We live in turbulent, changing and charged times.
Locally, we’re mourning the closure of some of our iconic hospitality venues, like SPQR and Madame George, while also celebrating the opening of new potential icons, like Bodega (co-founded by Bryan Anderson who, once upon a time, I ran a little art gallery and coffee shop with!), Beau Deli, Nami and Double Whammy.
These local businesses offer us all places to connect, meet new people, have good times and build the culture we want in our city. They exemplify precisely the vibrancy we want more of. Yet, unfortunately, so often, they’re having to operate and work against the grain to do the basics.
Just a few days before Nami opened, I heard from its hard-working co-owner, Paul Lee (also behind the renowned Ockhee further up Ponsonby Road) about the challenges they’d had processing their licence through council. I immediately got involved, found the right person and we had it approved efficiently and in time for their opening night party.
This week, I had a similar experience elevating a years-long debacle about a local road that I’d been trying to support a constituent with through regular council channels to no avail. Instead of giving up, we ended up going directly to the Chief Executive of Auckland Transport to identify who within the bureaucracy we could hold accountable to finally sorting this problem. And now, it’s on track.
Therein lies the genuine critique pretty much all of us across any part of the political spectrum can agree with: unwieldy bureaucracies are not geared to resolve issues efficiently, creatively or compassionately. There are incredible, hard-working people who work within those systems, but they’re often not empowered to make necessary decisions. In my years involved in politics, the best reason I can deduce is that these structures are created, ultimately, to reduce perceived risk for the organisation: no one can ever be responsible for things going wrong, but it also means no one is easily enabled to ensure things go right. So, we get a million layers of administration, quadruple-checking and inertia.
The solution to these problems is not defunding these systems. It’s prioritising those on the frontline, with direct experience, to actually solve the problems, instead of blaming them for the lack of power and resource they’ve inherited.
Unfortunately, it was exactly that unconstructive and patronising approach we heard from our Prime Minister in August when he addressed the Local Government NZ conference. He seemed to forget that local government and central government politicians are elected by the same people and get our resources from the same people. His so-called solution to infrastructure underinvestment is to even more stringently dictate and micro manage, which will almost definitely require more layers of administration and less trust – the very opposite of that ‘localism’ he trumpeted throughout the general election campaign.
He decided to ignore the countless successive government-commissioned research showcasing that our local governments across the country do not have the resources to achieve their mandate. His dressing-down was about blame, not vision or solutions.
If we want a functional city, country and infrastructure, we need to commit to it and we need to pay for it.
Very few New Zealanders have the individual wealth to be able to afford the $20 billion superannuation bill we pay as a country to ensure that we have among the lowest rates of elder poverty in the world. Very few of us could afford to build hospitals, schools or the transport networks we all rely on. That’s why we form society, because we can do amazing things that no one of us could achieve alone when we work together.
We won’t get to that future we deserve through merciless cuts and endless criticism. We’ll get there when we can agree on our needs and collaborate to make it happen. It’s easy to stop things. It’s harder to start, let alone build a unifying vision.
If you’ve ever wanted to get involved in that vision, I’d invite you to come and have a chat with me at my office (make an appointment via chloe.swarbrick@parliament.govt.nz) or for your convenience, next First Thursdays on Karangahape Road on Thursday 5 September. Politics belongs to those who turn up.
Finally, I wanted to acknowledge the passing of long-time community member and well-loved character, Sheena. I’m sending all my love to her friends, whānau and the many whose lives she touched. (Chlöe Swarbrick)
Chlöe Swarbrick, T: 09 378 4810, E: chloe.swarbrick@parliament.govt.nz
www.greens.org.nz/chloe_swarbrick
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