Wellington leaders deserve back-pat for teamwork

OPINION: At the height of the local government amalgamation debate two years ago, the Wellington Chamber of Commerce was clear on where it stood on the issue.

To us, the economies of scale and the benefits of joined decisionmaking spoke for themselves.

As we know, the Local Government Commission rejected the proposal, no doubt mindful of the opposition of the majority of ratepayers worried about losing local representation.

But that didn’t alter the fact that the region had to work together if it was to progress, and councils pushed on with work on matters of mutual interest, including resilience and infrastructure.

So where are we at? The Wellington region’s chambers of commerce decided it was time to find out, and devised a panel of the region’s leaders – mayors Justin Lester, Mike Tana, Wayne Guppy, and Ray Wallace, and regional council chairman Chris Laidlaw.

The event was held last Friday, and was the first time I could remember these leaders together in such a format.

I couldn’t be there because I was leading a trade delegation to Taiwan but what was reported

The standout issue was unanimity on the need for a regional approach to the big issues.

back gave me cause for great optimism.

The five discussed many issues, among them infrastructure and transport and presenting a united front to central government.

But I’m told the standout issue was unanimity on the need for a regional approach to the big issues – resilience, infrastructure, connectedness.

A revelation was that the five meet formally every two weeks (and communicate between times) on these issues.

Guppy summed it up best: ‘‘The issue for us clearly in the region is it’s got to be working together … From the point of view of making sure Wellington recovers from any event, it has to be done on a regional basis, because we need the city functioning so the economy can return to normal as quickly as possible.’’

Tana added: ‘‘What is really important about us as a region is that we actually have to have solutions that work right across the region … to ensure we keep on growing.’’

So there you have it. All agreed the collaboration had never been so strong, and that’s just what we need – amalgamation of thought. I congratulate them and take this as a commitment that the dialogue will continue. We will bring them back for an update at some point.

Which brings me to the councils’ joint initiative to promote the region and boost our economy – the Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (Wreda).

Two weeks ago, I pointed to Wreda’s disappointing lack of visible success, and suggested the reason lay partly with it trying to serve too many councils that were funding their own programmes anyway.

I said there needed to be a discussion about a new model, and suggested taking it back into the Wellington City Council, involving the other councils on a project-byproject basis.

But some minds have already been made up. Wallace and Lester expressed their support for the status quo, with Lester telling the panel Wreda does ‘‘a bloody incredible job’’.

And though his council could do it in-house, ‘‘we want to share our expertise across the region so that everybody’s on the same plane, and it gives us more power, more strength, and more budget to do more’’.

So, everyone’s now rushing to defend Wreda. Let’s watch with interest.

John Milford is the chief executive of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce.