Auckland's Quality of Life in Decline

The Quality of Life Project was initiated in 1999 in response to growing pressures on urban communities, concern about the impacts of urbanisation and the effects of this on the well being of residents. The project was a collaboration between councils represented in Local Government New Zealand’s Local Government Metro Sector forum. The key purpose of the project was to provide information to decision-makers to improve the quality of life in major New Zealand urban areas. Quality of Life reports have been prepared periodically, and these are based on Quality of Life surveys. Quality of Life Surveys have been carried out for the years: 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2014. Prior to 2014 the last full Quality of Life report was prepared in 2007.

The Quality of Life website explains: "Following several significant events in New Zealand, including the devastating Canterbury earthquakes, the subsequent postponement of the 2011 Census of Population and Dwellings to 2013, the amalgamation of local government in the Auckland region in 2010, and a general tightening of local government funds, a decision was made to disband the wider Project......"

However, as the Quality of Life website notes: "....it was agreed by the core participating councils of Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin to continue in a collaborative partnership with the 2014 Survey....".

I looked at that survey when I prepared the recent blog posting which considered the relationship between urban growth and urban quality of life.

This got me thinking about what the Quality of Life survey data might have to say about how things have changed in Auckland since amalgamation - particularly where it measures citizen perceptions about local government processes and decision-making. An important consideration here is that those organising and conducting the quality of life survey have asked the same questions each time, and generally conducted the survey by sampling the opinions of a representative sample. My examination of the methodology is that the survey is robust and reliable. Because of my interest, and the public interest in how things have changed in Auckland since amalgamation, I decided to investigate how perceptions have changed regarding citizen abilities to influence council decisions, and whether citizen confidence in council decision-making has changed. I have obtained the Quality of Life survey data for two years before amalgamation (2004 and 2008), and compared it with data available for two years after amalgamation (2012 and 2014). To obtain the figures for the 2004 and 2008 years I averaged the survey data collected for: North Shore City, Waitakere City, Auckland City and Manukau City. Here is what I found:

This result is probably unsurprising. Most commentators predicted that because amalgamation brought about a reduction in the number of community boards and local councils, there would be a reduction in citizen abilities to influence decisions. This table confirms that is what has happened in Auckland. More than half of Aucklanders now believe they have zero or little influence over council decision-making - compared with about 40% before amalgamation. That's quite a decline in perceptions of influence. (NB: The Quality of Life survey measure is of "residents' satisfaction with the extent of public influence on council decision-making". Respondents had the options of: "large influence; some influence; small influence; no influence". I have added the "small influence" statistic to the "no influence" statistic to produce the figures shown in the table.)

This result was not so predictable. Perhaps it will get better, but there's a long was to go. Basically what it expresses is a significant drop in Aucklanders' confidence, since amalgamation that decisions made by Auckland local government are in the best interest of Auckland. Prior to amalgamation less than a quarter of those surveyed disagreed that decisions made by their council were in the best interests of the city, that has now jumped to a third. (NB: The Quality of Life survey measure is of "residents' rating of agreement that decisions made by their council are in the best interests of the city", where respondents choose between: "strongly agree; agree; neither agree nor disagree; disagree; strongly disagree".  I have added the "disagree" statistic to the "strongly disagree" statistic to produce the figures shown in the table.)

There are other measures of what is happening in Auckland to the quality of life that need to be given more attention by Auckland Council and by third sector organisations with an interest in protecting quality of life from policies and strategies which emphasise growth at the expense of quality of life.