It has been the greatest honour of my life to serve our community and home of Auckland Central these past nearly three years, let alone in the face of some of the greatest challenges of our lifetime thrown our way.
The pandemic, associated restrictions and disruptions, inflationary pressures and climate change-charged weather are just the tip of the iceberg; their ripples through our schools, households, communities, social and front-line services, businesses and institutions will continue to be felt and unpacked for years to come.
We have got through with grit, determination and collaboration. Throughout the Covid-19 lockdowns, I ended up with the boss of the Northern Regional Health Coordination Centre on speed dial as I pushed for, and we established, greater capacity for vaccinations and walk-ups and testing in our central city.
Working across our business associations and small businesses, driving an open letter campaign, we managed to win a process for negotiating commercial rent reductions and extension of Government support as the pandemic continued.
In the midst of dire stories out of student accommodation, working with student associations, RAs and students themselves, I pushed for and achieved the Student Accommodation Inquiry, in turn allowing us to secure the country’s first ever pastoral care code for domestic students and the first pathway for compensation when things go wrong.
In 2022, we went on to wrangle the largest-scale collaboration across student unions seen in decades with the People’s Inquiry into Student Wellbeing, which serves as the bible for our fight in overhauling the tertiary education system moving forward. For those following the news of massive redundancies and course-cutting across universities, this work is one of many necessary pieces of work. Like the work I’ve also recently done pulling together student associations, the Tertiary Education Union and our Education Minister for a round-table.
It took an unnecessary number of months, but working with the Washer family, we saved the White Lady food truck’s licence and have a pathway for all the more – instead of fewer – food trucks and vibrancy in our city centre.
We’ve been transparent and staunch in our stance against the initial austerity Mayoral Budget proposals, and managed through months of community organisation to help drive the largest ever submissions to an Annual Budget, ultimately softening cuts across climate, public transport, arts and culture and community.
It’s been a huge amount of mahi, but there’s still more to do. That’s why I was proud this June to launch my campaign for the privilege to represent you again for another three years.
There’s ongoing work – and news to come soon on some of my long-term work – like that to link up council and social services to relieve pressure on police and ensure those who need help get it, build flooding and climate resilience in our built and natural environment, save the St James, protect the Hauraki Gulf (especially from the impacts of bottom trawling), ensure a more people, and therefore business, friendly city centre, restore tree protection and enable greater urban food gardening. And that’s just the local work.
In Parliament, I continue holding the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Treasury and Ministers to account for fiscal and monetary policy, driving evidence-based change in ADHD treatment, improve the lot for the 1.4 million renters in our country – noting Auckland Central is the electorate with the highest concentration of them – and so much more.
Our communities are strongest when we work together to solve problems, which oftentimes means working through different perspectives, interests and life experiences. That’s been a hallmark of my time in politics, which I can only begin to tell you about in, for example, my recent wonderful, colourful, solutions-focused conversations with Sir Ian Taylor.
Finally, I wanted to acknowledge and thank Archie Cafe and Cafe Cezanne for their contributions to our neighbourhood. It goes without saying that Auckland and Ponsonby are better for productive, local, family-owned small businesses giving it their all.
These past few years, I’ve been proud to see behind the scenes of many of these incredible teams and, as always, have my office doors open to discuss any issues or assistance we could provide.
Mānawatia a Matariki! (Chlöe Swarbrick)
Chlöe Swarbrick, T: 09 378 4810, E: chloe.swarbrick@parliament.govt.nz www.greens.org.nz/chloe_swarbrick
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Published 3 July 2023