‘I’m carrying on as if I will’: Auckland mayor considers second term

“I'm actually more popular in South Auckland than anywhere probably.”

That's Wayne Brown on where he believes his support base lies, ahead of next year's local body elections.

And the first-term supercity mayor isn’t ruling out another tilt at the top job.

“I don’t need to make that decision for ages. I won the last one only starting eight months before and this time, I’m just carrying on as if I will.

“I’m already well known, I probably won’t have to make that decision for another year.”

Adding that he’s not threatened by possible candidates that have cropped up, such as former National MP Paula Bennett, whose name he repeatedly mispronounced.

“Well, Paula Benefit’s [sic] got another job now so she’s probably not so desperate to do that.

“The NZ Herald ran a straw poll the other day on who would you vote for and it was me first, Simon Bridges second, and she was a distant third, so why would I worry about that?

“The track record of former failed politicians as mayors is appalling, that’s why I replaced one.”

Speaking to William Terite on 531pi’s Pacific Mornings, Brown wants people to judge him on his track record, and he believes he’s doing well.

“The press gets excited about Paula Benefit[sic] and that, but the public are quite rational.

"I'm getting a lot of wins on the board now. I am fixing things and I'm feeling quite confident about that, and the public seems to quite like the fact that I'm quite a practical sort of a guy."

Terite posed that another mayoral option could be Samoan media personality and comedian Oscar Kightley, who is also a member of the Henderson-Massey local board.

But Brown was quick to dismiss him as a serious challenger.

“Oscar and I are quite good mates actually and he may or may not do that. But the jokes would be good and he’s quite entertaining."

A rocky start

Brown is halfway through his term in Auckland’s top job, but his leadership was brought into question just three months into the role, when major flooding struck.

“It got off to a reasonably rocky start because I was blamed for the bad weather we got.

“I didn’t actually cause the bad weather," he said, before cheekily suggesting he should get the credit for the recent run of sunny days.

"Although I have produced and caused the wonderful day today, but no one’s thanked me for it.”

Four people died in the January 2023 floods on Auckland Anniversary weekend, prompting a government inquiry on the emergency response which found “emergency management processes were virtually non-existent” and “the lack of planning for the immediate response of a large-scale event exacerbated an already stressful situation”.

However Brown says his response was focussed on solutions.

“My response was excellent. I did all the engineering stuff and went out there and helped fix things up, but I didn’t cry, and I’m not an empathetic, hugging type of person.

“Everyone wanted love and help and all that stuff, I’m not good at that. But what I’m quite good at is actually fixing the pipes and drains and bridges and roads, and that’s what really counted.”

Traffic and water improvements in the pipeline

Auckland Council recently announced a new Local Water Done Well plan, which has the support of the new coalition government.

The model will allow council to borrow more money over a longer period of time to fund upgrades to water infrastructure.

The plan, which Brown proudly claims as his own, was pitched as an alternative to the previous government’s controversial Three Waters model.

“What Labour was trying to do was nuts. For a start it was too many waters, putting storm water in with water supply and sewerage treatment made no sense at all because the most important thing with stormwater is actually the road, so what were they going to do? Put that in a pipe?”

Another proposal on the cards is "time of use" or congestion charges during peak times on busy roads and onramps.

Brown says it should act as an incentive to delay non-urgent travel.

“If you’re a South Auckland tradie, of which I know dozens, and you’re heading out to your work and you’re stuck on the motorway, for another $5 you’d be quite happy to get there half an hour earlier.

“It’s a very good investment actually, it’s much better and cheaper and quicker and faster than building another bloody motorway which will just get blocked up.”

But Ōtara-Papatoetoe local board chair Apulu Reece Autagavaia says South Auckland will be “hit hard” by these charges, and questions whether the public transport system is reliable enough.

“A lot of families find it more economical to travel by car than through public transport.

“We're going to be the ones paying that congestion charge, not out of choice but because we're forced to do it.

“The (AT) hop card might be worthwhile for an individual, but when you add in a family of five, it does become more costly.”

Brown has a parting message for those who are questioning the proposal.

“We’ve got to the stage of becoming a nation of moaners. Any little fresh idea, and everyone goes, ‘ah, that’ll affect somebody who hasn’t got a job’.

“Well, they haven’t got a job. They don’t need to be on the road at 7 o-clock in the morning.”

Watch the full interview with Wayne Brown on Pacific Mornings: