Mixed messages from Simeon Brown on whether or not economic growth is "core" council business

An AI-generated image of a convention centre under construction.

During his telling off of councils at Local Government New Zealand’s SuperLocal conference, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon took aim at Wellington’s Tākina Convention Centre as an example of local government not sticking to the basics. It was a weird choice of target from Luxon not least because his National Party have been big fans of expensive convention centres in Auckland and Christchurch, citing the role of such facilities in supporting economic growth despite significant cost overruns and delays for those two projects.

National’s new found anti-convention centre sentiment was echoed by Local Government Minister Simeon Brown when he appeared on TVNZ’s Q&A that weekend. On being challenged by host Jack Tame who pointed out that Tākina’s role was to primarily generate economic activity around the rest of the city, Brown responded by saying that encouraging economic growth was “not a priority for local government.”

There’s a small problem though for Brown. In the framework he announced for the Coalition’s Regional Deals, that the Government is hoping will help address many of local government’s funding and financing issues, economic growth is mentioned multiple times as being part of what local government is meant to be promoting.

In fact, economic growth is considered such an important element to Regional Deals that not only is it mentioned 18 times throughout the 28 page document, but “Build economic growth” is the first priority objective under the framework, coming in ahead of delivering connected and resilience infrastructure and increasing the supply of housing.

What’s more, in his forward to the document, Brown says he’s “excited” about working with local government to “deliver the infrastructure investment and economic growth our communities are asking for.”

Likewise, the framework’s executive summary describes Regional Deals as being “long-term commitments, intended to endure, promoting economic growth and productivity, delivering connected and resilient infrastructure, and improving the supply of affordable, quality housing.”

The framework goes on with numerous other examples that clearly link local government’s role with economic growth, but you get the picture: Regional Deals see supporting economic growth as a priority for local government.

Which leaves both Luxon and Brown in awkward positions. It’s simply not credible to tell local government one minute that supporting economic growth isn’t a priority for it, then the next making supporting economic growth a priority focus for local government when it comes to the negotiating framework on Regional Deals..

If anything, Tākina potentially has shown up the other convention centres that National has been big fans of in the past. For example, Tākina’s estimated $45 million contribution to the local economy in its first year of operation - despite tougher economic conditions and lower revenue than expected - compares favourably to Christchurch’s Te Pae’s first year. Te Pae - despite being nearly twice as large and costing more than twice as much as Tākina - only delivered an estimated $60 million.

As for the Skycity Convention Centre, well it still isn’t finished and is costing those involved dearly.

Of course, it’s generally wise to be careful with economic impact assessments as they can sometimes draw quite a long bow in terms of their claims, but they’re also a fundamental fixture in how both central and local government justify what they spend money on, so we’re only using their own tools against them.

Maybe the sore point with Tākina is that Wellington City Council has been able to show up central government. After all, the council was able to build Tākina without any support from central government, did so with relatively broad support from residents and the business community, survived a falling out with Sir Peter Jackson over it, and delivered it only slightly over budget and delayed by a handful of months. Given the issues that plagued Te Pae and continue to haunt Skycity, rather than being a white elephant, Tākina should so far be seen as a success.

In any event, the Government’s own conflicting messages over whether economic growth is or isn’t core council business mirrors any number of debates over what could be included under that categorisation. It’s ultimately the reason why council’s consult at length with their communities in developing their long-term plans about what they should be focusing on. Maybe central government could take a leaf out of local government’s book on this one for a change.