Outspoken councillor Lee Vandervis was accused of talking Dunedin down as a discussion on economic growth turned testy.
Cr Vandervis said although the report showed some positive changes, the city’s employment growth had lagged behind the rest of the country for 20 years.
"We have not addressed employment growth.
"If you look at the graph it’s plain to see there isn’t one year in 20 years that we have exceeded the New Zealand average," Cr Vandervis said.
The graph showed Dunedin had generally lagged behind except at three points where economic growth had just exceeded the national average — 2002, 2006 and 2019.
The council needed to address the "red flags" shown in different areas such as population growth, household income and employment growth.
"All of these those things really need to improve. What is it about Dunedin that makes us lag behind in all those different areas," he said.
"It serves us nothing at all to turn around and say that we’re dying when we’re not," he said.
He delivered an impassioned speech about why he as a medical professional had returned to Dunedin.
"Don’t do that, telling people to leave, but I don’t want them to leave, I want them to come.
"I want them to come on the statement that I returned here nine years ago — and it was the best thing I ever did," Cr O’Malley said.
Cr Christine Garey said the commentary from Cr Vandervis was "talking the city down", and was met with a point of order for misrepresentation from Cr Vandervis.
"I have not said the city was dying as has been claimed. I did not talk the city down. I simply pointed out how much Dunedin lags on so many of the statistics," Cr Vandervis said.
The meeting was adjourned for five minutes as other councillors discussed the point of order.
Meeting chairman Cr Andrew Whiley upheld the point of order and Cr Garey continued after rescinding her comments about Cr Vandervis.
She said there were many positives to focus on within the statistics and the city was "trending in the right direction".
"Some around this table have quite a different interpretation of the figures before us," Cr Garey said.
Growth in jobs has continued in Dunedin, rebounding to levels above a pre-Covid-19 peak and apparently further.
More than 800 jobs were added in 2022, a rise of about 1.4%.
Dunedin had already got past its pre-Covid-19 employment peak about March last year.
Data shows public administration, professional, scientific and technical services played a key role in jobs’ growth up until December last year, Dunedin city councillors were told.
Deputy mayor Sophie Barker said the city’s dependence on health- and education-based jobs was a reason to be concerned, due to the influence central government had in funding the two sectors.
"We need to keep an eye on that and try and work to make our economy robust so we don’t depend so much on government money," Cr Barker said.
