Survey Questions for Ward Candidates – John Watson
Please answer all questions in no more than 100 words per question then return the document in
PDF format no later than Friday 2nd September to Kevin O’Leary at Harbour Sport –
[email protected]
1. Sport and recreation builds communities and is a huge contributor to an active, healthy and
vibrant city. Sport and Recreation organisations continue to invest time, money and staff
into the region and give Council an excellent return on investment.
According to Sport New Zealand, 2015, The Economic Value of Sport and Recreation to the
Auckland Region:
Sport and recreation industries provide employment for people in Auckland
 More than 13,000 people (13,164) work in sport and recreation industries
(based on the 2013 Census).
 Including people working in sport and recreation occupations outside these
sport and recreation industries, the total increases to more than 17,000
people (17,822); this is 2.7 per cent of all those in employment.
Sport and recreation is an important economic sector in Auckland
 The contribution of sport and recreation to GDP (including volunteered
services) in 2012/13 is estimated to have been $1,769.6 million, or 2.2 per
cent.
a) What do you see as the value of sport and recreation in our region?
Sport and recreation have always been incredibly important to the North Harbour
region. Personally I’ve been involved playing and coaching a number of different
codes on the North Shore for much of my life – I’ve played premier cricket, rugby,
Aussie Rules and rugby league for Shore teams and I’ve coached youth teams in
rugby, cricket, basketball, league and touch. I’ve also taught PE and outdoor
education at North Shore secondary schools . Naturally then I see sport and
recreation as absolutely essential to a community’s well-being, now more so than
ever.
b) How will you ensure that investment in sport and recreation increases to enable the
sector to continue to make an effective contribution to ‘the world’s most liveable
city?
By strong representation in council policy direction and budgetry allocation and
perhaps more meaningfully when it comes to individual codes and clubs, by giving
an undertaking to work with any sporting group on the North Harbour to advance
their plans through council. This is rarely a straight forward task these days but my
view is that my role is to advocate for our codes in any way I can.
2. Councils are the major contributors to the funding of sports infra-structure through the rates
collected from the community. Due to a misconception that our region is affluent and is not
ethnically diverse, there has been a ‘southern drift’ of this investment and a reduction in
local development contributions. Based on the 2013 census, the Asian population in the
*North Shore region was 24.0% up from 17.8% in 2006. The Asian population is growing
significantly and is the second largest ethnic group behind after NZ Europeans/Pākehā.
 They are primarily made up of four key ethnic groups: Chinese, Korean,
Indian and Filipino groups.
 42.7% of North Harbour’s Asian population are Chinese, making it the
largest Asian group with over 23,500 people. This is followed by Koreans at
19.5% and Indians at 13.0%.
How do you plan to ensure that our region receives adequate funding based upon our
growing and ethnically diverse population to meet their needs moving forwards?
Auckland Council is starting to acknowledge the huge impact that the different ethnic
groups now living in Auckland are having on our sporting landscape. Wayne and I have
already been working with organisations such as Auckland cricket who have a witnessed
a phenomenal change in both the ethnic composition and the numbers playing their
sport as a consequence of immigration. Clearly the specific racial groupings present on
the Shore have immediate implications for our indoor sports in particular and also
facilities for more casual use.
3. Over time the delivery of sport has changed, such as the surfaces sport is played on, where
and when it is played to meet local community needs and the needs of a growing and
diverse population. The delivery of sport and recreation in our region is limited by ageing
facilities, a shortage of playing facilities both indoor and outdoor and the costs of
participation. The facilities plans for Indoor sports (Basketball, Volleyball, Badminton, Table
Tennis, Futsal) Outdoor artificial surface sports (Netball, Hockey) clearly indicate that by
2031, we would have a major shortage of places for the community to play:
 National Indoor Facilities Strategy currently identifies we are 26 Indoor
courts short in Auckland now, and will be 42 courts short in 2031.
 The Regional Facilities Hockey plan indicates a turf shortage of 233 hours
per week in the Northern Region, and 671.6 hours across Auckland in 2021.
 The Netball Regional Facilities Plan indicates shortfalls in the Northern
region in 2013 of 23 courts.
 Council identified in their own report in 2008 sport field provision a shortfall
in grass fields, a problem which has been exacerbated in our region due to
the growth in population.
a) How do you plan to address the lack of facilities and the often poor state of repair of
the predominantly ageing facilities in our region?
Firstly by ensuring that we don’t lose any sportsfields or open spaces that we already have.
This is an ever present concern in the Council’s $650 million assets disposal programme. A
good example this year was the Caribbean Drive sports fields which, contrary to popular
belief, were actually owned by the Ministry of Education. There was the distinct possibility
that they would be sold and turned into housing. We were adamant the council structure a
deal to ensure that the $14 million required to purchase the fields was allocated.
b) How do you plan to address the inequitable distribution of funding to maintain
indoor and outdoor facilities?
Since the middle of this current term it has become very apparent that this Council is now
operating under far more stringent financial constraints than was the case in the first term.
What this means is that any money allocated to sport must be wisely and productively
spent. That’s why we as Albany councillors took such a strong stand over RFA’s Stadium
Strategy. This strategy was ill-conceived, unpopular and extremely costly. In my view, the
significant budget being allocated to some parts of the organization should be re-prioritised
into more local and regional spending for sports.
c) How will you support organisations to cope with the cost of facility depreciation?
Continued from above… I would also add that there is now a ‘Growth Programme’ that is
funded from a variety of sources but with the majority (70%) directly attributed to
development contributions. More importantly, as far as the Shore goes, it is linked to
population growth and has been set up as a regional programme (not one big pot). I would
also just add in passing that region wide sports forums held throughout 2015 made it
glaringly apparent that a number of legacy councils across Auckland did not invest
adequately in their sporting facilities.
4. Based on the continuing pressure being applied for the funding of facilities on Council land
and their maintenance,
Would you support Council to agree to a more commercial lease agreement to enable
facilities to generate income to maintain their facilities, currently restricted by the
Reserves Act 1977?
Yes, absolutely and as I understand it work has been going on in council to provide more
‘enabling’ leasing arrangements that help sporting organisations in an increasingly
challenging financial climate.