Auckland Super City candidates gather for Unitec Forum for the Future

The seven candidates who have thrown their name into the hat to become the first mayor of the Auckland Super City will meet in what will be lively debate at Unitec Institute of Technology next Tuesday 3 August.

The candidates – North Shore mayor Andrew Williams, anti-smacking protestor Colin Craig, comedian Ewen Gilmour, Mayor of Auckland City John Banks, Manukau City Council Mayor, Len Brown, water campaigner and actor Penny Bright and actor and theatre director Simon Prast – will participate in the third and final session of The Unitec Forum For the Future– “Super City – Win or Lose?”

The three-evening series around the impending Super City has attracted some of the country’s top local government experts as panelists who have taken the opportunity to inform the studio and online audience about the pros and cons of Auckland’s new local government structure.

The first two sessions held in the past two weeks have created a vigorous debate amongst the guest panelists and the live audience.

Rod Oram, business journalist, commentator and adjunct professor at Unitec’s Department of Management and Marketing, is facilitating the series of discussions.

“This is probably the first time all the mayoral candidates have come together to discuss their intentions for the Auckland Super City so it should make for some very interesting discussions,” says Oram.

“We are hoping the seven mayoral candidates can leave the point scoring and politicking at home and come to the forum and address some of the central issues that have come out of the first two sessions.”

The focus of each forum is tackled in a series of three lively 90-minute live studio debates bringing together the community, business leaders, academics and students in front of a live audience.

The event is streamed live on Twitter and the online audience can tweet questions to the panelists before or live during the event.

The first forum looked at why there was need to change regional governance structures, while the second forum held earlier this week looked at what could be done to make the new system work.

Next Tuesday’s discussion will focus around how the new Super City system can best perform for Auckland and New Zealand.

“The Unitec Forum for the Future- Super City Win or Lose? aims to stimulate thinking and debate on how we can make the new Super City structure work for the community of Auckland and New Zealand as a whole,” says Oram.

To view video clips from Session 1 (already up) and Session 2 (these will be up during this week); comments from live streaming on Twitter or to tweet your questions for the 3 August session go to www.forumforthefuture.unitec.ac.nz

For further information or interviews with Rod Oram or Robert Davis (rdavis@unitec.ac.nz) please contact:  Rod Oram: on oram@clear.net.nz or mobile 021 444 839 or Andrea Rush on andrea@360connect.co.nz, DDI 09 918-7712 or mobile 021 962 349