Success is thriving, not surviving
Only when places such as South Auckland get through Covid and thrive can we claim success, Tania Pouwhare, a social entrepreneur at Auckland Council, tells Melanie Carroll.
Each week Stuff asks New Zealand’s business and community leaders how they think the economy is going, and what they believe are the biggest challenges.
Tania Pouwhare, Ngā i Tū hoe, is a manager in Auckland Council’s social innovation team, focusing on economic equity for south and west Auckland.
She is a senior fellow with the Atlantic Fellowship for Social Equity and an honorary fellow of Engineering New Zealand.
Pouwhare said she was an optimist, but was most concerned about the ‘‘slow violence of poverty and deepening inequality colliding with the climate emergency’’.
How do you feel the New Zealand economy is tracking?
There’s no doubt that by prioritising people and public health we have fared better than those countries that implemented half-measures and ended up with high death rates and sluggish economic recovery.
But some are bearing the brunt more than others. Auckland is on track to spend twice as long in level 3 or 4 lockdowns than anywhere else in the country.
The impact is felt first, worst and longest in south Auckland and we have 320,000 citizens who are, collectively, doing it tough, and we’re not out of the woods yet.
The very people who were ‘‘essential’’ in our lockdowns last year found out the hard way that they are the most expendable part of the labour market once crisis subsides.
As a country, we are doing much better than first anticipated 18 months ago, but that can’t be the measure of our success. Success must be defined by how places like south and west Auckland get through this and thrive on the other side.
What are you most concerned about right now?
Even before Covid-19, Auckland’s economy was no rock star if you were Mā ori or Pasifika; instead it was a system riddled with paradoxes where a large proportion of our citizens just got left further behind.
Mā ori and Pasifika median incomes still hadn’t recovered from the global financial crisis and working poverty looks to have exploded. So, if that was the
best we could muster in the good times, simply returning to ‘‘normal’’ would be a travesty.
What happens next for south and west Auckland is entirely predictable – a sharp decline followed by a long, painful trudge back to the starting line. Meanwhile, we all edge closer to an inequality tipping point.
Almost a quarter of all Mā ori and 64 per cent of all Pasifika peoples live in Tā maki Makaurau and together we make up 27 per cent of the city’s population.
The economic recovery will be directed by those who were best insulated against it (or whose voices are loudest). That’s not going to give us an equitable recovery.
We’re seeing the decades of market and public policy inertia and indifference play out now, when we really need to draw down on our social capital for the vaccination strategy to work. It’s much easier for conspiracy theories and anti-vaccination disinformation to take hold where people are alienated from the social contract.
What has the past year taught us about the economy?
In among the sadness, uncertainty and anxiety about the impact of a global pandemic, there was also strong hope and desire to build back differently and better for people and the planet. At that moment, a just, inclusive, circular and regenerative economy seemed more possible.
But as soon as the crisis subsided, the snap back to ‘‘economy as usual’’ happened quickly. Engari, kua takato te mā nuka – regardless, the challenge has been laid at our feet, and I’m confident there are many of us willing to take it on.
Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the economy this year? Why?
Optimistic, always. The economy is an entirely human-made system. We can make different macro-economic choices that aren’t just tinkering around the edges.
Failing to tackle gender, ethnic, disability and beneficiary inequality head-on, with courage, is a choice. We don’t have to go down that road. We can instead choose to scale up the capacity for everyone to live fair and well, where no-one has too little but neither does anyone have too much.
You don’t have to look very hard to see that Tā maki Makaurau is a tale of two cities, but I still believe that most of us want more egalitarian communities.
What is the biggest challenge facing New Zealand?
Without a doubt, it has to be the slow violence of poverty and deepening inequality colliding with the climate emergency. It’s a nightmare scenario, and it’s on our doorstep. I genuinely worry about the troubles we are storing up for future generations.
That’s why we’re calling for a Green New Deal; a surge of intelligent investment that advances socio-economic equity and the health of our biosphere as a singular endeavour.
We work with Mā ori and Pasifika businesses who are already doing amazing things in the circular economy, so we’re backing them to go further and faster, create more decent jobs and grow entrepreneurial talent.
They really are the overlooked and undervalued change agents hiding in plain sight, and they’re one of our best bets for south and west Auckland’s economic transformation.
What we’re doing is in our DNA; reaching back to the drive, mastery and pioneering mindset that enabled our ancestors to sail a third of the world’s oceans and settle throughout the Pacific.
It’s an audacious mission, but that’s what we’re built for.
The Monitor is Stuff’s unique set of insights to help the business community better understand the economic landscape, and maximise their success.