NORTHLAND AGE 1 – A FRESH APPROACH

Welcome to the first of many columns. I’m transferring my attention from nationwide issues in the Sunday Star Times to Far North issues in the Age.

For those who don’t know me, I thought I’d background my experience so you can get an impression of the things I’m well versed in. I have had the pleasure of decades of living in the Far North firstly at Kerikeri, then Mangonui right over the seabed.

I have raised kids here, done my time on school committees, played, coached and administered Rugby, Surfing and Sailing here, started businesses that have succeeded and employed Northlanders in engineering, horticulture, construction, and apparel.

I have had the great fortune to have also had a career chairing and directing significant companies in NZ and Australia, including Northland Health, Tairawhiti Health, Land Transport Safety Authority, Vector, TVNZ and currently I am still the Chairman of Auckland District Health and Transmission Holdings which has 600 staff here and in Australia where it operates the Vodafone network among other things.

Many of these companies required serious fixing and you certainly learn from this experience. Transpower accidentally turned the power off to Aucklanders in June not long after I had predicted this would happen in the Sunday Star Times, and subsequent events have seen me appointed to Transpower to sort out reliable power delivery to both Auckland and Northland.

Nature has been very kind to Northland with a great climate, wonderful coastlines and endless gorgeous scenery. Although blessed by nature, somehow I can’t help feeling we should be more prosperous than we are. Are we putting in stumbling blocks somewhere?

On thinking about this I realise that I have spent the last decade mainly fixing things in the rest of the country and it is time to address some of the problems back here at home.

Several trends are working in our favour. People are moving to warmer climates, the advent of broadband is allowing a more mobile skilled workforce to live in the regions and infrastructure problems are driving Aucklanders to consider secondary towns.

We need to grasp these trends, improve our own infrastructure and get the new businesses and skills that these people will bring so that our children can have the prosperous bright future we would love to give them.

This will take vision, fresh ideas and leadership and I hope this column will be a trigger to this new positive attitude.