We have recently read in the Dominion newspaper the Prime Minister, John Key’s, statement that Wellington “is a dying city”. He further stated that they did not know how to turn it around.
The Government has encouraged business and people to migrate into Auckland and now paying the price with a traffic grid lock and poor infrastructure to support the increasing population. The Prime Minister stating, “That’s put a lot of pressure on the infrastructure of Auckland”.
Solutions to the problem:
The Government should stop spending money in Auckland and spread the investment to other locations in New Zealand, e.g. how long has Wellington being waiting for Transmission Gully’s finalisation. How long has the city been waiting for a cross city link to the Airport? How long will we had to wait for the Airport extension? These on their own would create incentives and with the number one University in NZ this would encourage more international students to study in the Greater Wellington Region.
For the past 20 years money has been spent by the Government in Auckland as that is where the majority of the votes come from, and this coupled with the fact that Auckland is the backyard for the succession of Prime Ministers. The biggest issue, we have had too many Prime Ministers with their home base in Auckland, we do not have enough high ranking Cabinet Ministers from Wellington.
Let us look at what the Government could do to spread the population in New Zealand:
There is not too much produced in Auckland it all happens outside the region, but Auckland reaps the benefits.