Bringing Change To The Top Table

Posted on Thursday, 29 June, 2023 by Paul Spence

Lyttleton Harbour, Christchurch

Recently I attended a public discussion delving into “Otautahi Christchurch as an Innovation Hub”. It’s no secret that the city has confronted numerous challenges over the last decade or so. From devastating earthquakes to wildfires and a mass shooting. One could be forgiven for thinking that the place was on its knees. But it’s not. As the central city was being rebuilt, a core group of activators played a pivotal role through charting a course with innovation and collaboration at its core. Now the city is thriving. What if we germinated that approach into central government?

A number of the aforementioned group were present at the recent discussion event. Not the least of these was Raj Manji, who convened the session. As a former Christchurch City Councillor and tireless advocate for the city, Manji is no stranger to the challenges of navigating government processes in difficult times. He’s also a global thinker who takes action and attracts smart people with fresh ideas into his sphere of influence.

These are attributes that seem sadly lacking in many of our current politicians, including those who are likely to be in charge once the face of government changes in October. As The Opportunities Party (TOP) leader, Manji has a real shot at securing the Ilam seat at the general election. This would be a game changer because, under MMP, successful electorate winners get to “tag and drag” along some of their party list candidates. Potentially this means TOP could play a huge part in shaping the next government.

Why is this significant? It’s pretty clear that our current government has run its course and the wheels are falling off the proverbial wagon. Not a week passes where there isn’t either a dramatic exit or a revelation of bad behaviour by Ministers or coalition partner MPs. The present incumbents performed admirably during the pandemic, but the world has now moved on. History has also shown that governing parties very rarely secure three consecutive terms in New Zealand. For its part, the Opposition, whilst more disciplined than before, seem unable to generate intelligent policy or outline a coherent plan. Political change of some form is undoubtedly on the way. The question is – how do we optimise that change?

By standing up and supporting TOP I’m putting a stake in the ground in an effort to facilitate an optimal outcome. We desperately need fresh thinking and evidence based policy driven by responsible adults. If TOP fails to win a place at the table, we face the possibility of an unstable coalition underwritten by dogma and driven by the smug, sneering faces of the more extremist minor parties. Parties that do not necessarily have the interests of ALL New Zealanders at heart. This would be disastrous at this pivotal moment in history when society must act collectively to confront significant global issues.

Paul Spence is a commentator, researcher and serial entrepreneur, a previous co-founder of a successful New Zealand based global technology venture, co-founder and director of Creative Forest, principal at GeniusNet Research & SondXF and an advisor at ThincLab. You can follow Paul on Twitter @GeniusNet or sign up for a free weekly digest of startup, tech and innovation related events co-curated by him through New Zealand Startup Digest.

Bite Me!

Posted on Tuesday, 18 October, 2022 by Paul Spence

bite me I was in a community call today contributing to the good work of the NZ Startup Council. It wasn’t long before somebody popped the “diversity question” into the conversation, complaining that women, migrants and people of colour can’t get help with their startups and do not get a fair hearing from investors in New Zealand. If that is true, I want to do something about it!

For those of you who don’t know me, I’ve been active in the NZ tech community for around 20 years and I’ve seen a lot of bullshitters come and go. I’ve started three companies. One was a great success that we bootstrapped and exited in 2019, another tanked during acceleration and another one ticks along and generates a bit of cash here and there. So I’ve been around the block a few times – as they say.

BITE ME! – Building In The Ecosystem for Migrant Entrepreneurs!

At present I’m a part-time advisor at University of Canterbury incubator ThincLab. I’ve worked with a huge diversity of founders. Young students, women founders, Maori. Founders from all over the world. Germany, Iran, Pakistan, India, Japan, Ukraine, China, United States, France… the list goes on. I’ve especially enjoyed working with founders who identify as neuro-diverse. We certainly have an amazingly diverse group of founders here in Canterbury. Perhaps it is not the case elsewhere?

In startup land it’s important to look beyond our tiny isolated little islands from the outset. A lot of Kiwi founders don’t get this. So diverse founders and especially skilled migrant entrepreneurs bring huge value to our ecosystem. I’ve even started companies with a few of them. So it grinds my gears when I hear people complaining about the “lack of diversity” in our startup ecosystem.

Supporting our skilled migrant entrepreneurs is the fastest way to grow an even more diverse ecosystem, whilst building high value, scalable startups that contribute tangible economic value.

Take a look at We Love Local for example, a corporate gift box provider founded by my friends from Mauritius and Germany. They’ve been growing fast and have received multi-award recognition for their business which was started from scratch only a few years ago. How about Swallowing Technologies. Migrant female founder from academia commercialising her research globally. Caterway, my friends from Japan and Ukraine serving the corporate catering market.

So I’m putting my money where my mouth is by offering a free advisory session.

If you are a New Zealand based e-commerce, cleantech, foodtech, edtech or fintech (especially fintech) migrant founder struggling to make connections, recently arrived or just need some objective feedback on your project. Pitch me! I don’t care if you have lizard skin and shoot purple streamers from your arse. I’ve seen it all, trust me! What I do care about is your ability to execute, sharp intelligence, that you have technical skills and have some kind of workable business model. Oh and a sense of humour and a willingness to listen would definitely be useful.

Let’s talk and see where it leads. Reach me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

If I can’t help – I will probably know someone else who can.

Paul Spence is a commentator and serial entrepreneur, a previous co-founder of a successful New Zealand based global technology venture, co-founder and director of Creative Forest, principal at GeniusNet Research & SondXF and an advisor at ThincLab. You can follow Paul on Twitter @GeniusNet or sign up for a free weekly digest of startup, tech and innovation related events co-curated by him through New Zealand Startup Digest.

Coster and Foster Failed Us All

Posted on Saturday, 19 February, 2022 by Paul Spence

ronnies I will defend to my last breathe the right for New Zealanders to peacefully protest about issues they feel strongly about. But the mob camped on the lawn in Wellington have now gone too far. It’s bad enough that they have obstructed a public road, shut down a bus station and university campus and harassed innocent passers-by. Now the Police have allowed a vigilante “security” force to impede access of citizens to Parliament grounds, a public venue that belongs to all of us. It’s no joke that the Police, Wellington City Council and the two Andy’s have failed the people of New Zealand.

For a protest group ostensibly “protecting our freedoms”, this is beyond rational. But then there’s nothing rational at all about the melange of bizarre causes being promoted by these sheeple and their conspiracist puppet-masters. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with vaccine mandates and lockdowns, this is not the way to win hearts and minds. In fact it must only be a matter of time before an organised counter-protest arises, at which point we will indeed see the kind of direct conflict that was hoped to be avoided. No doubt the counter-protestors will be quickly arrested or dispersed, for their own safety of course.

If the disaffected filthy few wish to live like Orwellian farm animals together on the Parliament lawn to promote their cause, let them do so. However the moment that occupation spreads onto the surrounding streets and into peoples’ lives, it becomes domestic terrorism. The “freedom protesters” have ironically made it clear that they actually have no regard for the freedom of those outside of their own circle. Once the initial threat of a Capitol style storming receded, the Police strategy seems to have been to withdraw and allow the lunatics to take over the asylum. An entrenched mob will be very hard to remove at this point.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster and Mayor Andy Foster are complicit in this mess. Suspending the rule of law in the Molesworth Street precinct was an enormously foolish capitulation that has set back civic society immeasurably. Foster will be gone at this year’s local body election for sure, but Coster continues to enjoy the tacit support of the government, who wish not to be seen being involved in directing the response. But operational mismanagement of the situation has now led to a petition for Andrew Coster’s removal.

Appointed in March 2020, about the same time the pandemic began sweeping across the globe, it was clear from the outset that Coster’s tenure would be challenging. But his arrival signaled quite a shift in strategic direction for the New Zealand Police, with the much lauded “policing by consent” methodology being invoked. Armed patrol units were withdrawn from the streets of Auckland. Within months a young police officer and several civilians had been shot dead as Police lost control of the city to armed gangs. Softly, softly may have once been the motto of a fictional police television series, but that approach is clearly not working.

But the most concerning aspect of Coster’s appointment is that he represents the gentle, smiling face of a new generation of Cabinet appointed leadership within the public service. A leadership group that has become infiltrated by politically correct sycophants quietly “reforming” institutions, infrastructure and instruments of government without the permission of the electorate. Calls for his removal simply echo an increasing level of discomfort over the current direction of our public institutions. “Policing by consent” may be the flavour of the moment, but there’s nothing consensual about the direction our public service is heading in right now.

Stop The Grievance Virus

Posted on Monday, 27 September, 2021 by Paul Spence

The number of pandemic “experts” seems to be growing by the day. Now with a former Prime Minister wading into the murk, it has opened the floodgates allowing a wave of discontent to infect the nation. But actively demonstrating a partnership approach with business could deliver better outcomes and bring some smart minds to bear on the gnarly problems that confront us.

In recent weeks a number of prominent New Zealanders have been expressing their impatience with the government’s approach to managing the pandemic crisis. Curiously the concern is not so much about the travails of extended lockdowns, but more to do with the impact of travel restrictions as a throttle on economic growth. Unsurprisingly, most of the complainants are absorbed with their own particular business predicaments. But rather than be labelled “whingers” (to their credit) some creative solutions have been proposed by them.

In 2020 our government urgently cobbled together an interim response to keep us safe. Controlling foreign arrivals, managing quarantine and rolling out the largest vaccination programme in our nation’s history have been huge, imperfect undertakings delivered under extraordinary and rapidly evolving circumstances. Without these initiatives, I am absolutely certain that several vulnerable members of my immediate family would not have made it through the last 18 months.

One only needs to look at the data from offshore to understand the dire situation we find ourselves in. But perhaps the most telling data point is that investing in snuffing out the virus does indeed result in a quicker and stronger economic rebound, at least in the medium term. Placing our trust in a benevolent State has paid off so far, but patience is waning as purveyors of a wide variety of grievances across the political spectrum become ever more vocal. So openly demonstrating a willingness to have business as part of the conversation would be reassuring to the public, whilst bringing a greater diversity of thinking to the top table. None of this should obviate the need to carefully balance social and economic considerations, of course.

Putting aside the fact that I find sports analogies rather tedious, some of the ideas for getting New Zealand business moving again have actually been good ones. We have a wealth of technical and management expertise in our business community and there are homemade solutions available for improving almost every aspect of the crisis response. I believe where the difficulty lies is that there is a public perception at least of a lack of engagement between government and business. That may not be entirely fair, but in politics perception matters.

Early in the crisis, the government appointed former Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe as a liaison person between the government and business. That was a good move, but very little has been heard since. The Cabinet wisely considers advice from the pandemic technical advisory group who are respected clinicians and academics. But from time to time self appointed media darlings from scientific fields outside of epidemiology have an annoying habit of confusing the public by contradicting the actual expert viewpoints. So we have to be discerning about where we get information. Similarly we should not simply cave in to loud voices from the business sector who manage to get their views published.

Preserving life is paramount. But at present, it’s not clear what the exit strategy will be. There is a strong sense that the business community has not been fully enrolled as a partner in this process. I might add that this includes a wholesale failure to engage the talent sitting in our research institutions and technology incubators. What is clear however is that we will have no choice but to open up again in 2022, because the present approach is economically unsustainable in the long term. Elimination may already be nonviable and everyone (including business) need to deal with the reality of the new normal. The best piece of advice anyone can follow right now – get ready, get vaccinated!

Paul Spence is a commentator and serial entrepreneur, a recently exited co-founder of a New Zealand based technology venture, a co-founder and director of Creative Forest, principal at GeniusNet Research and an advisor at ThincLab. You can follow Paul on Twitter @GeniusNet or sign up for a free weekly digest of startup, tech and innovation related events curated by him through New Zealand Startup Digest.

Frontier Firms Follow-On Funding Favoured

Posted on Tuesday, 27 April, 2021 by Paul Spence

The recently published New Zealand Productivity Commission Report on the economic contribution of “frontier firms” predictably rated only a passing mention in local media. However recommendations in the publication could have far reaching impacts if implemented. But is the government listening?

Frontier firms are described as the most productive, profitable and innovative in an economy and generally have scale and global reach. But the report says that New Zealand’s frontier firms lag behind their global peers in terms of productivity. The OECD defines productivity as the ratio of economic output compared to inputs. Nations with highly productive frontier firms have greater competitiveness because of more efficient use of resources such as labour and capital. These nations also benefit from secondary “innovation and knowledge diffusion” within their economies.

Chairperson of the Commission Ganesh Nana, in an interview with Radio New Zealand says New Zealand is already well behind other small developed economies in the OECD in terms of productivity and the gap is growing every year. He says part of the reason is because we do not have many so-called frontier firms to which smaller innovation based companies can anchor. One of the key findings of the report is that the government must invest in developing a deeper innovation ecosystem, including supporting more commercialisation of research, science and technology.

But will the government take on board this message? Many of us currently working within the New Zealand innovation ecosystem have lobbied in the past for vastly increased resourcing and for setting greater aspirations as a nation. But such pleas have largely fallen upon deaf ears over the years. There are sadly also actors within our ecosystem that are philosophically opposed to any kind of government investment on the basis that only wealthy and well-connected players should be allowed in the game. This is despite the fact that our neighbours (and competitors) in places like Australia, South Korea and Singapore identified the value many years ago and have literally invested hundreds of millions of dollars into building out their own innovation ecosystems.

Developing more frontiers firms is not about growing more “unicorns” as some have mistakenly claimed. But it is about building a more interconnected economy that has research, science and technology at the heart of the beast. That’s a big ask for a small nation for which there are many competing priorities and challenges to face such as health, housing and climate change. But the key to motivating the decision-makers involves grasping the reality that having a powerful innovation ecosystem is actually part of the solution to those challenges.

Paul Spence is a commentator and serial entrepreneur, a recently exited co-founder of a New Zealand based technology venture, a co-founder and director of Creative Forest, advisor at ThincLab within the University of Canterbury Centre for Entrepreneurship and principal at GeniusNet Research. You can follow Paul on Twitter @GeniusNet or sign up for a free weekly digest of startup, tech and innovation related events curated by him through New Zealand Startup Digest. Paul is a co-author of the Entrepreneurship Manifesto 2020.

The Commercialisation Imperative

Posted on Monday, 22 March, 2021 by Paul Spence

Blue Skies Thinking Needed

Competing and surviving in a highly technological, fast changing and globalised economy increasingly dictates that universities and institutes step up and generate economic returns on their research. But although there have been a few notable exceptions at New Zealand universities, we continue to underperform in the commercialisation of new scientific knowledge into value generating products and services that drive economic growth. So if disruptive innovation lies at the core of economic development, how can we better reconcile commercialisation with the core purpose of our institutions?

Firstly, there are some valid arguments in favour of the separation of commerce from academia. Normative, collectivist elements of academic science as a social system, along with the autonomous nature of university culture, seem to sit uncomfortably with the motivations of profit seeking firms that wish to take ownership of intellectual property. Claims of IP ownership can lead to fears of diminishing the scientific commons, which would be detrimental to the collegial and collaborative nature of science and therefore hinder the very process that will drive future discoveries.

Furthermore, commercialising technology research is risky and accommodating new and developing fields of commercially focused science takes up resources that might be used for other teaching and research, impacting the core mission of universities. We have already witnessed closures and staff reductions within arts and humanities faculties where commercial outcomes are less of a focus. There’s also a danger that high tech institutes established in emergent fields become impenetrable and elitist silos of specialist knowledge open to only a few, at a time when we should be striving for greater equity. Are there other societal factors at play that dampen success?

Patent filings data is sometimes quoted as an indicator of “innovativeness” in the context of economic development. New Zealand sits at the lower end of the table, but not because it is a small economy. Countries with relatively small populations such as Finland, Switzerland and Israel lead the pack. In New Zealand total expenditure on research and development as a proportion of GDP has been increasing in recent years, but continues to lag behind other developed countries. Investment rose to 1.37% in 2018. This compares to an average research intensity figure of 2.38% across all OECD countries, ranking New Zealand 21st out of 34 nations [Statistics NZ — 2018]. So whilst the size of an economy does not fully explain the innovativeness of a nation, the level of commitment to research and development investment certainly plays a part.

Approximately half of that R&D investment originates from publicly funded sources. With government investment comes an expectation that tax payer funded academic research will provide a “return on science” or economic and social benefits to society. The challenge then is to generate meaningful commercial outcomes, that do not undermine the core missions of teaching and research. There are a great many reasons to do so, not the least of which is our ability to fund future health, education and welfare needs. As a nation heavily reliant upon commodity based income we must gravitate towards higher added value goods and services to ensure the future economic wellbeing of our society. Developing an ecosystem approach to cultivating innovation is a key part of this journey.

For example, benefits in cultivating university-industry ties become amplified due to network effects and serendipitous conversations around the humble water cooler (or perhaps kombucha fridge these days). This “innovation ecosystem” approach has benefitted a number of scientific fields. For example the emergence of biotechnology as both a science and business from MIT and other institutions clustered within the Boston area. Commercialisation of new knowledge can also speed up solving complex social, health and environmental problems that might not otherwise be addressed, attracting both government and private sector funding into academia.

The global pandemic has also accelerated the need for scientific innovation. Previous hard won gains against poverty and improvements in social equity have been wiped out by pandemic related economic carnage. In addition, because of growing urgency in relation to addressing environmental challenges, there is forecast to be a vast migration of capital away from polluting industries over the next two or three decades. This green transition will create enormous opportunities for scientific organisations operating at the leading edge of cleantech, renewable energy, low carbon construction and regenerative agriculture, for example.

Embedded within entrepreneurship centres of research, university innovation labs such as ThincLab at the University of Canterbury are important intermediaries in the cycle of innovation and a key part of a vibrant ecosystem that engages with a wide array of supporting players to ensure the success of spin-off companies, whilst at the same time respecting the scholarship that underpins scientific discovery.

This article was first published on the ThincLab blog and formed the basis of my presentation to the Food, Fibre and Agritech Supernode Challenge 2021 cohort.

Connecting Canterbury

Posted on Friday, 6 November, 2020 by Paul Spence

DandelionFountain1 After nearly a decade of rebuilding, much of the baseline physical infrastructure needed for the regeneration of Christchurch is now in place. There’s still a lot more to do of course, but there’s now some breathing space to think about working on social infrastructure as well. Developing a vibrant and better connected local ecosystem will be the key to unlocking a wider pipeline of innovation across Canterbury.

Building a more connected innovation community also demonstrably aligns with the city-wide Prosperity Framework established by economic development agency ChristchurchNZ in 2018. This framework underpins business attraction and capability building activities across the city for the following decade and is strongly informed by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the New Zealand government Treasury Living Standards Framework. Environmental sustainability, inclusion, scalability and confidence are therefore viewed as pillars of a recovering and strengthening city economy and are encapsulated within the adjacent Supernodes Strategy.

The Supernodes Strategy, in its current form, has a focus on four designated areas of Food/Fibre/Agritech, Aerospace, HealthTech and High Tech services. All of these areas are obviously predicated upon a well connected ecosystem that is strongly underpinned by world class capabilities in software, high tech manufacturing and research. But it is less clear where important and enabling innovation infrastructure itself sits within the strategy. For example, platform based digital services and game offerings are amongst the highest value and fastest growing companies globally. Should we consider creating a local niche to include these sectors?

The Supernode strategy also speaks strongly about inclusion, especially in cultivating diversity of thinking and about better engaging young people with the business community. The strategy seeks to achieve progress through “a collaborative approach between education, industry and the government…to ensure a prosperous future for the city and the region”. So actively building these bridges is a mandated priority.

Resilient infrastructure and fostering sustainable and inclusive innovation incidentally also forms the basis of SDG Goal 9, a global commitment that central government signed us up to. Supporting small business growth and facilitating investments in research and development are fundamental to this goal. This is especially salient in the context of a post-quake, post-Covid economic rebuild in Christchurch. So there are many brilliant reasons to foster connectivity across the innovator community in Canterbury. One of the strongest arguments for doing so is that there is plenty of untapped capacity, unlike in some of our other main centre cities.

Pandemic related disruption has unfortunately hindered community-building activities throughout much of 2020, but has ironically amplified the need for it more than ever. Community minded responses have thus far averted a public health crisis. In the meantime people in education and business found ways to keep working together. Maintaining and building robust, collaborative communities is more important than ever in the disrupted, remote working and rapidly changing world to which we must adapt.

Paul Spence is a commentator and serial entrepreneur, a recently exited co-founder of a New Zealand based technology venture, a co-founder and director of Creative Forest and principal at GeniusNet Research. You can follow Paul on Twitter @GeniusNet or sign up for a free weekly digest of startup, tech and innovation related events curated by him through New Zealand Startup Digest. Paul is a co-author of the Entrepreneurship Manifesto 2020.

Image credit: Renea Mackie

iwantmyname Acquired

Posted on Monday, 26 August, 2019 by Paul Spence

We are pleased to announce that one of our GeniusNet portfolio companies ideegeo Group Limited was acquired in August 2019 by London AIM listed registrar group CentralNic PLC. Founded by Paul Spence, Timo Reitnauer and Lenz Gschwendtner, ideegeo began in 2008 in Wellington, New Zealand with the goal of bringing much needed change to the domain name registrar industry.

Our retail registrar platform iwantmyname was regarded as one of the most innovative and customer centric in the industry globally. This reputation ultimately drove interest from a number of parties and will ensure that the brand and associated technology will endure. An important feature of the company culture was a commitment to community building, which often saw the founders out engaging at startup events and mentoring other entrepreneurs. That’s a habit that we hope to continue.

Special thanks must go to Dave Moskovitz who provided advice at key points in our journey and also Simmonds Stewart and Avid Legal who supported us through the acquisition process.

Paul Spence is a commentator and serial entrepreneur, formerly a co-founder of New Zealand based technology venture iwantmyname, a co-founder and director of Creative Forest and principal at GeniusNet Research. You can follow Paul on Twitter @GeniusNet or sign up for a free weekly digest of startup, tech and innovation related events curated by him through New Zealand Startup Digest.

Optimising Our Knowledge Networks

Posted on Monday, 8 July, 2019 by Paul Spence

Instructing the Super Fund to channel $300 million of investment into emerging tech firms, as well as a recent call for delivery of a “deep tech” incubator to assist commercialisation of public funded research in New Zealand, illustrates that the government has been listening to the concerns of the high tech business community around the need for greater support in the commercialisation of knowledge. Health, environment, food production, robotics and AI – there are many problem areas in which we can excel. But whilst a broadening of activity in the innovation ecosystem must be seen in a positive light, new entrants may face an uphill battle.

Some say that government involvement in the sector is long overdue. Not a month goes by without the media reporting the departure of a promising high growth, high tech firm such as Rocket Lab, for example. The paucity of follow on capital and expertise available locally is often quoted as the culprit. Successive previous governments failed to address the problem due to being ideologically opposed to what has sometimes been unfairly branded as corporate welfare. But interestingly the most vocal critics of incubation and government directed investment funding tend to be wealthy and well-connected individuals who have no problem sourcing capital for their own ventures.

Since the public purse is already funding universities and research organisations in one form or another anyway, is it really such a stretch for government to facilitate obtaining an economic return on those investments? Those who mutter in their beards about “level playing fields” should take a look around. We are losing the battle with our neighbours in the Asia-Pacific region with whom we compete for capital and talent. Australia, Singapore and Korea all provide substantial support for startups and the commercialisation of publicly funded research.

So where does that leave New Zealand with its newly rediscovered enthusiasm for investing in science and technology commercialisation? Well there was an additional most welcome announcement this week of new funding for an existing body that has already made considerable inroads into surfacing promising research and turning it into businesses. That seems to foreshadow where government thinking might be heading in terms of who is now best equipped to develop a formal incubation programme.

But research commercialisation is actually a network optimisation problem involving many and diverse stakeholders. A post graduate study that I conducted on this topic a few years ago is still relevant. The most creative ideas and opportunities are found at the boundaries where disparate networks overlap. Hence the direction we are heading with, GeniusNet. It is therefore absolutely essential that we have an open innovation based ecosystem and a diversity of players in the incubation and commercialisation marketplace, if we are to lift our economy up the value chain.

Paul Spence is a commentator and serial entrepreneur, a co-founder of New Zealand based technology ventures iwantmyname and Creative Forest and principal at GeniusNet Research. You can follow Paul on Twitter @GeniusNet or sign up for a free weekly digest of startup, tech and innovation related events curated by him through New Zealand Startup Digest.

Capital Punishment: Is It Time To Accept That Wellington Has A Crisis?

Posted on Tuesday, 14 May, 2019 by Paul Spence

civic Let me begin by stating that I like Wellington Mayor Justin Lester as a person. He’s way more approachable than the previous two incumbents and I respect that he is doing his best to navigate the council through a very difficult patch in the city’s long history. He’s been a business owner in the Capital and will be acutely aware of the many challenges confronting the inner city right now. So when he announced his policy platform for re-election, I must admit to being a little disappointed.

Eliminating homelessness and assisting refugees are very worthy goals and not to be discounted of course. Good luck with all that. But Wellington has even more pressing problems. Because it is now finally beginning to dawn on city dwellers that there are very widespread structural problems which have gone unaddressed for many years. Removing vagrants from the street may become a moot point, if the central city declines into an unliveable wasteland.

Wellingtonians are political animals by nature and in recent years have been very effective at rallying support to challenge poorly planned developments around the city where there was often insufficient public consultation. Shelly Bay and the Queens Wharf hotel are classic examples, as was the Basin Flyover that was knocked for a six and the dog’s breakfast that now passes for the Island Bay cycle lane. The highly questionable airport runway extension proposal has also been defeated (for now). These lengthy battles have been a huge distraction for councillors and previous Mayors, who should have been focused on much more pressing needs, as it turns out. Public advocacy is a good thing of course, but, for their part, opponents to infrastructure projects must also come to the table with fresh solutions to offer, not just blanket opposition. Developers and investors will soon stop calling. Some already have.

Now Civic Square is dying with the much loved library and both the Town Hall and council buildings buggered due to quake damage. This is a heavy loss. The Square was once the lively centre piece of the city. If the wooden footbridge leading to the square has to close, as has been suggested recently, it will be the final nail in the coffin as the central city is cut off from the waterfront. Dozens of at risk commercial buildings in the CBD are already untenanted, unfixable and possibly uninsurable and thousands of older homes around the CBD perimeter are in need of major refurbishment – or demolition. And let’s not even mention the failing transport networks with buses and trains that don’t work, congested arterial roads and the hellish nightmare of simply trying to find a car park in the CBD.

This is Christchurch all over again, but in slow motion. It’s time to accept that the underlying framework of the city is in real crisis now. A crisis that has crept up on the current council, but which has been in the making for decades. A complete re-visioning is needed to future proof the city, also taking into account threats related to climate change. A Christchurch style solution might be the inevitable conclusion, but more likely spread over a longer period of time. Retain and strengthen a few key edifices, bulldoze and start over with the remainder? Unfortunately I fear that it will take a much broader political will and a lot more time than one election cycle, to get things back on track.

Paul Spence is a commentator and serial entrepreneur, a co-founder of New Zealand based technology ventures iwantmyname and Creative Forest and a mentor with Startup Weekends and Lightning Lab. You can follow Paul on Twitter @GeniusNet or sign up for a free weekly digest of startup, tech and innovation related events curated by him through New Zealand Startup Digest.

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Technology, innovation and entrepreneurship in New Zealand.

Category Archives: Community