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Newsroom
5 days ago
- Business
- Newsroom
Drop the ball on innovation, Auckland, and it's everyone's loss
Comment: If Auckland were to tragically pass away tomorrow, the cause of death would likely be listed as transport dysfunction, unaffordable housing, and environmental stress – the city's most visible, immediate ailments. But if it were to fade 50 years from now, the cause would likely be deeper: a long-running failure to invest in innovation, human capital and other core assets. For the past two years, the State of the City international benchmarking report has consistently shown that innovation and skills development are among Auckland's lowest-performing areas – ranking even below transport and housing affordability in both international performance and perception rankings. These deficits don't show up on our rush-hour delays and real estate doldrums and so our news headlines are dominated by the day to day of potholes and property prices rather than how well we're building the capability and solutions to solve these challenges. That's why the announcement during last week's TechWeek by Mayor Wayne Brown of the new Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance may prove to be one of the most important steps Auckland has taken toward actually solving its most persistent challenges. The alliance, an initiative supported by the Committee for Auckland, the Auckland Tech Council, and the Auckland Council Group, will bring together leaders from business, investment, research, and local and central government. Its mission is to provide strategic leadership, improve coordination, and drive deal making and investment to position Auckland as a globally competitive tech and innovation hub. Importantly, it can help generate the insight, capability and investment needed to solve our headline problems more effectively. It could also help Auckland better align its strengths with the national reforms underway in science and technology. Unless New Zealand begins to seriously address our persistent innovation and skills gaps, we will continue to undercut our capacity to tackle the main issues we fixate on. Auckland has a significant innovation base – including our startup ecosystem, well-regarded universities and advanced technology firms – but it is not being supported, developed, or funded to the level seen in other comparable cities. International city experience Internationally, mayoral leadership has been a defining feature of successful urban innovation efforts. In peer cities like Brisbane, Vancouver, Copenhagen and Helsinki, mayors or city leaders have led or supported innovation alliances that directly link technology development to real urban challenges. In Barcelona, Tel Aviv, Toronto and Boston, mayoral backing of innovation districts and alliances has unlocked national support, attracted private capital, and elevated the global competitiveness of their cities. Take Boston's Innovation District, originally launched by Mayor Tom Menino. By convening universities, startups, real estate developers and the state government, the city turned a neglected waterfront into one of the world's most vibrant innovation hubs. In Barcelona, the 22@ district, led by mayor Joan Clos, attracted more than 4500 companies and over 56,000 new jobs, catalysing a transformation from industrial decay to digital-era growth. The message is clear: cities have the convening power and proximity to act, and mayoral leadership can spark broader action. The benefits of these alliances are now well documented. Cities that align policy, research, entrepreneurship and investment through shared platforms deliver faster precinct development, more targeted capital deployment, better talent retention, and stronger appeal to international investors. They are also more responsive to global shifts in AI, sustainability, and advanced manufacturing. Of course, not all alliances succeed. Some fail due to vague mandates, bureaucratic overreach, or lack of follow-through. Others stall when political momentum fades. The key is focus. Smart alliances are lean, delivery-oriented, and co-governed by the people who actually drive innovation. These will be essential design principles as Auckland builds its new alliance. Another critical factor is central government engagement. In nearly every successful international example, central governments play a supporting role — through infrastructure investment, funding alignment, or enabling regulation. Australia's former City Deals framework helped cities like Brisbane and Townsville align local innovation goals with national priorities. In the UK, Innovate UK co-invests in regional innovation clusters, recognising that cities are where applied R&D meets real-world challenges. New Zealand underperformance By contrast, New Zealand has underperformed. Despite a growing global consensus – from the OECD, World Economic Forum, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and our own Sir Peter Gluckman – that cities must play a central role in driving innovation, we continue to centralise innovation policy and funding in Wellington, with limited regional differentiation. Auckland, despite being home to more than a third of the country's population and its largest concentration of tech companies, startups and universities, has had no formal role in shaping or steering national innovation strategy. This is a missed opportunity. Compared with our peer cities, Auckland's innovation potential is under-supported by national policy, under-developed in terms of coordination and investment, and under-valued in our national narrative. There is now an overwhelming body of international evidence that city-led innovation alliances improve national outcomes. They test solutions faster, adapt more nimbly, and build resilient, place-based innovation ecosystems. A more distributed, city-partnered model is not a threat to national strategy – it's an enabler. The Government should partner with the Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance. That means engaging, co-investing, and aligning R&D tax, investment attraction, and science funding tools to better reflect city-based strengths. The Government's upcoming science reforms and its new Regional Deals policy – which aims to deliver long-term place-based economic growth – provide an opening to finally embed this approach. Auckland, alongside cities like Wellington and Christchurch and others, could be part of that new approach. The alliance could serve as a model. Aucklanders will continue to wake up worrying about traffic congestion, house prices, or the cost of living. But our innovation and knowledge gaps are quietly limiting our ability to fix those very problems. A better-supported, city-led innovation ecosystem won't just grow our economy. It will shape how Auckland moves, builds, and adapts, and ensure that if the city is ever eulogised, the cause of death won't be neglect. Mark Thomas is a director with the Committee for Auckland, which has been advising Mayor Wayne Brown on the Auckland Innovation and Technology Alliance.
Boston Globe
14-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
As Michelle Wu seeks a second term, some fear her commitment to progressive causes has dimmed
They say politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose. As she runs for a second term, Wu has left behind her most flowery oratory. The progressive dreamer who swept into office four years ago on grand promises is striking a different tone this year, emphasizing modest progress she has made toward those lofty goals and embracing constituencies she once alienated. It's a well-worn path for aspirational candidates later constrained by the practical and political limits of running a city. 'She ran as an outsider-slash-reformer, and she ended up governing as an insider, perhaps more of an insider than even Tom Menino. It was shocking to people,' said Ford Cavallari, chairman of the Alliance of Downtown Civic Organizations, referring to the former mayor known for his mastery over the mechanics of city government. Cavallari supported Wu in 2021, but remains undecided this year as Wu faces a challenge from Advertisement Aspects of Wu's record as mayor have disappointed some of her most ardent supporters on the left, even as others argue that she remains committed to their progressive causes. 'Many of her stances really completely changed when she became mayor,' said Fatema Ahmad, executive director of the Boston-based Muslim Justice League, commenting on Wu's public safety record. Ahmad said she was disappointed that Wu 'She ran as being progressive on these issues, and it's not even just about not delivering, but actually about doing the opposite.' Related : In an interview with the Globe, Wu insisted her priorities have not changed, even if her pitch as an incumbent mayor sounds different from her tone four years ago as a first-time mayoral candidate in an open race. She said her administration has kept her progressive campaign promises, including by signing 'I stand by the same values, principles, goals,' Wu said. On police reform in particular, she added, 'we have gotten things done. We have delivered together on the promises that I made.' It's thanks to that work, Wu said, that she this year is touting police union support, not rebuffing it. Advertisement Of course, the political landscape is also very different this year. Wu is focused on beating back In her first term, Wu has made strides on many progressive causes, For many Wu fans, her first term has been cause for celebration — look no further than the Advertisement Under Wu, 'progress is being made in Boston that I don't see' elsewhere, said Larry Chretien, executive director of Green Energy Consumers Alliance. 'She's committed to tangible actions, and she's so accessible,' Chretien said. 'She makes herself available to those of us who want her to do more. She doesn't hide from us.' In some ways, analysts said, Wu is marking the natural evolution of any political career. First-time mayoral candidates pitch a sweeping new vision; incumbents have to run on continuity, not change. 'When you're not the incumbent, you're presenting yourself very aspirationally to the voters: 'What do I believe in?' ' said Scott Ferson, a Democratic strategist who worked for Wu's opponent in 2021 and is not involved in this year's mayoral race. 'Reelections are very different. . . . The number one question on voters' minds is, how have you been as mayor?' 'The incumbent problem — and it's not unique to Michelle Wu — is that people who vote for you, who are excited about you, always want you to go further than you're able to go when you're governing,' Ferson added. In some cases, activists say, they want Wu to go exactly as far as she said she would go during her first campaign. For example: At a candidate forum in 2021, Wu said she supported long-sought increases to the pensions of retired city employees. But last summer, the Wu administration pushed the city's retirement board to oppose the raise, calling it The board ultimately voted against the increase. Advertisement It felt like 'a betrayal,' said Elissa Cadillic, cochair of the City of Boston United Retirees and president of AFSCME Local 1526, the local Boston public library employees union. 'It was going back on her word,' said Cadillic, who said she had always voted for Wu. 'It just goes against what a lot of us thought she stood for.' Wu has also shifted on the issue of an elected school committee. During her mayoral campaign, she supported moving from an appointed body to a hybrid, partially elected panel, but she even adopting a hybrid model, arguing it would introduce too much instability during a critical time for the district. She 'I wasn't shocked, but I was just deeply disheartened,' said Krista Magnuson, a 47-year-old Boston Public Schools mother and cochair of Bostonians for an Elected School Committee, which put the question on the ballot in 2021. Nearly 79 percent of voters approved of the measure — an overwhelming majority that Magnuson hoped would persuade the mayor. But perhaps no issue has seen a more dramatic shift than public safety, Wu critics said. 'A lot of activists and colleagues of mine are kind of confused,' said Alexandria Onuoha, who advocated for racial justice and police reform in 2020 as a founder of the nonprofit Black Boston. '[Wu] had a desire to kind of demilitarize law enforcement, but it's difficult to do that when she continuously increases the budget. … You're basically saying, 'I support this.' ' Advertisement Others have also 'The BPD's point system for designating people as gang members is arbitrary and unreliable,' said Kade Crockford, the ACLU of Massachusetts' director of technology and justice programs, in a statement. 'At a time when the federal government is sending people to a foreign gulag on the strength of such specious allegations, it's more important than ever before that the BPD minimizes the unintended harm caused by its policies and practices.' Wu has On other issues, some of the phrases that all but defined Wu's 2021 bid — 'Green New Deal,' 'free the T' — have seemed to disappear from her campaign rhetoric. Wu did not specifically mention the Green New Deal at her reelection campaign announcement, nor in the last several State of the City addresses. Some advocates said they do not believe the mayor's commitment to combating the climate crisis has dimmed, even if her rhetoric has shifted. Hessann Farooqi, executive director of the nonprofit Boston Climate Action Network, called Boston's leadership 'one of the most pro-climate-action city administrations anywhere in the country.' For others, though, the change in Wu's language is a warning sign. Many people are 'very upset' that Wu has apparently dropped the Green New Deal label, said Daniel Faber, the former director of the Northeastern Environmental Justice Research Collaborative and a local climate activist. 'She's doing a lot of great things, but the feeling is that she ran as a Green New Deal champion, and she should not back down in the face of political pressure. Because the danger is that it can discourage and even disempower those constituencies which helped get her elected.' As she seeks a second term, Faber questioned, 'Is she going to play it safe, or is she going to be bold?' Emma Platoff can be reached at
