What does Wellington’s future hold?
We asked a number of prominent New Zealanders to look to the future and offer possible long-term and permanent changes in a post-Covid world, in a variety of sectors.
Local Government: Dame Fran Wilde, ex-Wellington mayor and regional council chair
Breaking old habits offers an unparalleled chance to reinvent the Wellington region, not just the city, because the deep regional connectedness is paramount to our social and economic wellbeing.
Many issues – social and workrelated – require more foresight and better decisions. This also applies to how we design and use our physical environment, including transport, infrastructure, resilience, integrated development, and climate change. Often the common factor is local government.
‘‘Wicked’’ issues need strategic thinking, long-term planning – and deeper pockets than those of small councils. When I advocated local government reform some years ago, the legal framework for my preferred option didn’t exist and still doesn’t.
Change is urgently needed to enable Wellington (and other regions) to future-proof local government: larger, robust regional entities for big gnarly decisions and smaller, locally focused councils for place-making and community responses.
Local government is vastly better positioned than central government to solve many problems, but its current configuration doesn’t work. Parish pump politics always trump strategic, long-term decisions.
Local politicians will never lead this (recall turkeys and early Christmas!) though increasingly they privately tell me it might now be time. Central government needs to be brave and change the legal framework to make it happen.
Hospitality: Mike Egan, restaurateur
Covid-19 has forced a total reset of the hospitality industry. In my 40 years in the business, I have never seen anything like it – but we’re resilient.
The industry has grown up with Wellington, which has long embraced the restaurant and cafe culture. We’ve gone on this journey with them and I don’t think Wellingtonians are ready to give up on us yet.
Some businesses won’t survive the pandemic. There will be a correction, but it’s not all doom and gloom. Restaurants that have never done takeaways before have adapted. The uptake of digital apps for ordering will continue to be a great adjunct to dining out in the future.
And while we live in a digital world, we all crave analogue experiences – and going to a restaurant is one of them.
The smells, the ambience, the social interaction. There’s no substitute.
Restaurants are public living rooms and people will return.
With more people working from home than ever before, eating out will regain popularity. There will be more of a drive for people to leave the house at night.
Neighbourhood eateries will also see a surge in patronage, as will suburban bars. I call it the ‘‘Cheers Effect’’ – where everybody knows your name.
Cultural: Courtney Johnston, Te Papa chief executive
The experience at Te Papa under alert level 2 will be different. We want to create a really calm, inspiring atmosphere for people to relax and just breathe.
We’re looking at ways that people can share their experiences of the lockdown with us and with other visitors. I think we all have a sense that this is a transformative moment, not just for Te Papa but for the world, and yes it’s scary to have so many unknowns, but with that comes a huge amount of creativity.
We want to adapt in a way that will take us forward for the next 10 years, not just the next six months.
Te Papa has always been about connecting and coming together, and we’ve seen over the lockdown that it’s something we can do from wherever we are.
We had a karakia this [week] on our marae, with a handful of staff present in the room, and the rest coming in by Zoom. It’s just one example of how we’re keeping connected to our traditions.
There is a human drive to come together, and we think that will always be there, whether you come to Te Papa by walking in the doors or clicking in on your phone.
Health: Dr Samantha Murton, president, Royal NZ College of General Practitioners
The connection through telehealth has been very successful, and has potential to be successful in the future.
Timing wise, it is much easier for people. That has been a boon for a lot of people.
If you are going to keep up with the expectations people have, we need to be a digital service.
It is about connecting families and wha¯ nau. We need to think about if we are using these tools, how do they enhance connections. Inclusiveness is an important thing.
We have been able to make connections between the hospital easier. Patients haven’t been having to wait for a long time. Professionals have been able to connect and talk with hospital doctors a lot easier.
In the community, general practices have been shown to be nimble – we can change in a minute. We did over 200,000 swabs.
There is potential for extraordinary change but that needs to be resourced in a variety of ways, like more personnel, infrastructure and financial support for patients.
We need to be quite conscious that there has been an equity issue for ever. Whether you live in Ngauruwahia or Wellington, you should have the same standard of care.
Society: Paul Spoonley, Massey University professor
Wellington occupies an interesting place in New Zealand’s demography. The population projections for the city were already modest to say the least, although they improved if the region as a whole was considered.
There are various elements in play. Fertility, which has historically been a major source of growth, had dropped away in the last decade. The Capital & Coast DHB had the second-lowest fertility in New Zealand. Covid-19 will probably add to this by encouraging fertility decisions to be deferred as a result of uncertainty.
Recently, the more important contributor to growth (60 per cent) has been net migration. This contribution will simply evaporate, at least for the next few years as Covid-19 shuts borders and restricts mobility.
In this environment, the ageing of the population (the over-65s are easily the fastest-growing age group) will be underscored as fertility and migration slow or stop.
Finally, there has been a redistribution of people in the region. The city has experienced a growth rate of 0.7 per cent. This goes up significantly once the rates for Upper Hutt or Porirua are considered, but the fastest growing areas are South Wairarapa and Carterton.
It is going to be very interesting to see whether working remotely will add to this move out of the city.
Given the need to manage a recovery, I would anticipate that employment will remain buoyant. But there will remain the demographic challenges that have been exacerbated by a pandemic.