Mayor Wayne Brown lays out his plans in the lead-up to Christmas and what he hopes to achieve by the end of his second term. Photo / Sylvie Whinray.
Mayor Wayne Brown lays out his plans in the lead-up to Christmas and what he hopes to achieve by the end of his second term. Photo / Sylvie Whinray.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has a list he wants to tick off before Christmas, including getting back on the tennis court after hurting an ankle.
“That’s really important to me,” said the mayor, who was back sweeping up the crumbs yesterday at the West End Tennis Club, where he playstennis and where he hosted a party to celebrate a second term.
Speaking to the Herald from his office at council headquarters yesterday, Brown reflected on the new makeup of the council, which includes five fresh faces, laid out his priorities in the run-up to Christmas, and sketched where he wants to take the city before stepping down in 2028.
On Saturday, the often blunt and combative engineer stormed home to win a second term, comfortably beating his main challenger, Kerrin Leoni, by about 90,000 votes.
Brown said that apart from Victoria Short, who stood on his Fix Auckland ticket, and John Gillon (North Shore), he barely knew the three other new faces, Matt Winiata (Manurewa-Papakura), Bo Burns (Howick), and Sarah Paterson-Hamlin (Whau).
Wayne Brown was delighted with Victoria Short (right), unseating one of the two Albany councillors. Photo / Jason Dorday
He plans to meet each one of them over the coming days and thinks the new council is a “little bit better” than last term.
By this, he meant he was pleased to see Short unseat one of the long-standing “Albanians”, Wayne Walker, and welcomed the defeat of two-time mayoral candidate and “keyboard warrior” Craig Lord, who lost to Paterson-Hamlin in Whau. As for Gillon, he said he plans to work with him, despite finding him “a bit negative”.
“The public voted for me because, unlike governments, they know where they are going,” Brown said.
There would not be any surprises, said Brown, whose focus over the coming months would be on trying to understand what Auckland Transport actually does, “so I can fix it”.
“It’s like a black box. Answers come out of AT all wrong, and no one in there can tell me how they got to those answers. I will continue asking questions and getting stupid answers until I get good answers.”
Wayne Brown wants to focus on fixing Auckland Transport in the run-up to Christmas. Photo / Dean Purcell
Another early focus for Brown is pressing ahead with the Tech Alliance, bringing together the public and private sectors to attract capital and boost productivity, which Brown said could bypass lengthy council delays.
“I want to plan for really good offshore trips next year, so the tier two and three firms of Auckland can really benefit. You have to give them a bit of time to prepare. You can’t just say we’re going to China next month.
“The Government tends to do things like that. We will all rush off, and it’s all about the Prime Minister. This isn’t all about me when we go over there. It’s about Auckland businesses making use of me,” he said.
Richard Hills is doing such a good job as chair of planning and will keep his job, says Wayne Brown. Photo / Corey Fleming
There’s also what Brown called a coronation later this month, when councillors get sworn in at the Auckland Town Hall, and the “bollocks of setting up committees”, giving little away on that front other than “Richard Hills will still run planning because he does such a good job”.
Brown also plans to hand over plans for a bed levy to fund events to the Deputy Mayor, Desley Simpson, who, he said, is keen to take it up and has close connections to the National-led Government.
Asked what he hoped to achieve by the end of his second term, Brown said his priorities included embedding a businesslike approach to council spending, fostering a culture of efficient service, and encouraging Aucklanders to focus more on the city’s future rather than daily frustrations with Auckland Transport.
“And we will be more of an international trading city than we are.
“I know the council will go on forever and there will be more mayors and more councillors, but this is a three-year project. This is my project.”
