Getting the capital’s mojo – and the people – back

Mandy Te asks a selection of business and community leaders if they were granted one wish for the capital, what would it be and how would they make that wish come true.

Affordable housing, a commitment to a safer city, and tax breaks for up-andcoming businesses are ways the capital’s business and community leaders think Wellington could get its mojo back.

And to make it happen they would give locals more say in the city’s decision-making, make sure there was less of a focus on Auckland, and keep the city’s environment front and centre.

‘‘My one wish for Wellington and the whole country would be that we work together to improve the participation of our community in the running of this country,’’ Ngā ti Toa Rangatira’s chief executive, Helmut Modlik, said.

He would like to see the ‘‘team of 5 million’’ cohesion replicated in Wellington. Having a community that felt empowered, informed and adequately resourced and had access to its needs would mean anything was possible, he said.

Modlik’s solution: more opportunities for participation. In Porirua, a citizens’ assembly to discuss climate change was one way he hoped to create a less divided community.

‘‘When you have division in your community, it sucks the energy out of your community, it creates problems – direct and indirect – and clearly prevents you being able to accomplish everything you’d like to accomplish.’’

Deloitte New Zealand chairman Thomas Pippos said Wellington had been left behind over the past two decades as New Zealand focused on growing Auckland into a global city.

To add to that, Wellington fell further behind after Auckland’s amalgamated its councils into one.

‘‘For a period of time, almost the entire country’s focus was on the success of Auckland, and there wasn’t really any focus on the rest of the country,’’ Pippos said.

‘‘It was exacerbated from a Wellington point of view, because we had fragmentation from a local government perspective. So Auckland, for better or for worse, had at least one large local government organisation that could actually represent itself in a coherent and current fashion with the government.’’

He said there needed to be better co-ordination between central and local government and more focus ensuring economic prosperity is spread throughout New Zealand. Rawinia Rimene is the founder

‘‘There’s a greater recognition of a skincare and make-up brand now that for New Zealand to win, all called Girl Native, an idea she of the metros need to win and the developed after studying business provincial areas need to win . . . and and project management at Te we celebrate that rather than try Wā nanga o Aotearoa. and compete against each other to She thinks there should be more the detriment of one or more of the wrap-around services for local other.’’ businesses in the region.

The desires of smaller And that would come to life Wellington businesses are more through business hubs, and pragmatic. stronger connections between startup

businesses and established businesses, she said.

‘‘At the end of the day, by supporting local businesses, you’re supporting families and communities,’’ Rimene said.

Enticing talented staff to move to Wellington is a key wish of Optimal Workshop, a software company based on Courtenay Place whose clients include Uber, IBM, and General Electric.

Its people experience officer, Julie Reddish, thinks tax breaks for high-growth companies, like they’re doing in Victoria, Australia, and a campaign that focused on the city’s liveability would help attract people to Wellington.

‘‘All our software developers and people want to go to Australia because the companies are actually incentivised and they’re . . . making it an economic advantage to hire within that city,’’ Reddish said.

The founder and director of sustainable shoe startup, YY Nation, Jeremy Bank, said his dream was to preserve the region’s environment.

‘‘We are so blessed with beautiful hills and amazing environment, wonderful coastline. I guess if I had one wish for Wellington, it would be that we would all take our part and everyone would be a part of preserving the natural environment we have for future generations to keep it such a beautiful, amazing place.’’

He said he wanted to see the sustainable business community working collaboratively together to grow the city’s startup industry.

For those studying in Wellington, affordable housing and cheaper rent and transport are top of the wishlist.

‘‘What the Wellington region could do to make students able to succeed and thrive in the region aren’t actually wishes but things we can tangibly achieve,’’ said Ralph Zambrano, who will be president of Victoria University of Wellington Students’ Association next year.

The Wellington he wants in the future would include accessible public transport ‘‘so students aren’t being pushed outside the region’’.

Tessa Guest, who is Massey University’s Wellington student president, would like not just accessible transport, but free transport. This was something she was working on right now with a campaign called Free Fares, a group advocating for free public transport for tertiary students, people under 25 and community services cardholders.

And if she was granted one other wish it would be for free rent, at least for students but ideally, for everyone. ‘‘But if I was to be a bit more realistic, a tier down from that would be free public transport,’’ Guest said.

Being safe on the streets of Wellington is high on the list of wishes for Tabby Besley, managing director of InsideOut, a national organisation that works to make Aotearoa safer for rainbow young people.

‘‘I would wish for our trans, intersex and rainbow communities to feel safe and included no matter where they were in Wellington, [and in] any service they’re trying to access,’’ Tabby Besley said.

Going beyond just one wish, she said she also wanted ‘‘the erasure of things like poverty and racism that are really harming our communities’’.

At a policy level, helping organisations to make changes through education and awareness would help create a safe and inclusive city, Besley said.

But it was also small changes in the city that could make a difference, such as providing emergency accommodation for rainbow communities.

‘‘Ideally, [we would be in] a world where they don’t need those kinds of things because everyone has a home, enough income and are safe and respected for who they are, in the city.’’

Liz Mellish, Te Raukura Te Wharewaka o Pō neke chairwoman, said her wish would be for Te Ā ti Awa hapū and whā nau to come back and live in Wellington City and throughout the region. ‘‘We could have a stronger population of mana whenua in each of those important places,’’ Mellish said.

Many mana whenua had left due to being unable to afford to live in the region and because of the events that happened with colonisation which drove them away, Mellish said.

‘‘We became somewhat of a diaspora. I want to see us come back, populate and really make this the bicultural city it was going to be in our original agreement with the New Zealand Company and the Crown.’’

Mellish sees more housing and the environment as key to that.

And she has an idea that’s a bit more radical – bringing back Waitangi Stream from its nowunderground home.

‘‘To do that, we need to dig up Cambridge Terrace and we need to dig up the median strip. We need to create the road on Kent Terrace so that people can move easily in vehicles to the airport and to the hospital,’’ Mellish said.

‘‘Imagine if we did that and had waka going up and down that river? Imagine if we had a service of a monorail perhaps, taking people from the railway station to the airport along that strip of land that is currently wasted in my view,’’ she said. ‘‘Imagine that. It would be great, wouldn’t it?’’