Rob Harris – 
We live in an amazing city: diverse, beautiful and growing fast.
Auckland is a great place to live, do business and raise a family.
I am a 29-year-old property and construction lawyer and I am standing for the council because I love this city.
My dream is that Auckland becomes a truly global city that embraces different cultures and attracts top businesses and workers.
I want a city where the average family can afford to buy a home and most people can get to work or school without driving.
To achieve this, we need a council that enables growth and development through good policy and smart investments.
But oftentimes, the council is too expensive, bureaucratic and lacks common sense decision making. Aucklanders agree, giving the council a lowly 15% satisfaction rating in a recent council survey.
Addressing issues
Auckland’s next cohort of leaders must act with urgency and long term vision on the key issues of housing and transport if the city is to reach its potential.
The Unitary Plan is a good start.
It allows for 422,000 more homes to be built in Auckland over the next 30 years. Auckland Future supported it right from the get go.
But to give life to the plan we need to streamline the processes around council approvals and build the infrastructure that will support those new homes.
To address our traffic woes, Auckland Future will focus on improving the convenience, speed and safety of alternative transport modes.
While there are some short term solutions like adding more buses and exclusive bus lanes, we must continue building more public transport infrastructure, adopt technology advances and increase the density of housing near transport routes so more people can easily access those networks.
Promising projects
Promising new projects is easy; paying for them is the challenge. Auckland Future is focussed on fiscal responsibility by capping rates rises at 2% on average, cutting wasteful spending, reducing staff costs, and looking for opportunities to partner with business so we can make the smart, commercial investments that Auckland needs.
For the last six months, I have been working hard in Albert-Ede-Roskill to give voters a clear choice between the present and a better future. That future is in your hands.
Over to you.
Rob Harris is an ‘Auckland Future’ candidate for Albert Eden Roskill in the ensuing local elections.
