Maurice Williamson has announced he is seeeking a seat on Auckland Council in the Howick ward. Photo / File
Maurice Williamson has announced he is seeeking a seat on Auckland Council in the Howick ward. Photo / File
Former National cabinet minister Maurice Williamson has announced he is standing for a seat on Auckland Council to "break the back of the spending monster".
In a speech this evening to the Howick Rotary Club, Williamson said he will contest one of the two Howick seats, an area that includesthe Pakuranga electorate he represented for 30 years as an MP.
Williamson, who last year returned to his home in east Auckland from being New Zealand consul-general in Los Angeles, said it was never his intention to stand for local government but public pressure made him rethink that position.
The 71-year-old joins former North Shore mayor and Auckland councillor George Wood, who at age 75 is having another crack at one of the two North Shore seats on the council.
Former Auckland councillor George Wood is seeking a seat on Auckland Council in the North Shore ward. Photo / Dean Purcell.
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Another former councillor in his seventies, Mike Lee, is also thinking of contesting the Waitemata and Gulf seat against Pippa Coom, who beat him by 319 votes in 2019.
The three politicians are unhappy with the direction of the Super City under Mayor Phil Goff and the so-called "A" team.
Goff is stepping down after two terms at October's local body elections, leaving the "A" team to get behind Manukau councillor Efeso Collins, who has the backing of the Labour and Green parties.
Williamson told the Herald he is only standing for one term and for one reason only, and that is to break the back of "the spending monster" and see a return to fiscal discipline.
"I am approached on an almost daily basis by ratepayers who are seriously concerned about the performance of the Auckland Council.
"Rates just keep on going up, as does debt, yet we seem to be getting less from the Council by way of core services," said Williamson.
He said the promises when the Super City was set up in 2010 was that amalgamation of eight councils would see huge efficiency gains, rationalisation, significant cost savings and fewer staff.
Former Auckland councillor Mike Lee is considering standing for council. Photo / Michael Craig
The reality, he said, was the opposite with rates rising by more than 150 per cent in real terms, a tripling of liabilities and debt servicing of more than $1 million a day.
"Far from rationalising the number of staff, Auckland Council has experienced a massive increase in overall staff numbers, with at least one in every four of those employees paid over $100,000 a year.
"There has to be a day of reckoning. No organisation can just keep spending money that it hasn't got and racking up debt," Williamson said.
Williamson plans to stand alongside sitting councillor Sharon Stewart. They will present a formidable challenge to the other Howick councillor, Paul Young, who has grown closer to Goff and his team this term.
