Wayne Brown has stormed home to win a second term as Mayor of Auckland, comfortably beating his main challenger, Kerrin Leoni.
Leoni was quick to stick the boot in saying she was “really concerned” about the next three years under Brown. She also said “mainstream media” had not given her as much coverage as opponents - despite not turning up to a debate hosted by the Herald last week.
Progress results show Brown secured 146,642 votes - about 90,000 clear of Leoni, who has received 56,612.
Third place, based on the provisional results, is Ted Johnston, an independent candidate, with 21,661 votes.
Brown is celebrating his win this evening at a private event for about 100 supporters, friends and family at the West End Tennis Club at Coxs Bay in Westmere.
Those present include his wife Toni, son Sean and the new councillor for Albany, Victoria Short, who stood under his Fix Auckland ticket.
Earlier, he addressed media at Karanga Plaza on Auckland’s Wynyard Quarter this afternoon with Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson.
He said his focus was on improving transport, roadworks and the level of construction in the city. He also said he was determined to lift Auckland’s ability to improve the economy.
“I think the finances are in pretty good condition now.
“Now that we’ve got in place the 10 rules on how we spend money the waste will go away. They’ll be less dumb stuff.”
Progress results include votes received up until yesterday evening. They do not include special votes or votes received this morning.
Preliminary results will be announced on Monday. They include votes received today, but special votes are still not included.
Final results and official results include all votes, including special votes. They will be released by Friday, October 17.
Leoni addressed media this afternoon at Brick Lane in New Lynn after conceding to Brown.
Leoni said she was “really concerned” about Brown having another three years as mayor, citing that people and organisations had approached her about accountability and transparency.
“I’m concerned about the leadership of Auckland under Wayne Brown, and that’s why I put my name up. But obviously, Aucklanders have made their choice.“
She said she was disappointed at the low voter turnout. As of yesterday, Auckland’s turnout was 23.1%, which is 6% less than 2022’s turnout on the eve before the close of voting.
She said in her view, most Aucklanders did not know the candidate options.
”I think that there has been a real let-down from mainstream media around the ability to run very good reporting from that perspective on national TV, to keep Aucklanders up to date with what’s going on. And I think that’s actually reflected in the numbers of the [voter] turnout.
“We’ve only been on national TV twice. And when you look at the previous election, there were times that at least the top three people, Leo Molloy, Efeso Collins, and Wayne Brown, were on TV at least two or three times a week.“
Last week, Leoni pulled out of a scheduled debate at the Herald, just minutes before the debate was due to begin.
Her campaign manager Sharon Jensen emailed the Herald to advise of the withdrawal, but gave no reason at the time. She then advised that Leoni opted instead for “prioritising her time to prepare for a major “Get Out the Vote event at Aotea Square tomorrow”.
Referring to Wayne Brown’s comments earlier today, that he felt Leoni had been personal about him in her campaign, she said she thought it was “actually really clean”.
“Every time I made a comment about him [Brown] not showing up to debates, that was factual information.
”I think, you know, everything that we shared or I shared from my part in terms of the campaign, was based on fact.“
Leoni said she would take a break for a couple of months following her defeat to think about what she will do next.
“I’ve got a degree and two master’s, so it’s beneficial that I’m able to always find work and look at that.“
He said it was “heartening” to receive the result, labelling it an endorsement from the city for his policies.
He said he was here to “finish the job that I’ve started” and was “relieved and humbled by the fact that I’ve got an overwhelming support.”
“I haven’t quite finished everything I’ve set out to fix.
“I’m looking forward to getting my hands on AT. It’s taken me three years.
“The most important thing now is to take full advantage of taking control of Auckland Transport.
He said its focus should be on public transport.
He said Auckland’s “biggest opponent” was Wellington.
“They need to let us have the ability to make our own decisions.”
Brown said his manifesto will include a clear list of things he wants central government to do.
He said there was an exciting year ahead with the City Rail Link due to open, along with the International Convention Centre.
He also referred to the “biggest planning change in the history of the city” - in reference to the new density rules the council was about to consult on. Brown said putting more housing on main arterial routes was “eminently sensible”.
“We will start putting [houses] where people should be.
“This is the biggest city, it’s going to look like the biggest city and people will be proud to be here.”
Asked if he would consider another tilt at the mayoralty in three years’ time, Brown said he would fulfil the next term.
“I think people have voted for me again because they know what they’re going to get. There is no surprises. I do have a clear direction and I will continue and finish it,” said Brown.
Brown said the campaign Kerrin Leoni ran against him was “a bit personal”.
“Efeso [Collins] and I never ever spoke badly of each other and became friends, but that hasn’t happened this time.”
Leoni posted on Facebook, “Thank you to my whole campaign team. Wayne Brown has won the election with 150k votes and I have 50k with Ted Johnson coming in third with 20k votes.
“It’s been a great campaign and congratulations to all those that have won their seats across our amazing city.”
In a speech to supporters at his evening event Brown started by saying the gutter press are recordin. He thanked his family, friends and all of the communities of Auckland for their generous support.
He also thanked the Albanian beater, Victoria Short, who took one of the two Albany seats off Wayne Walker. Brown has dubbed Walker and the other Albany councillor, John Watson, the Albanians.
Brown’s victory is not without setbacks. His tactic of fielding Fix Auckland candidates to unseat four councillors he doesn’t like, and to contest one of the two vacant North Shore ward seats, was only partially successful.
However, the race is tight in the Albany ward, where Victoria Short has been provisionally elected with 12,862 votes. Incumbents John Watson and Wayne Walker are vying closely for the second seat. Watson has 12,299 votes while Walker has 11,851 votes.
In the Manukau ward, long-serving Labour councillor Alf Filipaina and his Labour colleague Lotu Fuli beat the Fix It candidates Luke Mealamu and Vicky Hau.
The spare North Shore seat was won by John Gillon, chair of Kaipātiki Local Board for eight years. Danielle Grant, who has spent 12 years on the Kaipātiki Local Board, was unsuccessful as a Fix Auckland candidate.
Richard Hills, touted as a future mayoral candidate on the left, won the other North Shore seat.
In other vacancies on the governing body, the new faces are Bo Burns, elected to the Howick ward, Matt Winiata in Manurewa-Papakura, and Labour’s Sarah Paterson-Hamlin in Whau.
The other sitting councillors re-elected were Julie Fariey and Christine Fletcher (Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa), Andy Baker (Franklin), Maurice Williamson (Howick), Daniel Newman (Manurewa-Papakura), Josephine Bartley (Maungakiekie-Tāmaki), Shane Henderson, Ken Turner (Waitākere), Mike Lee (Waitematā and Gulf) Desley Simpson (Ōrākei), and Greg Sayers (Rodney) were elected unopposed.
The mayor and 20 councillors will be sworn in at an official ceremony in the Auckland Town Hall on October 31.
Desley Simpson, said, “Congrats boss,” as she arrived at the press conference.
Brown jokingly observed she was in the typical “subtle colours”, as she had come straight from the Diwali festival in Auckland’s city centre and was draped in a bright orange top and green scarf.
Simpson said she believed Brown made the biggest “transformational change” since the super city came into being in 2010.
She cited the Auckland Future Fund and CCO reform.
“He has made a huge leap in these changes and now people want to see those changes embedded over the next three years.”
Simpson said the next three years would be a “dot the i’s and cross the t’s kind of term”.
“I look forward to sharing the role with the mayor.”
In a pre-election interview with the Herald’s Simon Wilson, the 79-year-old leader of the country’s largest city said he wanted one more shot “to finish the things I started”.
They include: to fix Auckland’s infrastructure, stop wasting money, get Auckland moving, make the most of Waitematā Harbour, and take control of council organisations.
“The one that I’m most interested in is the AT [Auckland Transport] thing. And I’m only just getting my hands on it…and also the culture of not wasting money is starting to take hold. I think three more years and they’ll stop that, but I won’t do any more after this, that’s for sure, Brown said.
For Leoni, her single term on the Auckland Council as the Labour councillor for Whau is over. She stood as an independent candidate for the mayoralty and did not contest the Whau seat.
Brown won the mayoralty in 2022 as an outsider, seeing off two potential rivals on the right, restaurateur Leo Molloy and Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck, and the left’s Efeso Collins.
He adopted a blunt and combative style early in his first term and faced criticism for his response to Auckland’s devastating storms in early 2023. Since then, however, he has grown into the role and made progress on his “Fix Auckland” agenda.
Looking back on the 2023 floods, Brown said: “I wasn’t particularly well prepared. The council wasn’t particularly well prepared. Auckland Emergency Management wasn’t well prepared. The city wasn’t well prepared. I’ve learned a lot.”
Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson, who considered a tilt at the mayoralty but chose instead to be Brown’s running mate on his ‘Fix Auckland’ ticket, has been re-elected unopposed and will retain the deputy role.
There was a last-minute flurry of voting before the polls closed today at noon. This morning’s votes were secured and delivered to the Election Services for counting. These votes will contribute to the preliminary results to be announced on Monday.
Auckland Council’s General Manager Governance and Engagement, Lou-Ann Ballantyne, was disappointed with the rate of Auckland’s participation despite the council’s efforts to make voting as accessible as possible.
“Anecdotally, we’ve heard people didn’t know who to vote for. And typically, when voters are unsure about candidates or are happy with the status quo, they are likely to abstain from voting, and this could be a reason for the decrease in turnout, said Ballantyne.
“There is no straightforward solution to get more Aucklanders voting,” Ballantyne said.
In 2022, Brown won the mayoral race with a total of 181,810 votes ahead of Efeso Collins by 57,008.
Mayor
Wayne Brown
Wards:
Albany: Victoria Short* 12,862, John Watson 12,299
Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa: Julie Fairey 11,795, Christine Fletcher 12,401
Franklin: Andy Baker 9,289
Howick: Bo Burns* 10,222, Maurice Williamson 9,801
Manukau: Alf Filipaina 10,826, Lotu Fuli 9,611
Manurewa-Papakura: Daniel Newman 12,965, Matt Winiata 10,927
Maungakiekie-Tāmaki: Josephine Bartley 6,117
North Shore: John Gillon* 12,976, Richard Hills 15,682
Ōrākei: Desley Simpson, elected unopposed
Rodney: Greg Sayers, elected unopposed
Waitākere: Shane Henderson 10,715, Ken Turner 6,975
Waitematā and Gulf: Mike Lee 6,145
Whau: Sarah Paterson-Hamlin* 3,908
*New councillors
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