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Executive Director Report
Last month I represented Auckland at the Committee for Cities and Regions (CCR) bi-annual conference in Wagga Wagga (informally called Wagga), a city in New South Wales.
Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population similar to Nelson at 55,364 people,. Wagga is the state's largest inland city, and is an important agricultural, military, and transport hub for Australia. It is midway between the two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, and is the major regional centre for the Riverina and South West Slopes regions.
Coming from Auckland which leverages its coastal aspect and easy access to beaches for tourism and commercial advantage, I was impressed with how Wagga has used its location to expand its economy and fund its infrastructure development. Wagga was amalgamated with the neighbouring Kyeamba and Mitchell Shires in 1982 and as a relatively new city. As I advised members in our last newsletter, the Committee has commissioned AUT’s Policy Observatory to undertake a review of Auckland’s governance and its progress against objectives since unification.
The value of belonging to the Committees for Cities and Regions Network is that we gain a shared understanding of the issues and opportunities facing our regions. Auckland benefits from a knowledge base for economic development, population growth and social infrastructure with cities and regions that have already had to deal with some of these issues. While in Wagga we visited two important regional businesses Teys Meat Processing Plant and the Wagga Wagga Livestock Market. It is Australia’s premier livestock market and was a fascinating insight into the drivers of their regional economy.
The next Committees for Cities and Regions meeting is in Perth in early 2016.
Photo: Members of the Committee for Cities and Regions network at the meeting in Wagga Wagga
On behalf of the Board and Trustees of the Committee for Auckland I would like to extend our thanks and warm wishes to Mr Niu Qingbao, the Chinese Consul General, who is leaving Auckland for a new opportunity. Over the past two years, Mr Niu has worked with the Committee exploring opportunities to boost the development of Auckland in all areas through its relationship with China. A regular attendee at CFA forums and dialogue events, Mr Niu played an active role in the Committee’s work programme and provided valuable insights and perspectives on the China Project in particular. During his time as Consul General Mr Niu has invested a lot of personal time getting to understand our city by meeting with our members regularly. He has also been very generous in making his staff available to the Committee where we have had need of expert advice on some of our projects and policy papers. We wish Mr Niu every success and much enjoyment in his new posting.
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Photo: Mr Niu Qingbao, Consul General, Chinese Consulate-General and Heather Shotter, Executive Director, Committee for Auckland
Like most rugby fans the world over, I was saddened to hear of the passing of one of our greatest players, Jonah Lomu on November 18. I had the privilege of working with Jonah when I was General Manager, Group Marketing and New Zealand Operations at SkyCity Entertainment Group. We supported many charities including the Special Olympics Foundation and as one of their ambassadors he attended several events to raise awareness of this important cause. On every occasion I found Jonah to be a humble man who gave generously of his time to encourage others. While he devoted a lot of his time to charity, Jonah always made a point of seeking out the special Olympians, speaking with them and their families and posing with them for photos. Likewise, when he played for the Auckland rugby franchise he would remain at Symphony Under The Stars long after the other players had finished autographing to sign personal items for the kids in the crowd. There is no disputing that Jonah Lomu was a superstar of Rugby but he was also one of Auckland’s great citizens and the legacies of generosity and humility he leaves speaks volumes to the world about our country and our values.
Finally, as this is our last newsletter for the year, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our members for their support. Wihtout them we wouldn't be able to continue our important work. I wish you all a very merry and safe Christmas and a happy and prosperous 2016.
Heather Shotter
Executive Director
News in Brief
Five Legacy Projects for One Auckland: Future Auckland Leaders Graduate
29 inspiring Aucklanders graduated from the Committee for Auckland’s Future Auckland Leaders (FAL) Programme at a ceremony at the Auckland War Memorial Museum on November 17. Auckland University of Technology Vice Chancellor Derek McCormack delivered an entertaining keynote speech which used an elaborate equestrian story to illustrate the lessons of leadership. Chair of the Committee’s Board of Trustees and departing Auckland City Missioner, Dame Diane Robertson awarded the certificates to the class of 2015. The event was attended by the Committee’s members across the public, private and not for profit sectors, united by their focus on collaborative projects that aid the growth of Auckland city and the region.
As Auckland celebrates five years of amalgamation and looks to its future as the world’s most liveable city, it is a group of emerging business leaders from all over the region that have delivered five social development projects that will enhance the city for residents and visitors.
Working in teams, participants selected and were tasked with delivering a project which makes a meaningful contribution to Auckland while providing the opportunity to experience and shape the many facets of leadership practice in action.
The five legacy projects for 2015 are: Community Kitchen, Donating Brains, Garden of Knowledge, Maunga Mana and Project Timata. All of the projects forge strong connections with community groups to address social, economic or environmental issues. A synopsis of each project is here.
Executive Director, Heather Shotter is impressed with the class of 2015 who have pooled their individual strengths to deliver responsive solutions to real issues facing Aucklanders and the region. “FAL is designed and delivered specifically to develop leadership in and for the future Auckland and the 2015 projects are focused on meeting specific community needs. Graduates have considered the Committee’s vision for Auckland and connected with leading organisations to address issues that will impact our city in the future. This is forward thinking exemplified by great leadership” she says.
Placements for the 2016 FAL cohort are closing January 29, 2016. For more information, and to secure a placement for your employees with leadership potential, contact Timothy Giles, Programme Manager, on 09 300 5596.
Future Auckland Leaders
2016-17 Programme
Places are filling for our new cohort. This is a rich and rewarding programme that is benefiting from collaboration across our members and with key leaders in all sectors of Auckland. People and organisations who are joining us to contribute to the creation of a programme tailored to develop people with the skills and ability to lead the future Auckland. Selection interviews are underway and we are excited by the calibre of participants lining up and for the breadth of experiences, insights, perspectives and people that await the next cohort.
If you would like to develop the succession planning and leadership talent ofyour business, or to know more about the programme, contact Timothy Giles by email or phone 09 300 5596.
Alumni Event
The final FAL alumni event of the year, on December 1, is a dialogue session on Leadership in Governance. This is your opportunity to look beyond compliance and process to the challenge of delivering effective leadership in the boardroom.
Free of charge for Future Auckland Leaders alumni, limited tickets can be purchased by non-alumni to join our host, Hon Tony Ryall, Head of Public Policy, Simpson Grierson for a compelling and challenging dialogue with experienced governance leaders: Anne Blackburn, Director, Committee for Auckland, Rob Campbell, Chairman, Tourism Holdings Limited and Brandi Hudson, Chief Executive, Independent Maori Statutory Board.
The conversation will be supported by a fine range of wines from Villa Maria.
To register your attendance, please contact Veleska Rough by email or phone 09 300 9000.
Cultural Capability Assessment Tool for Business
We are proud to announce that the Committee has commissioned the Superdiversity Centre to create a survey tool which allows individual organisations to measure the “cultural capability” of their workforce.
The Diversity Council of Australia surveyed more than 2,000 Australian workers this year to generate the first ever National Scorecard of Australia’s Workforce Asia Capability. The report found that one third of Australian workers have very little or no ability to effectively interact with people from Asian countries or backgrounds for work purposes, despite seven out of Australia’s top 10 export markets being in Asia. Based on recent data presented in ‘Superdiversity Stocktake: Implications for Business, Government and New Zealand’ (October 2015), the Committee believes that most Auckland businesses could better engage with superdiverse customers or a superdiverse workforce.
Building on the work undertaken by the “Asia capability” Survey in Australia, the Cultural Capability Assessment Tool for Business (CCATB) will address New Zealand’s Superdiversity environment and reflect Maori, Pacifica and Asian cultural capability. The CCATB will examine seven key domains for measuring whether an organisation has a culturally capable leadership team, and generating an organisation’s Cultural Capability Scorecard. These are: Cultural Intelligence, Cultural Knowledge, Cultural Experience, Language Proficiency, Social Capital, People Management and Multicultural Identity.
Chair of the Superdiversity Centre and author of the Superdiversity Stocktake report, Mai Chen says the value of the survey lies in highlighting the gaps that business needs to plug to succeed in maximising the opportunities from NZ’s ethnic diversity. “The development of a survey tool to determine the cultural capability of an organisation is a critical first step for a business wanting to become fit for the future. Having done the survey and understood the gap in capability that needs to be bridged to service diverse customers and to manage and to get the best from diverse staff, business will need assistance to build cultural capability” she says.
The survey tool will be completed prior to Christmas and the Committee wishes to recruit member organisations of varying scale and industries to trial the tool anonymously and free of charge. These organisations will get to test the CCATB as a pilot prior to the survey being offered to paying businesses later in 2016. The survey tool will take no longer than 1 hour to complete online and would be shared with employees of participating businesses on 19 January. The Completed surveys would need to be returned to the Superdiversity Centre for analysis 29 January and an initial report of survey findings would be shared anonymously with participants in the second week of February. Members will be approached for pilot participation before 10 December. Any CFA members who would like to be put forward can contact James Dunne at the Superdiversity Centre for more information on 04 471 5790.
The survey tool and the anonymous results will be launched on 29 February 2016 at the Response to the Superdiversity Stocktake: what next? Conference to be held at Auckland University of Technology on March 3, 2016.
Magnet Cities Workshops
New Zealand needs our largest hubs to become “Magnet Cities”, the globally competitive cities that attract Young Wealth Creators. Currently New Zealand is not attracting the world’s best talent, which means that we are also losing its best talent overseas, adversely affecting our country’s economy and future prosperity.
KPMG’s Caroline Haynes, an economist and government advisor who co-authored the June 2015 Magnet Cities study, returned to New Zealand in October to run a series of Design Thinking workshops with city officials and other stakeholders in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Haynes’ study on the phenomenon of Magnet Cities provides a roadmap for city planners to approach the plan for change.
This was Ms Haynes’ second visit to the country in three months, having only just visited in June this year when the Magnet Cities report was first published. This second visit was arranged to build on the momentum of interest and enthusiasm from stakeholders. The Design Thinking Workshops presented a unique opportunity for a different, combined viewpoint to be formed and heard, to help address the challenges those cities will face in the future as globally competitive cities.
Representatives from Committee for Auckland and Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (ATEED), KPMG, as well as key decision makers and interested partners in each city met to brainstorm together at the workshops.
Several cities from the Magnet Cities study that share the closest traits with New Zealand were chosen to form the basis for debate and discussion with workshop participants. This is the relevance of the Magnet Cities approach according to Haynes. The workshops looked at the learnings from the study with cities such as Pittsburgh USA, Malmo Sweden, Bilbao Spain and Changwon South Korea. Haynes believes that these cities are the ones for Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch to emulate as they are of similar size, facing similar challenges.
The workshops aimed to identify what cohort of talent each city needs to attract to ensure a more dynamic future, and is the first step to success following the Magnet Cities model. “If New Zealand is to prosper in this new age, its cities need to examine their own unique magnetism and then work on attracting the right people to bring that identity to life´ says Caroline Haynes.
The outcome from the workshops is to provide a clear project plan of how New Zealand cities are going to address their current deficits and attract the desired Young Wealth Creators.
Value for Auckland
The financial gain for Auckland adopting a Magnet City model can be significant. Case study cities have seen substantial improvement in their economy with an average 2-5% increase in GDP over a sustained period relative to peers.
- Auckland currently contributes 35.3% to New Zealand’s GDP
- Total Auckland rates revenue is $1.41 billion of which 32.8% or $462 million comes from businesses
- Aucklanders in employment number: 780,000 (69%)
- Commercial businesses located in Auckland: 170,600
Potentially a Magnet City approach in Auckland can increase GDP by an average 2%, which has significant implications: projections are that by the year 2035:
- GDP is $57b higher (cumulative gain $500b)
- Business rates income could be $200m higher ($2.8b over 20 years)
- Employment could be as much as 200,000 higher than current trends
Visit the KPMG website for an overview of findings here.
Photo: Caroline Haynes, Director, KPMG UK and co-author, Magnet Cities
Port Future Study Consultants Appointed
Published: Wednesday 18 November 2015
Source: http://www.portfuturestudy.co.nz/news/
A consortium of independent consultants has been selected to identify and evaluate options for the long term future of the port.
Announced today, the multidisciplinary consortium has experience in specialities across environmental, marine, cultural, iwi relations, infrastructure, economics and strategic port planning sectors.
It is led by professional services firm EY and includes Aurecon, GHD, Black Quay, eCoast, JLL New Zealand and Jasmax.
Dr Rick Boven, Port Future Study Independent Chair, says a sub-group of the port study's Consensus Working Group (CWG) evaluated and selected the consortium after a robust, competitive, and open two-stage procurement process.
"The consortium's work will be guided by the Port Future Study scope, agreed to in September, to provide a thorough analysis of options for the future of the port. The final report will provide the evidence base for the recommendations that the CWG will make to Auckland Council by the end of June 2016.
"The consortium's work begins immediately and will be completed by May 2016 when its final report is provided to the CWG.
"The CWG will work with the consortium to guide and understand their work so that when the consultant's report is received, the CWG's members are well-placed to develop their recommendations to council.
"In addition, the CWG will also continue to meet regularly and work with a range of information to build their collective understanding of the issues", says Dr Boven.
Mayor Len Brown initiated the independent Port Future Study in April 2015 to ensure Aucklanders understand the issues and have a real opportunity for input into future decision making on Auckland's port.
The Committee for Auckland has been advocating for the study since the launch of its Three Waters: Auckland as a Maritime City report in 2013 and the Committee for Auckland's Executive Director, Heather Shotter, was a member of the evaluation team.
Member News
 Committee for Auckland welcomes newly appointed US Consul General Melanie Higgins
Melanie Higgins is the Principal Officer and Consul General at the U.S. Consulate-General in Auckland, New Zealand. (She arrived in Auckland early October 2015.) Prior to this posting, she was Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Port Moresby, which is accredited to Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Solomon Islands. She was Deputy Political Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia from 2010 to 2013. Before that, she served as Acting Public Affairs Advisor in the State Department’s East Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau. Ms. Higgins has also served as a Political Officer in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Australia and Cameroon, and has worked in the State Department’s Operations Center and as the Thailand Desk Officer.
Ms. Higgins joined the Foreign Service in 1998 and is married to a Diplomatic Security Special Agent. She speaks Indonesian, French and some Bosnian, attended Johns Hopkins University, and received an M.A. from the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Committee for Auckland congratulates member SweeneyVesty on winning Global Media Relations Campaign of the Year
On October 1, 2015 SweeneyVesty scooped the Grand Prize for media relations campaign of the year, capping a stunning 2015 for the public relations firm, which has also won gold, four silver and bronze trophies in international competition, including a Silver Cannes Lion.
PR Daily, the US communications industry bible, awarded SweeneyVesty the Grand Prize and Best Media Relations Campaign under‐$50,000 for its Scoot Airlines PR campaign that wittily took the Mickey out of fellow budget airline Spirit, whose new corporate livery and branding bore more than a passing resemblance to Scoot’s.
SweeneyVesty, headquartered in New York and with offices in Auckland, Wellington, Singapore, Berlin, London, Sydney and Ohio, also won PR Daily’s Best Brand Messaging or Positioning category.
Stevens Lawson Architects wins the top award at this year's New Zealand Architects Awards
A new performing arts centre at Iona College, Havelock North, has won this year’s the top New Zealand architecture award.
The Blyth Performing Arts Centre was designed by Stevens Lawson Architects, which also won an architecture award for another building on the same campus.
FAL alumni Gary Lawson, co-founder and director of Stevens Lawson Architects is a graduate of the Committee for Auckland Future Auckland Leaders Programme (2009).
Read more about the awards here.
Upcoming Events
Leadership in Governance
Focusing on looking beyond compliance and process to the challenge of delivering effective leadership in the boardroom.
Date: Tuesday 1 December
Time: 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Venue: Simpson Grierson
Cost: Complimentary for FAL alumni and $25+GST for all other attendees
Launch of China Report - January 2016
Launch of Auckland's Governance Five Years on - February 2016
Launch of Cultural Capability Survey Tool - March 2016
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