Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown sends warning to Government over budget rules

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has launched a broadside at the new Government, warning “they won’t last” if they continue to crush Auckland with “nonsense” rules and regulations.

Speaking to Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning, Brown said if the central government “really p*** me off, they won’t last”.

The comments come after the city’s new 10-year budget process kicked off at an all-day budget committee meeting at the Auckland Town Hall.

Brown spoke out about his continued frustration with the Government’s “foisted” consultation on the budget plans.

“You get elected to get on with the job, the Government don’t consult on hardly anything, especially not their budgets, but they’ve foisted this consultation stuff on the local government,” Brown said.

“The local government has been crushed by various governments for a long time.

“I’m hoping that this one here is going to wake up.”

Brown also expressed his concerns over not being able to set the parking fines within Auckland without pushback.

“So people in Wellington think that there’s 1.6 million people up here and not one of them is clever enough to set the parking fines and I’m fed up with that sort of nonsense,” Brown said.

During his meeting yesterday, Brown said they spoke at length on the Waitamatā Crossing, which he believes won’t happen in his lifetime.

“I mean, that would use up the entire national income for a year and there’s not even actually a demand for it at the moment,” Brown said.

After it was revealed yesterday that the city had fallen for a third consecutive year in safety, now ranking 124th out of 160 cities, Brown said he hoped the Government would stop “pansy-ing about”.

“All those young people know that you can get away with it up to the age of 17 and then you go to Youth Aid instead of youth punishment,” Brown said.

Brown said he was fighting to be able to turn empty commercial buildings into residential buildings in the downtown CBD to improve the crime rate.

“Well, the thing is, I live on K Road and the more people you get in a place ... the better behaviour is the more people you get there, the more shops that are open the more people you get in a place and the more people on the street things get better,” Brown said.

“Bad stuff happens in sort of like the dark areas and Queen Street has been allowed to get a bit that way.”