Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown made a lewd comment about a male councillor having an orgasm during a meeting, multiple councillors have told the Herald. Photo / NZME
Is it safe to be a female councillor in Auckland? A Herald investigation has uncovered off-colour comments by Mayor Wayne Brown, a plea for calm from the council chief executive, and a 2024 meeting of prominent elected women about how to survive in the “boys’ club”. David Fisher reports.
They said the comment by Brown was made after councillor Greg Sayers stubbed his toe and made a grunting noise.
The Herald became aware of the incident while making inquiries into a March 2024 meeting of five female councillors with a senior Auckland Council manager. The meeting discussed concerns around “poor behaviour” in council meetings.
Notes show the five female councillors said they felt “isolated” by the atmosphere in meetings and defaulted “to being silent and picking their battles”.
They discussed the code of conduct complaints process as having a “high bar” for complaints to be upheld.
The council table is made up of eight women and 13 men, including Brown as mayor. Of the eight women, Fairey, Dalton, Lotu Fuli, Josephine Bartley and Kerrin Leoni attended the meeting.
The notes also say rules around behaviour were considered ineffective and women felt “helpless when staff are being verbally attacked by Councillors”.
The Herald interviewed five female councillors who variously described a “boys’ club” with “laddish” behaviour, including Brown’s orgasm comment during an official meeting.
Councillor Julie Fairey said she later confronted Brown over it and he apologised.
Auckland Councillor Angela Dalton has told the Herald she is leaving partly as a result of the behaviour.
Christine Fletcher - a former Auckland Mayor and Minister for Women - said encounters with Brown have left her in tears.
Several women told the Herald Brown’s orgasm comment is typical of the tenor of some meetings. It follows Maurice Williamson’s sharing of unfounded sexual gossip about Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau during a separate Auckland council meeting.
Williamson found himself in similar hot water as an MP when he made comments about oral sex and knee-pads.
Last week, on August 6, Council chief executive Phil Wilson emailed Brown and the councillors about the tone and nature of debates.
He drew attention to “instances of offensive or off-colour humour and rhetoric” and staff feeling criticised and their integrity being called into question.
“We need to get on top of this for everyone’s sake,” Wilson told Brown and the councillors.
Wilson said he apologised if “it comes across as lecturing you” but there was a “collective responsibility … to protect our reputation and public trust and confidence in us as an institution”.
“We have all seen from Wellington and elsewhere what happens when we don’t remember that simple truth,” he wrote.
Last year, local government minister Simeon Brown appointed a Crown observer to monitor Wellington City Council after infighting saw it struggle to pass its long-term plan.
In an interview, Wilson told the Herald he was aware of the concerns of female councillors and had helped organise the March 5 2024 meeting with Anna Bray, the council’s governance director.
He said: “It is very true that from time to time there are issues and within those issues there have been occasions where I know our women councillors have… felt it fairly acutely because of the way that things have been framed… I’m accepting of that reality.
“It’s not acceptable. We need an environment... where people feel respected [and] able to participate.”
He said there had been inappropriate behaviour by councillors to each other and also to council staff. He said employees have had to take time off and seek professional support.
The Herald tried for 10 days to interview Brown about his climaxing comment, and tenor with female councillors.
The Mayor’s media adviser responded this week saying in relation to the Sayers’ comment, “the mayor does not recall anything of the sort”.
“He has nothing further to say about the matter and is not available for an interview.”
Brown did not answer phone calls, but replied by text to a text message seeking comment.
He did not address his orgasm comment about Sayers and rejected claims of a “boys’ club” saying: “This is just a political stunt, these sorts of issues have never been raised before.”
Told the women’s meeting last year involved a senior council manager and that his deputy, Desley Simpson, had been briefed, he said: “It was not raised with me.”
Told the notes included female councillors saying they felt silenced and would “pick their battles”, Brown wrote by text: “I haven’t seen the notes. Disappointed wasn’t raised with me at the time. Would have dealt with it then… now dealing with a historical account of the event.
“We have a Code of Conduct. That will be reviewed after the election.” He said he encouraged councillors to engage with that process.
Councillor Sayers said he was unaware Brown had made a comment at his expense. “I was probably holding my foot.”
He said he did not believe the council had a “boys’ club” atmosphere. He said that if female councillors had told him it was so, he would have offered them his support.
In relation to the 2024 meeting held by the five woman councillors, he said: “If I had of been made aware of it I would have supported those female councillors around their concerns. It’s disappointing to hear some of my female colleagues felt so disempowered.”
Councillors Angela Dalton and Julie Fairey told the Herald of a locker room-type atmosphere inside council.
Fairey was present for the incident involving Sayers. She said he was participating online when he returned to his computer and hurt himself, groaning and grunting. She recalled Brown saying it “sounds like he was climaxing” or “words to that effect”.
“It’s like, ‘what’s wrong with you?’ - this is a professional work environment and that shouldn’t be acceptable.”
Dalton said: “We did hear this groaning and carrying on. Then the Mayor [made] a comment, and then Greg Sayers came on and said he’d stubbed his toe and there were the usual guffaws from the guys.”
Fairey and Dalton said the behaviour had occasionally felt intimidating or threatening. “You sort of make it work in this environment but you’d rather not have to. You’d rather have it challenged and changed,” Fairey said.
Fairey said the current term has been worse than any period of her long involvement from student politics to the union movement and into local body.
“There was bad behaviour [but] it wasn’t sexualised and it wasn’t gendered. There wasn’t vileness people would just excuse as banter or a hot mic moment. I’m used to the cut and thrust (of politics). This is well beyond that.”
She said at times it has stopped her from speaking out and asking questions. “The whole thing has had a chilling effect on me,” said Fairey.
Fairey told the Herald fellow councillor Ken Turner repeatedly yelled while seated next to her during a debate in October about Western Springs speedway. “It was pretty hard for me to be back in my seat the next week,” she said.
The camera meanwhile captured Maurice Williamson grinning while miming a punch-up.
Fairey lodged a Code of Conduct complaint that was not upheld.
She said the incident was deemed not a breach because Turner was yelling at the room, not at her. “I was sitting next to him and that’s not how it felt”. Turner, she said, was not only shouting but also banging the table.
“If that’s not a breach of the Code of Conduct then what is? There’s been this attitude, if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen, which I think is really counterproductive.”
Notes from the 2024 meeting of female councillors revealed they had discussed the Code of Conduct complaints process as having a “high bar” for success.
Fairey and Dalton both told the Herald Fairey had endured personal jibes about her husband, former Labour MP Michael Wood, who lost his electorate seat last election and his Ministerial portfolio in the electoral term leading up to it.
Both councillors said Newman had made multiple comments to Fairey about Wood being dropped as a government minister, and losing his electoral seat - including during the incident involving Turner shouting.
Newman has denied ever making any reference to Wood.
And when Maurice Williamson inadvertently broadcast lewd gossip about Wellington’s mayor across a council meeting, Fairey believed the response around the council chamber failed to register its seriousness.
One councillor joked that he wanted to hear more, she said, while others dismissed it as a “hot mic moment”.
“It was pretty disappointing to be sitting at the table with people who responded like that,” she said. “This is a professional work environment.”
Dalton said one main reason she will not stand for election again this year is the personal toll from “abrasive disagreements” with fellow councillor, Daniel Newman, previously a political ally.
She said aggressive posturing from councillors Mike Lee and Ken Turner had unfairly impugned staff and created an atmosphere that wasn’t constructive.
“You do not accept politicians can yell at council officers because they think they are important,” she said.
“It’s important we do get some ground rules for the next term. It absolutely needs the leadership of the mayor and in that I have no confidence.
“To be able to govern a city of this size and diversity is going to take someone with mana and integrity - we’re not going to see that from this mayor.”
Dalton said she was not standing again because of “abuse” from fellow councillor Daniel Newman. “It was affecting me so badly I felt like I was lying on the couch in a depression.”
She told the Herald that Auckland Council had arranged for her building swipe card to access the service elevator so as to avoid her bumping into him in the passenger lift or parking area.
Newman said he would not comment on Dalton’s claim she was leaving politics because of his attitude towards her. “I feel unsafe around Angela Dalton because I believe she is a habitual liar and possesses sociopathic tendencies.”
Cr Newman rejected there had been poor behaviour around the council table, saying he had never made any comment about Fairey’s husband Michael Wood, and had no recollection of Brown’s climax comment.
He said he had not spoken to Dalton “since the day I was engaged to my wife” and she broke down in tears. When asked to explain that comment, he disconnected the call.
Dalton has said she does not know what Newman means by the comment, which he has also repeated to others in emails provided to the Herald.
Kerrin Leoni, who is running against Brown for mayor, said: “Throughout this term there has been this boys’ club.”
She said the tone of the council, raised voices and banging on tables came across as threatening.
“At times we have minimised it as a coping strategy to get through the term. You do have to pick your battles.”
Leoni said Brown’s behaviour inspired her bid for the mayoralty “because the city needs new leadership”.
She said many of Brown’s comments - intended to be jokes - were “really inappropriate”, such as his recent suggestion someone would provide a car to run councillor Wayne Walker over.
However, Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson said she did not believe there was a “boys’ club” tone at council and invited councillors to meet with her if they believed there was a lack of respect or that they were not listened to.
Asked if council was a safe place for women, Simpson did not assert it was. She said: “I hope it is. It absolutely needs to be a safe place.”
Simpson said she recalled Brown’s comment about Sayers sounding as if he was climaxing. “No, it’s not appropriate and there are people who called it out at the time.”
Simpson said she called out inappropriate behaviour when she saw it and would meet with any councillor who felt disrespected or not heard. “Everyone deserves a voice whether they are a visitor to the town hall or are an elected member.
“I’ve seen behaviour around the table that isn’t acceptable for councillors. If you put your hand up to be in this role, I believe there is an expectation for you to behave in a manner that is appropriate to your position.”
Councillor Ken Turner rejected concerns about women’s safety at council. “What a load of bullshit. What a load of woke bullshit.”
“I would tell my daughters and granddaughters that you’re much safer in the council debating chamber than you are walking down Queen St.”
He said he was “insulted” by the implications of the March 2024 meeting of female councillors.
He said there had been occasions when protesters at council had physically asserted themselves and his regard for female councillors’ safety was such he would “throw my body between them and the assailant”.
“I am insulted they would think I am a lesser man than that. That’s crap.”
Don’t tell me because I’m a male that there’s some gender imbalance here.
In relation to Brown’s comment about climaxing, he said: “When the mayor said that, it was just his personality popping out because he - like myself - wears it on his sleeve. In the world I live in, in West Auckland, it’s not that unusual.”
Turner conceded his behaviour at council during the speedway debate was uncontrolled, saying it was “because I had been stitched up”.
“I’m not apologising for my reaction,” he said. “Don’t tell me because I’m a male that there’s some gender imbalance here. Julie [Fairey] was quite capable ... to put me in my place.”
He said the council and public would be better served by “straight talking” than having “conflict resolution” and “conflict avoidance” processes.
“Going back to the ladies, I enjoyed working with them. I enjoyed sitting next to Julie Fairey.” When told Fairey was upset by his behaviour, “I wasn’t going to apologise”.
Turner said when he heard she was upset by his behaviour, “I just sat away from her”.
Christine Fletcher, who was not at the meeting, said she believed the mayor’s behaviour was not influenced by gender as he treated anyone who opposed him poorly.
“It’s not just women. It’s also men. There can be the baying of the blood ... There are also men who have been intimidated in this council.
“I have been reduced to tears by the mayor on occasions. Is it right? No, it’s probably not right.
“People told me at the beginning of my political career you’ll just have to toughen up. And I said, no as soon as I lose my sensibilities I lose my effectiveness.”
I think the mayor needs to work on his behaviour. I think he needs to work on his language. I also appreciate the mayor is not going to change. He’s a man of his age.
Fletcher did not want to comment specifically on Brown’s reference to Sayers.
“If things are unpleasant I tend to try and forget them. I don’t want to comment on matters of that kind. I know why it matters. I’m a former Minister of Women’s Affairs. I have been in politics a long time. I have had to endure a lot of sexist silly nonsense.
“I have had to prioritise the issues I want to be advanced. I do find a lot of the behaviour trivial, unnecessary and completely unacceptable.
“However, I’m not wanting to comment on one specific incident. You should not have to endure vileness, prurience or sexualisation of any kind.”
Fletcher said she often had to filter out words she did not want to hear. “I think the mayor needs to work on his behaviour. I think he needs to work on his language.
“I also appreciate the mayor is not going to change. He’s a man of his age. I don’t think the mayor is going to change.”
Mike Lee, another long-time politician, said he believed the notes of the 2024 meeting had emerged now as a political ploy.
Lee said Dalton and Fairey were “trying to reform themselves as Me Too victims - heroes indeed”.
“The Herald is being played by this centre-left group. This is a centre-left faction led by Julie Fairey fearful she might be following her husband (former Labour MP, Wood) along the same path this election.”
On Brown’s orgasm comment, Lee said: “It was vulgar and irresponsible.” He also called it stupid. “But that doesn’t make a boys’ club.”
Rasising one’s voice in council meetings? You need to do that. It’s ... a political debating chamber.
“The comment about Greg Sayers was puerile, rude and vulgar. The Mayor is an unusual character. Don’t judge us by the mayor. I’m not particularly enamoured by the Mayor.”
Lee said he did not believe women were treated differently but told the Herald to “ask all the women because it’s a very serious issue”.
“I’m not in any boys’ club,” he said, adding he was supporting Kerrin Leoni for Mayor.
He said the code of conduct was strict and there were always security staff on hand. He said if there were issues of genuine concern around women at council, senior staff would have acted “promptly” and it would have been raised at confidential performance sessions.
“Raising one’s voice in council meetings? You need to do that. It’s not an office. It’s not a school common room. It’s a political debating chamber.”
David Fisher is based in Northland and has worked as a journalist for more than 30 years, winning multiple journalism awards including being twice named Reporter of the Year and being selected as one of a small number of Wolfson Press Fellows to Wolfson College, Cambridge. He joined the Herald in 2004.
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