‘To live in Wellington, you have to accept its eternal challenges’

Friday, 1 March 2024

Chief executive of WellingtonNZ, John Allen, believes it’s time the city reset its relationship with central Government so that local Government can get help in overcoming infrastructure issues.

_John Allen is _chief executive of WellingtonNZ and chancellor of Victoria University. He has lived in Wellington for 40 years and held a number of senior roles in the public and private sector.

OPINION: There is a poem by Lauris Edmond on the writers’ walk along the Wellington waterfront which sums up life in this city: “It is true you can’t live here by chance. You have to do and be, not simply watch or even describe. This is a city of action. The world headquarters of the verb.”

To live in this place, you have to accept its eternal challenges; emphatic terrain and weather patterns and occasional earthquakes; as well as the issues present in any particular time – at this moment ageing infrastructure and the pressure imposed on families and businesses by housing costs and the rising cost of living.

It is possible to be paralysed by the scale and complexity of challenges like these. This is not the Wellington way.

The region has always attracted risk takers – the entrepreneurial, the artistic, the political, the thinkers – those who want to make a difference to this country and to our world. It is true that there are risks and challenges in living here but it is possible to forge a life here that makes a positive difference.

It is a place of energy, of action and of achievement. The building of the screen sector, the creation of Zealandia, the huge expansion of technology activity and the continuing creativity of poets, writers, artists, musicians and actors who bring vibrancy to this place, all speak to this.

It is diverse. It is inclusive and it is a city and region where things happen.

John Allen is chief executive of WellingtonNZ. He has previously been chief executive at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the New Zealand Post Group and the New Zealand Racing Board.

There are always pundits who want to write the city off. They are wrong.

Wellington has significant potential as capital of one of the most progressive countries on the planet, a place recognised as the most creative city in the country and the home of world-leading technology, screen and science sectors leveraging the capabilities represented by Crown research institutes and universities.

It’s an attractive proposition for talent, investment and visitors.

However, to deliver this future, some things need to change:

They say you can’t beat Wellington on a good day. But even the good days involve a city beset with fundamental infrastructure issues.

We all need to work together to reset our relationship with central Government. Their support will be essential to address our infrastructure, insurance, and industry growth challenges.
We need central Government to understand and work with us to address the impacts of seismic risk. The Kaikoura earthquake was a disaster for Wellington. It was not, however, designated a disaster at the time. There has been no large-scale intervention to solve the problems it created, and we are still living with those impacts. The earthquake-prone buildings and the astronomic costs of insurance are just two components of this. We need new thinking from central Government to allow us to move forward.
We need to supercharge the technology sector (including science, screen, and advanced manufacturing) as it represents the best opportunity to create new jobs and wealth. This requires capital to support the start-ups as they scale. It requires collaboration and for us to celebrate the founders, innovators, and business builders in our midst.
We need to celebrate our activists and activism (it’s deep within the DNA of this place), but we have to recognise that activism on its own is not enough to build and sustain a city. We need those with different political views to talk to each other. We need to be able to compromise and engage respectfully.

This is an intimate, walkable, connected city - it’s time to reignite our sense of community and connection which we seem to have lost.

The next few years are going to be tough, not just for Wellington but for the world. To get through them and make real progress as a city, we need to be realistic, prioritise rigorously, focus on implementation and take deliberate steps in affordable bites to future-proof this extraordinary place.

There is already lots happening, and it is important that we as a community celebrate progress towards our goals and stop the blame game when things go wrong, as they will from time to time.

Most important of all, we have to work together to deliver the city we know is possible, the city of action we should be.