Wayne Brown is making a bid for a second term as Auckland mayor. Photo / Alex Burton
Wayne Brown is making a bid for a second term as Auckland mayor. Photo / Alex Burton
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has unfinished business. He says he is standing for re-election so he can fully implement his vision for the city and complete the work he started.
When Brown first campaigned for the mayoralty in 2022 his platform focused on reforming council-controlled organisations (CCOs), addressing transport issuesand improving the council’s financial efficiency.
“I was elected on five policies and have made a lot of progress,” Brown told the Herald. “But I haven’t completed all of them.
“Take CCO reform. It took me a couple of years to get the votes to get that through council.
“Eventually I got unanimous support and now I’m still waiting on the Government to pass legislation to give me much more control of Auckland Transport.
“One of the reasons I’m running again is that I probably won’t get my hands on Auckland Transport completely until about the time of the election. I want to get stuck in and really improve its performance. AT’s performance on public transport has been quite good, but its performance on everything has been woeful. We’ve bickered with AT, advised AT and encouraged AT and nothing much has happened.”
He compares this with Port of Auckland which he says was a mess when he was elected. “Just by threatening to sell it, suddenly it became a profitable, efficient organisation.”
When Brown took office in late 2022 he inherited a significant budget shortfall.
He quickly moved to drive efficiency and cost savings. “We introduced new capital purchasing rules. We’re now spending money much more cleverly — and we’re spending less. As well as filling the budget hole, we’ve made an additional $200 million in savings so the city is about half a billion better off since my arrival. I want to keep the pressure on.”
It’s a process he plans to continue if re-elected.
“I want to stop wasting money. Every decision I make, I’m thinking of the ratepayers who are struggling with their mortgages. There are close to 20,000 people who are behind with their mortgage. I want to keep their rates down while delivering good services.”
This is behind Brown’s push for a bed-night visitor levy which will impose a small charge on visitors staying in hotels or bed and breakfast accommodation. It’s no different from the fee for using payWave in the dairy. The money will be used to fund major events and promote the city as a tourist destination.
“I’m not going to ask struggling households to pay for these events. Hotels make money from them, they want them, so they should contribute ... I don’t understand why the Government is not approving it.”
The Beehive, Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Brown has frustrations with central government. He says Wellington has far too much say about what happens in Auckland and the other local councils across New Zealand.
He says though he shares some of their frustrations, in general he sees little affinity between Auckland and smaller councils.
“That’s why I left Local Government New Zealand. It wasn’t because I didn’t like them — our scale is simply too big. We have nothing in common.”
He argues that Auckland Council is so large it is, in effect, a regional government with responsibility for a third of New Zealand’s population and close to 40% of its GDP. He wants the city to be treated with the respect it deserves by Government. This is why he is enthusiastic about the regional deals work Cabinet Minister Simeon Brown began.
“The main thing is that it treats us like a third of the country, it recognises our importance.”
It’s not all about conflict.
Mayor Brown has praise for Minister Brown’s prior work on Auckland Transport and says he can work with new minister Chris Bishop.
Then there is Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk.
“He is doing something Auckland needs. He is going to drop us out of those seismic rules.
“He’s worked out that they really apply to Wellington and Christchurch while we have volcanoes.”
