Wellington can learn from Auckland

Auckland’s ranking as the fourth best city in the world according to the latest Mercer Quality of Living worldwide city rankings survey shows that Wellington can learn a thing or two from Auckland, Mayor Andrew Williams said today.

“Aucklanders already know that their region is a wonderful place to live and the fourth place ranking out of the 221 cities covered by the survey just confirms it,” Mayor Williams said.

“Auckland is better than any other city in the Asia Pacific region, better than Sydney in 10th place, Wellington in 12th place, Melbourne in 18th place and Perth in 21st place.”

“Perhaps those people in Wellington who seem to think they know how to run our city better than we do could actually learn a thing or two from us.”

Mayor Williams said the recent Herald poll that found that nearly half of Aucklanders thought the amalgamated super city would be a worse place to live presents a significant challenge for the new Auckland Council from day one. We certainly do not want to be going backwards from 4th place ranking in the world.

“Aucklanders are still wary of the super city and the fears of many Aucklanders that the super city will be a worse place to live in are borne out by the Mercer survey,” Mayor Williams said.

“The city held up by Local Government Minister Rodney Hide as the city that Auckland needs to emulate and catch up to, Toronto, is in fact ranked a lowly 16th place. One does wonder what Minister Hide learnt from his fact finding visit to Toronto last year, as his report released under my OIA request was completely blanked out. Did he learn, for instance, that their amalgamation of six cities a decade ago has been a dismal failure?”

“The real challenge for the new Auckland Council is to prove to Aucklanders that the government’s forced amalgamation of our councils and the new corporate model of local governance is capable of improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of their families, communities and the whole city,” Mayor Williams said.

Mayor Williams added that had North Shore City been part of the Mercer survey, and not included as part of the 'Auckland' ranking, it would certainly have been ranked in first place.

ENDS

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