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Mayoral candidates square off for business audience

Author
NZME staff,
Publish Date
Fri, 17 Jun 2016, 11:14AM
Victoria Crone (L) Mark Thomas (C) and Phil Goff in February this year (Getty Images)
Victoria Crone (L) Mark Thomas (C) and Phil Goff in February this year (Getty Images)

Mayoral candidates square off for business audience

Author
NZME staff,
Publish Date
Fri, 17 Jun 2016, 11:14AM

UPDATED 5.05pm Mt Roskill MP and Auckland mayoral candidate Phil Goff can count himself as fortunate to have all three of his adult children living in the same city he does.

Not for much longer. One is abandoning Auckland for Hamilton.

His son has simply “had a gutsful” of Auckland’s traffic woes, Mr Goff told an audience of about 50 members of the city’s business community at the Heart of the City and Employers and Manufacturers’ Association-organised Auckland Mayoral Debate Breakfast.

Congestion was among hot topics for discussion when Mr Goff and two of his mayoralty rivals, Xero NZ boss Vic Crone and Orakei Local Board member Mark Thomas, spoke to business leaders this morning.

Mr Goff told those gathered he had to decide last night whether to set his alarm for 5am or 5.30am.

“I either get somewhere half an hour late because it's gridlocked or half an hour early.”

Auckland’s congestion headaches were costing the country $3 billion a year in lost productivity and huge growth unmatched by equal infrastructure growth was the city’s biggest challenge.

The delay in building the City Rail Link was a classic example, he said.

“We'll get it in 2023. We need it next year.”

And it was still happening.

“The Northern Busway [is] a good thing. But why have we just done the Northwestern motorway with no busway?”

Mr Thomas said the city needed to “get people on public transport” and proposed extending the Northern Busway, while Ms Crone wanted more  park-and-ride spaces and to make public transport more appealing to mothers.

“We have to make it easy for them to get around the city on public transport with their kids.”

Driverless cars should also be factored into plans.

“We've got to look at what our transport will be in 20 years, because I don't believe it will look like it does today.”

The longtime business leader called for the mayoral race to be a “contest of ideas, not a contest of name recognition”.

“We must get the basics right. With housing, we must address supply — land consenting and availability and the availability of infrastructure.”

Mr Thomas spoke at length about his personal history — from flipping burgers at McDonald's to leading businesses — and said the city did not have enough people with commercial experience at the helm.

Other discussion points were the future of Auckland’s downtown port, and Eden Park.

Mr Goff and Ms Crone want the port moved but Mr Thomas said housing and transport were more pressing. He also put the future of Eden Park in the lower priority category, but wanted to know how each of the city’s stadiums were performing financially.

A conversation was needed about the future of stadiums in the city, Ms Crone said, and Mr Goff said he would not support future investment in Eden Park.

He wanted a new stadium near the waterfront that catered for “three codes and concerts”.

“It's not a priority to spend ratepayers' money now. But we've got to plan now.”

Employers and Manufacturers Association chief executive Kim Campbell said Mark Thomas was the only candidate who had a way of untangling the complex web of red tape businesses face.

"He's starting to sound like they might be seeing solutions. Phil Goff and Vic Crone, to me anyway, have some way to go to really understanding the complexity and what has to be done about it."

One businessman said he has missed out on international business because of delays caused by council red tape.

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