Australia Network News - 20 September 2011
Auckland is planning to remain the city with the world's largest Pacific community under its new 30-year plan.
The biggest Pacific city in the world, it's fabulous, getting more so every day," Mr Brown said.They mayor said planners are expecting about a million people over the next 30 years to shift into Auckland - to lift the population to about 2.5 million.
Big Families
Pacific Islander people will be helping boost the numbers. "The Pacific community tend to have big families, they love the loving, so we've got big growth," Mr Brown said.
"We have a Pacific population in Auckland something like about 230,000-240,000, with a little under half being Samoan heritage and then about 30,000 from Tonga and the Cook Islands, 15,000 from Niue and then the rest spread around the different sort of Melanesian and Micronesian communities".
Mr Brown said the relationship between Auckland and the Pacific will only get stronger." We have four MOUs - memorandums of understanding - with Samoa, Tonga, Cook Islands and Niue reflecting that very close social community and economic relationship." Next year I'm planning a trade delegation and cultural and political delegation to go to those four countries, probably early July to really lead the development of economic relationships, but also to really formalise the relationship with all of Auckland, our united Auckland with those four pre-eminent Pacific nations," he said.
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