Sam Warren from Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance with Ryan Bridge on Herald NOW.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s inbox was bombarded by 1500 emails from a lobby group to sign a pledge on rates that sparked a profane two-word response.
Brown made headlines yesterday when he told the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance (ARA) to ‘f*** off’ in response to supporters asking him to signits “Ratepayer Protection Pledge” to keep rates down.
The mayor was sent an ARA email with the headline, “Is Wayne Brown planning a rates blow-out?”, to which he sent his blunt response.
A note from the Taxpayers Union and Mayor Wayne Brown's response to the Auckland Ratepayers Alliance about its "Ratepayers Protection Pledge".
Speaking to Herald NOW’s Ryan Bridge, the ARA’s Sam Warren said “last time he checked”, around 1500 emails were sent to Brown asking him to sign the pledge.
Explaining the bombardment, Warren said: “There’s a lot of people in Auckland obviously wanting this, and he [Brown] wasn’t proactively reaching out for the pledge.”
“He knew that it existed. That’s fine, but really, I encouraged a lot of our Auckland Ratepayer Alliance supporters to contact the mayor and let them know it’s what they expect from a candidate.”
In response, Bridge said, “I think most people would go, ‘if someone sent me 1500 emails, I’d probably tell them to eff off too’.”
Speaking on Brown’s response, Warren said, “It’s water off a duck’s back really.
“He’s known as Mr Grumpy for a reason, and that’s fine. We’re just a bit disappointed he wouldn’t sign our pledge.”
Mayor Wayne Brown at the Auckland Council housing density zoning debate at Auckland Town Hall. Photo / Corey Fleming
He said the group wants a “better commitment” to keeping rates as low as possible.
“Next year, Auckland faces a 7.9% rates increase. That’s a record high for Auckland and it’s already on top of many different increases too. But Wayne wasn’t having a bar of it obviously, and frankly, I think Aucklanders really want him to sign up to it.”
Yesterday, a spokesperson for Brown’s re-election campaign called the request a “PR stunt”.
The spokesperson 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 mayor declined to sign the ARA pledge in 2022.
He said at the time that he would keep rates as low as possible but would not be bound by artificial restrictions.
Warren said the offer to sign the pledge is still open.
