Auckland’s growth – just like Jack’s beanstalk

Penny - Population expert

Based in New Zealand, Penny primarily looks after our Kiwi clients but also lends her expertise to the Australian context. Penny has extensive experience as a Communication Manager in Local Government and has a degree in Business and Communications. She also brings a breadth of generalist management experience in fields as varied as research, civil defence, project and event management, marketing and training. Penny’s knowledge combined with the .id tools help clients work with their communities to empower grass roots decision-making, advocacy and grant applications, and focus on strengthening council-community relationships. Penny has a rural property and enjoys growing and eating food and wine, which she runs, walks, bikes or swims off, when she’s not in the art studio.

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2 Responses

  1. CJF says:

    So thinking of Simone’s blog about changing futures – what might help encourage some of that population growth to settle in other provincial areas instead, reducing some of the traffic woes (and the time people spend commuting instead of with their families, at work or at leisure?

    • hi CJF,
      yep that’s a question close to the heart of most small to medium councils throughout New Zealand and Australia.
      I’ll put forward a couple of thoughts to what I believe to be a complex and long term challenge.

      I’ve been party to many council discussions that have asked ‘What are the main things that attract or encourage people to stay in any area?’ Generally councils are aiming at gaining or retaining skilled and professional people although there is the argument that regional job market must have opportunities for these people.A chicken or the egg question that one!
      Anyway researchers and practitioners seem to agree that the answer is a combination of factors… typically a balance of job/career opportunities, good health services, education and training, housing stocks, infrastructure and the profile of the area (ie the perceptions of community and lifestyle).

      I had this discussion with an past work colleague in Otago recently. He was lamenting Dunedin’s struggle to grow. We touched on each on the key drivers above – Dunedin has great housing, health, education, infrastructure, pretty good job career opportunities and a strong community (sports, arts, you name it). The lifestyle’s sharp …. but the climate … arghhh. My immediate thought was it’s hard to build an attractive profile around a cold climate, but then again look at Queenstown. I guess that demonstrates the balance is individually determined.

      Back to the main question at hand though, the social and economic impact of migration must surely depend on which people move, as well as on how many people move. So who typically moves? Generally, there is evidence that younger, highly skilled, single males, who do not own homes, are relatively more mobile. However there are also life-cycle considerations and some occupations have a higher propensity to migrate. It seems to me that those who are easiest to attract – that is those who have a lower cost of moving, or relatively higher gain – are at once the group that will be easiest to then lose.

      Whatever strategy small to medium sized councils take to combat migration away from their area, it better be a long term one because attracting people to regional areas through the six drivers mentioned above is something that needs to driven through all levels of government. It seems to me that many of the present government policies seem to be more focussed on centralisation, so councils are swimming against the political current. But then local government is there for local needs.

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