Liam Dann, Simon Wilson and Fran O'Sullivan come together after the NZ Herald Auckland mayoral race live debate to discuss Efeso Collins and Wayne Brown's performance.
Video / NZ Herald
The top-polling candidates have set out their day-one priorities if they win the Auckland mayoralty - Efeso Collins nominating climate action and Wayne Brown understanding the council's finances.
Both candidates refused to name any advisers they plan to hire in the mayoral office in a live debate in the NZHerald newsroom today.
With a high percentage of Aucklanders reportedly still undecided, and only a week left until voting closes, the Labour-endorsed Manukau councillor and former Far North District Mayor made one of their last head-to-head pitches to voters.
In the debate, moderated by journalists Liam Dann, Fran O'Sullivan and Simon Wilson, Brown and Collins were questioned on issues like transport, infrastructure, rates and crime.
With virtually no time for the new mayor to get their feet under the table and present the first draft of next year's budget before Christmas, Sullivan wanted to know what their key day-one priorities are and who will be their advisers.
Collins listed his priority as climate, saying he is excited by the ambitious plan to drastically reduce transport emissions, electrifying the bus fleet and planting more public trees.
"I have a team around me, but I'm not going to announce who is in the team or will be deputy mayor. That's not important. We're presenting a vision for the city," he said.
Mayoral candidates Efeso Collins and Wayne Brown being quizzed by journalists at the NZ Herald debate. Photo / Alex Burton
Brown said his first job will be to know exactly where the money is, pointing out the price of Watercare's giant sewer pipe (costed at $1.2 billion) has not changed in 18 months.
"That's either very good or a problem coming," said Brown, who is equally unimpressed at a new cost for the $4.4b City Rail Link being kept under wraps.
He said he has a team of accountants poised and ready to go over the books, but like Collins, would not name names.
The Mayor of Auckland has a budget of $5.3 million to hire staff and run the mayoral office independently of the council bureaucracy. It is typically made up of political, financial and other advisers, plus communications and office staff. The most trusted adviser is the Chief of Staff, who acts as the go-between with senior council staff.
To a question from Dann on why either candidate was not committed to putting a ceiling on rates, Collins reiterated he will hold rates to 3.5 per cent in his first budget, which is the figure in the current 10-year budget.
But when it comes to setting a new 10-year budget in 2024, Collins said he will set out his own vision for the city and offer Aucklanders a choice of four levers to pay for it - rates, debt, efficiencies and delaying projects.
That's when Collins plans to introduce free public transport, expected to initially cost about $150m, rising to $500m a year by 2030.
Brown is making no promises on rates, saying "you can make a number that makes the hall feel happy", but there are a lot of financial unknowns, like the new cost of the City Rail Link.
"My commitment is to have a real tough look on costs … I want to have the minimum I can get away with," he said.
Wilson said a lot of people are hoping to hear the sentence "rates will not increase by more than the rate of inflation" - "are either of you prepared to say that?"
Brown: "What if you can't … inflation is going ape s***. I wouldn't even want to think of comparing it with inflation. That's awful."
Collins said there has to be a baseline on rates, but people need to think about the growth of the city, which will be home to 2.4 million people over the next 20 years.
