Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has told a prominent lobby group supporter to “f*** off” after a request for him to sign its “Ratepayer Protection Pledge”.
The pledge is an initiative of the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance (ARA), a group set up by the Taxpayers’ Union.
A spokesperson for Brown’s re-election campaign has called the request a “PR stunt”.
The ARA asked its supporters to write to Brown demanding he sign the pledge, which it claims “hundreds of incumbent and prospective mayors around New Zealand have done”.
Brown received an ARA email with the headline, “Is Wayne Brown planning a rates blow-out?”
He responded with a two-word reply: “F*** off”.
Brown has been on leave today. In relation to his response to the ARA, a spokesperson for his re-election campaign told the Herald that the mayor “wished to be unambiguous after being bombarded by their PR stunt emails. Their so-called pledge is unrealistic and meaningless”.
Brown “directed his expletive at the idea of a rates blow-out”, he said.
The response follows comments Brown made in a Herald interview over the weekend, in which he said he had been hearing “such a lot of drivel” on the campaign trail, from candidates and others calling him “corrupt”.
“I was just thinking it was really unpleasant,” he said, “and it informs nothing.”
He added that the council’s annual plan was three inches thick and full of information about how and why the council spent its budget.
“Everything you need to know is in there. They just don’t read it.”
The Taxpayers’ Union and the ARA have both been asked for comment.
Auckland Council’s residential rates rose by an average 5.8% this financial year, which runs from July to June. Brown has said many times that this is the lowest rates rise of any major city in the country.
In the next financial year, rates are scheduled to rise by a further 7.9%, largely to cover expected costs associated with opening the City Rail Link.
Adopting this rates decision for public consultation in a 2026-27 annual plan will be the first big job of the new council. It will meet in November after being sworn in on October 30, after the postal-ballot election that ends next Saturday.
After next year, according to the 10-year budget contained in the long-term plan, rates rises will fall back to 3.5%. This plan will be refreshed in 2026.
Despite this, Sam Warren of the ARA says, “Wayne Brown likes to frame himself as a ratepayer hero. He talks the talk, butwon’t walk the walk ... Unless [he] changes tack, he’ll be delivering the highest-ever rates hike for the Super City. He should be swearing about that.”
If Brown is re-elected, his office will be charged with drafting both the new annual plan and the long-term plan, but decisions on the budgets and all other matters in them will be made by the full council.
Brown declined to sign the ARA pledge in 2022, saying at the time that he would keep rates as low as possible but would not be bound by artificial restrictions.
Another reason the mayor has previously given for not signing the ARA pledge relates to unelected representatives. The pledge requires its signatories to oppose the presence of unelected people with voting rights on decision-making bodies.
In Auckland, this refers to Houkura, the Independent Māori Statutory Board, which was set up by Parliament in 2010.
Houkura has voting members on several council committees, including two on the big policy and planning committee and the transport, resources and infrastructure committee.
Houkura is not represented on the governing body of the council, which is its supreme decision-making body. Auckland Council does not have Māori wards.
Brown supports Houkura. In 2023, he abstained on a vote to introduce Māori wards.
Simon Wilson is an award-winning senior writer covering politics, the climate crisis, transport, housing, urban design and social issues, with a focus on Auckland. He joined the Herald in 2018.