Auckland Council’s long-term plan – add your voice to support arts, culture and creativity in Tāmaki Makaurau

PHOTO: DAVE SIMPSON / TĀTAKI AUCKLAND UNLIMITED

Auckland Council’s draft long-term plan is open for consultation until 28 March 11.59pm.  The draft plan is available here. 

The draft plan includes a ‘Mayor’s message’ which gives Mayor Brown’s perspective on the city’s financial challenges and the strengthening the long-term financial and physical resilience of the region. Other sections of the plan outline the Council’s ‘financial challenges, strategic choices and direction’, and offer three options for input, depending on community preferences for paying higher or lower rates to receive more or less services.

Below is a summary of the Draft Long-term Plan 2024-2034 and it’s impacts on arts and culture in our city. When you’re ready, hit ‘submission guide’ to make your submission!

Summary of the Draft Long-term Plan 2024-2034

  • The Mayor’s message addresses his intention for Council to “focus on strengthening the long-term financial and physical resilience of the region.”

    He wants to “put the council in a position to affordably deliver the basic infrastructure and services expected by Aucklanders”.

    For him, this would put council “on a sustainable financial path” so it can “make the investment required for Auckland to be a beautiful, thriving, and safe place to live”.

    He sets his expectation that “given our financial challenges, we cannot offer a whole lot of new spending in this budget. Instead, I am asking the council group to focus on doing more with what we already have.”

  • The draft plan runs to 134 pages. It has an introduction to the plan’s overview and purpose, the problems the Council is seeking to solve, how the LTP sets strategic choices, and key factors influencing the direction of the Mayor’s and councillors’ development of the LTP.

    This includes Council’s vision which has an aspiration for Auckland to be ‘a diverse and dynamic city, which honours the place of Māori and includes a rich array of cultural and sporting events, museums, galleries and built heritage.’

    Three options presented as “scenarios” are presented for public feedback. There is a “central proposal” and then either side of that are “pay more get more” and a “pay less get less” scenarios. Detail on Council services around each scenario are provided, with the trade-offs between each of them. Other sections in the plan address major investments, Port land, financial settings, strategic settings, your rates, other matters, and local boards.

    In this guide we have focussed in on the three scenarios and the parts of the plan most relevant to arts, culture and creative sector.

The three scenarios:

The draft plan provides three scenarios for feedback: a “central proposal”, “pay more get more” and “pay less get less”.

Each scenario covers these sections: Transport, Water, Parks and Community, City and Local Development, City and Local Development, Environment and Regulation, Economic and Cultural Development, Council Support. 

The Economic and cultural development and the Parks and community sections are most directly relevant to arts, culture and creativity.

  • The central plan details what the Council can deliver with “rates increases for the average value residential property of 7.5 per cent, 3.5 per cent and 8 per cent respectively for the first three years, and then no more than 3.5 per cent each year after that.”

    Notably, in the Council support section, provision is made to increase Māori outcomes funding by $3 million per annum from year four of the plan (a total increase of $21 million). However, there’s little information on Council’s intent or aspirations for investment in arts, culture and creativity.

    • Under the Economic and Cultural Development section, though, it notes Council would:

    • Continue to provide natural and cultural heritage experiences through our regional facilities

    • Continue to provide the existing free and subsidised entry to programmes and events

    • Deliver the Lantern, Pasifika and Diwali festivals.

    The Parks and community section commits to “improve fairness of funding of local boards.” Local boards play an important role in supporting local arts and culture activities, “Fairness of funding” relates to a proposal to accelerate a fairer funding model in which funding would be reallocated from more asset-rich areas to those who receive less funding. In the feedback form there is an option to look at the strategic plan of your own local board.

  • The Pay More, Get More scenario “would significantly increase activities and services, and speed up delivery of investments. This would see overall increases in the average value residential property of up to 14 per cent in year one, 10 per cent in years two and three and 5 per cent thereafter.” In the Pay More, Get More scenario, a higher rates option = greater investment into public services, assets and infrastructure.

    The Economic and cultural development section under this option would see Council:

    • Reinstate major events and economic development funding to pre-COVID-19 levels

    • Resume active bidding for major events and concerts, attract more overseas investments

    • Development of additional initiatives like the Aotea Entertainment Precinct

    • Expanding employment initiatives and increasing support for technology, screen and creative industries

    In The Pay More, Get More scenario, the Parks and community section notes that more funding [could be] set aside for fairer funding of local boards and that full equity could be achieved without reallocating budgets between local boards.

  • The Pay Less, Get Less scenario would see rates increases for the average value residential property of “5.5 per cent in year one, 3.5 per cent in years two and three and no more than 1 per cent above CPI inflation after that.”

    The Economic and cultural development focus under this option would see Council:

    • Stopping or reducing economic development would impact Auckland growth in tourism, technology and screen industries, visitor attraction and marketing

    • Reduced support for major events, including business events

    • Focus on urgent renewals and completing contracted works, deferring other developments or low-priority renewals

    • Opening hours of regional facilities may need to be reduced to save on costs

    Under Parks and Community, this scenario would see “a reduction of community services and grants over time.”

Our Commentary:

The Council currently provides a range of support to the city’s arts, culture and creative sector, ranging from direct investment in creative work, to venues, to arts broker roles. 

  • If Council seeks to deliver on its vision of Auckland as “a diverse and dynamic city, which honours the place of Māori and includes a rich array of cultural and sporting events, museums, galleries and built heritage”, information on how it will progress towards this under the Central Proposal, would be useful.

  • Between the Central proposal option and the Pay More, Get More scenarios, we would like to see Council consider more targeted investment in the ‘soft infrastructure’ of the arts, culture and creative sector, which is central to the shaping of a ‘diverse and dynamic city.’ 

    Much of the thinking for this has already been developed through the Council’s Toi Whītiki Arts and Culture Strategic Action Plan. Toi Whītiki was designed to align Council and creative sector endeavours “to grow arts and culture in Auckland.” This includes the celebration of Māori culture as “Auckland's point of difference in the world” and recognition of “mana whenua as treaty partners in a multicultural Auckland.”

  • Toi Whītiki could help inform how scenario 2, Pay More, Get More, could deliver on “expanding employment initiatives and increasing support for technology, screen and creative industries.”  This could include: attracting and supporting creative industries education and training opportunities; finding ways to centre and support ngā toi Maori; maintenance of the city’s creative places and spaces, and ensuring these are well-staffed with the right expertise; and support for the diverse arts and culture activities that drive the life of the city, and support the hospitality and tourism industries.

  • We acknowledge the Mayor’s concerns about the need to build the city’s “physical and financial resilience.” We would see building individual and community wellbeing and resilience as being of equal importance.  The Council needs to consider the role of arts, culture and creativity in creating social cohesion, addressing the issues of community identity, resilience and wellbeing, and finding innovative solutions to some of the issues facing the city.