Mayor Wayne Brown is having a pretty good time these days. Photo / Dean Purcell
This is a transcript of Simon Wilson’s weekly newsletter Love this City – exploring the ideas and events, the reality and the potential of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Last night was a big night for Auckland councillors. In their best big and tucker, in front of family, friends, their community whanau and a lot of council staff, in the lovely old town hall, they were inaugurated into their roles.
At the same event three years ago, several councillors wore iridescent oranges, reds and pinks and Waitākere’s Shane Henderson was so excited, he punched the air and shouted, “I’m pretty happy!”
This year, nobody got that carried away but there was still quite a bit of visual exuberance. Maungakiekie’s Jo Bartley had the best moves – yes, there was music – although half a dozen other councillors tried at least a little bit of hip swaying.
Lotu Fuli from Manukau wore a beautiful coat of very many colours, while Mt Eden’s Christine Fletcher wore electric blue and Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson opted for her trademark pink.
But one of the theme’s of this year’s election results was a generational changing of the guard. For the first time, baby boomers are a minority on council, and this was represented in a visual metaphor: Simpson is no longer the Queen of Pink.
New councillor Bo Burns, from Howick, robbed her of that crown, wearing a dress of even hotter pink and with silver cuffs at neck and wrists for good measure.
Simpson, to her credit, may not mind. She’s destined for a big role on council this term, as Mayor Wayne Brown focuses on the things that matter most to him and quietly cedes authority on much else to her. At least, there are signs that’s what will happen.
The mayor and all the councillors made their formal oaths of office in the languages of their choice.
Simpson, Julie Fairey, Shane Henderson, Richard Hills, Sarah Paterson-Hamlin and Matt Winiata did it in Te Reo and English. Bartley chose Samoan and English and Fuli opted for Samoan and Te Reo and English.
But it was new councillor Victoria Short, from Albany, who stole this part of the show. She has Kiribati heritage and announced her arrival with an oath of office in Kiribati, and then in English.
Our first Kiribati-New Zealand councillor. That’s quite a thing.
Everyone else stuck to English.
Only the mayor got to make a speech. Brown began by naming all 19 of the iwi authorities of Tāmaki Makaurau. Quite a list.
He said his election victory was “a message of hope for the rest of the country”, which was bold. And it was a message “for the people of South Howick. By which I mean Wellington.” That was funny.
He listed his five new priorities, which include “finishing the transport upgrade” so the network goes from “appalling to quite good”, having a sharper focus on economic growth, improving the city centre and getting a “city deal” with the Government, which probably means beneficial funding arrangements for big projects.
But the goal that stood out, to me, was his declaration that sprawl has to stop. “Greenfields other than Drury are not going to happen,” he said. “I want an efficient green city.”
Minister for Auckland Simeon Brown, an advocate for sprawl along with much of the Cabinet, was sitting right there in the audience.
Wayne Brown likes to say he hasn’t changed. But this is not the language he would have dreamed of using three years ago. This new council term, with a general election next year, could be quite the reckoning.
In 2022, Brown finished his first inauguration speech by saying, “Now it’s time for a beer.” Last night, he was more conventional, although he’s still doing things his way. And he wants the city and the country to fall into line. “It’s a privilege and an honour,” he said, referring to his re-election. “Now let’s get on with it.”
Fair to say, though, that returning councillor John Watson may not be quite so keen. He and Brown rarely see eye to eye and last night Watson declined to shake the mayor’s hand after making his oath. Instead, he leaned over and made the hang loose sign.
This item replaces the preview of the inauguration published in the Love this City newsletter on Friday.
At first blush, it looks like Auckland gets off lightly in the flood hazard analysis published this week by Earth Sciences NZ (ESNZ, formerly Niwa). But the data hides a deeper truth.
Flooding is the city’s number-one natural hazards risk. It’s more likely to cause damage in low-income suburbs, which were usually built with poor stormwater and other flood-mitigation infrastructure.
But as Cyclone Gabrielle starkly revealed, the devastation can be far wider. More well-heeled suburbs like Milford and wealthy clifftop homeowners in Takapuna will attest to that.
And yet, however bad it can be in Auckland, it’s more widespread almost everywhere else. Especially on the West Coast, where a third of the population are already vulnerable to flooding. The ESNZ report looks to the future and shows this is also likely in Hawke’s Bay, with even a small rise in global warming.
In Nelson, Canterbury, Marlborough, Gisborne and Tasman, around a quarter of the populations are vulnerable.
However, while the Government has made it clear homeowners and local authorities should not expect automatic bailouts after a natural disaster, voters in almost all those areas have their own ideas.
Most of them have just tossed out mayors who introduced rates rises to pay for infrastructure to help manage flooding. That includes West Coast, which is not only the most vulnerable part of the country, it’s also, according to ESNZ, the least prepared. And it seems determined to stay that way.
This is not the case with Auckland. Thanks to the consistent policies of the last five councils, Auckland’s steady rates rises have allowed relatively significant investment in flood management. The problem isn’t solved – far from it – but it is recognised and addressed, and despite the usual “No rates rises!” clamour, voters have been supportive.
Auckland is now the region second-least at risk of flooding (after Taranaki). ESNZ says about 11% of the population is at risk, and if we get to 3C of warming (on the 1986-2005 average), that will not rise much above 12%.
But it’s not really good news. Statistics NZ puts our current population at 1.8 million, which means almost 200,000 people are vulnerable to flooding now. If the population rises to 2.5 million over the time it takes to get 3C warmer, 300,000 Aucklanders will be at risk.
Small percentages, but still very large numbers.
That’s a stark contrast to the West Coast, where Stats NZ says the population is only 34,300 now and quite likely to fall a little over the next few decades. That puts about 12,000 Coasters at risk of flooding: the same as the population of the Auckland suburb of Sandringham, who are also at risk.
The new Auckland Council will be considering the extent – and budget commitments – of flood management next year, when it begins to update its 10-year plan.
Auckland has several residencies for artists and writers, some of them based in an artist’s former home. McCahon and Shadbolt in Titirangi, Sargeson in Takapuna all spring to mind. Now the family of Pat and Gil Hanly want to add their old home, a beautiful brick-and-kauri villa in a mature tropical forest on Walter Rd in Mt Eden, right on the edge of the city centre.
Pat Hanly was one of our foremost post-war artists and Gil is a renowned photographer. She was beautifully profiled not so long ago by my colleague Kim Knight.
Both the Hanlys were prominent in protest movements, especially the anti-nuclear cause in the Pacific, and Gil carried that through with the women’s movement, the Springbok Tour, Māori issues and so much more.
He died in 2004, while she’s 91 now and retired. I didn’t know him but I have been lucky enough to know her. She always seemed to be there: at Waitangi, at protests up and down Queen St and elsewhere, and indefatigably at the Auckland Writers Festival. Wry smile, ready to chat, camera poised, always working that great trick of the determined documentarian: to seem deferential even as she noseyed her way in to get the shot. Hundreds of thousands of them.
The garden – a forest of nikau, wisteria and a great riot of other foliage and flowers – is hers. Planted, tended and extensively photographed, because that’s also what Gil did, becoming an expert garden photographer with several books to her name.
Hanly House is proposed as a different kind of residency. Partly it’s because of the central location: others tend to be in the outer suburbs or further afield. There’s one in Karekare, another on Waiheke. The council also operates an artist-in-residency scheme in its regional parks, with recent holders based at Aotea/Great Barrier, Āwhitu, Tāwharanui and Anawata.
But the much bigger difference comes from the scale of the project. The Hanly residency will be up to three years in length, with free rent and no stipend, for an artist to live and work in the villa and its garden.
A trust has been formed and they’re talking now with Te Papa, Auckland Art Gallery, the art schools of Elam and Ilam, and local schools. They want “Gil’s Garden” and the Hanly home “to operate as a social hub, gallery and museum as well as an education and research space for New Zealand art history, and a unique supported urban artists’ residency and studio for emerging contemporary artists locally and from across the world”.
This “ambition”, as the trust puts it, was launched in the garden a couple of Sundays ago. They need money, of course, and welcome philanthropists from the very small to the very serious. There’s more here.
The project has significance beyond the worlds of art and photography. Walter Rd is near the Kingsland Railway Station and subject to zoning changes that will bring greater housing density to the area. In light of this, the trust is also keen for Gil’s Garden to become a pocket park for the community.
Density near the train stations is great, but it needs greenery too. Gil’s Garden is large for a residential section – a third of an acre in the old way of measuring – and has great potential as a public space.
Preserving the urban ngahere is essential for doing density well. Here’s an opportunity to show how that can work.
The “serious business of having fun” is what they called it: an evening of provocations, organised by the council’s public programme of talks and discussions, called Auckland Conversations. They asked me to moderate.
This time, it was about how to get more playtime into the city. For kids and for everyone who’s kids adjacent. And, I guess, for everyone who doesn’t think of themselves in that way but possibly might like it if they did.
“Swings in the trees,” said Jacquelyn Collins, referring to parks and other such public spaces, possibly including Queen St.
Collins is the “play portfolio lead” at the council. It’s a slightly overblown title for someone with a staff of one, but her intent is clear: Collins is out to change the city, one swing, one box of crayons, one ukulele player at a time. She sometimes signs her emails, “Your penguin pal.”
I suggested to her, thinking of the giant panda sculpture in a Chinese city, that public art should be more fun. “I’m on it,” she replied.
And she knew all about the tunnel slide outside a railway station in the Dutch city of Utrecht. If you want to, you can walk down the steps into the concourse, like a normie. Or you can slide down. Much funner.
But no, nothing like that is planned for the City Rail Link.
The “serious business of having fun” is a question for cities. Everyone knows loneliness and anxiety are on the rise, along with phone addiction, being “time poor”, making sure every waking second is organised, getting stuck in traffic, and frayed tempers. Maybe play is the answer.
The keynote was given by Nikki Penetito-Hemara (Ngāti Ranginui, Ngāti Kahungunu, Te Whakatōhea, Ngāti Porou), who does a superfun line in games and exploration with an outfit called Kori Collaborative, all derived from the riches of te ao Māori.
She’s also a consultant to the “Oi” Collective, a name you’re meant to shout whenever you say it.
Other speakers talked about play making workers happier and more productive, play supporting older people stay connected to their communities, play helping with mental health, emotional resilience and physical wellbeing. You’d hardly think these things need saying, except they’re so easy to forget. Play helps you thrive.
Collins describes play as “stuff we do mostly just for fun”, including playground use, nature play, free play, creative and imaginative play and casual recreation. Hobbies, she suggests, are what adults might call play.
Judy Blakey, a community adviser and “age-friendly advocate” who was one of the other speakers, talked about the pleasures and rewards of intergenerational play and play for older people.
That thing when you pass on skills and knowledge. When you lose track of time because of the fun you’re having. When you get creative. When you sharpen up your wits, have a good time with other people, feel connected, feel satisfied, maybe even feel joy.
Kicking a ball around and beach cricket are play; organised sports are sport, which is different. Work can be play, or at least, if you can play at work, Collins says, that can make you more productive.
In April and May this year, 19 of the 21 local boards adopted play plans, which map out ways that they can invest in play for all ages, beyond the building of mainstream playgrounds. The council budget for play $40,000 two years ago; now it’s $785,000. If you want to see a magnificent new playspace, check out the climbing “frame” in Hayman’s Park, Manukau.
Maybe business associations like Heart of the City and the Newmarket group could organise for some of the empty shops to become playpens? The just-launched free-ride-in-a-retro-taxi promotion, linking Ponsonby, Newmarket, Takapuna and the central city, is a great fun idea. More please!
Kia kawea tātou e te tākaro, says Collins. Let us be taken by the spirit of play.
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