughts are being sought on questions such as:

What do you value most about Auckland?
What are you most pleased to have seen achieved?
What has worked and what hasn’t?
What are you most concerned about?
What will help Auckland thrive going forward, and create opportunity and prosperity?
What are your calls for action? (who do you call on, to do what?)

The changes made 15 years ago created NZ’s largest metropolitan area with a governance structure responsible for region-wide planning and service provision. The goals were to provide:

Strong regional leadership (establishing a mayoral office) and a cohesive voice representing Auckland
Joined-up strategic development on region-level initiatives
Economies of scale in administrative efficiency and service delivery
Enhanced political accountability, improved transparency and decision-making
Better connection with the Auckland public to ensure community interests are represented while maintaining Auckland-wide governance

This discussion will feed into a summit of leaders from across Auckland’s community, business, iwi and government sectors in May.

For some thought provocation see: