Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and challenger Kerrin Leoni.
Photo: RNZ
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and challenger Kerrin Leoni discussed intensification, golfing and earthquakes at a rare appearance together on Friday.
About 200 people packed out Grey Power North Shore’s candidates event in Northcote.
Brown and Leoni did not debate against each other, but were each given 10 minutes to speak, before taking questions from an audience of fired-up pensioners.
Councillor Leoni went first. In her address, she said Brown had not been accessible enough as mayor.
“Our city needs strong leadership, and someone who is actually going to be accountable to Aucklanders and find that trust again to turn up when times are tough,” she said.
“We need to be visible when there are floods, when we have rate hikes in the city, to explain why they’re happening. That’s the kind of leader I would be.”
She criticised Brown for only attending a small number of events for mayoral candidates, when she had been to 14.
“If we are going to take on the most important job in the city, it’s our responsibility to get out to every part of the community.”
An audience member asked Leoni if she supported a replacement plan to meet the government’s housing intensification expectations, building 10-15-storey high-rises around public transport hubs in some central city areas, which the council will vote on next week.
She said she supported a “phased approach” and was looking into options to meet the government’s target of a maximum capacity of two million homes in Auckland.
“I fully support intensification in the city. Reports that have been going out about me recently saying that I don’t are absolutely incorrect.
“My concern has been around whether we would consider something like a staged approach.”
The audience had to correct Leoni on how many homes the government wanted to build – she initially said it was 20 million.
Leoni said she would bring back the council’s environment committee, which she said Brown disestablished.
When Brown took to the podium, he drew several laughs from the crowd.
“It’s nice to be amongst a demographic in which I fit in quite nicely,” he said.
Brown spent most of his allotted speaking time discussing his achievements, including redeveloping the Karanga Plaza Pool on Auckland’s waterfront.
“I built Brownie’s free pool over in front of the Park Hyatt Hotel. It cost 200-grand, as opposed to $75 million for a pool in Avondale.
“They all said you can’t do it, it’s wonderful. It’s used by kids from all over the city and grown-ups.
“There were questions about the water quality, and I looked and saw fish swimming, so I dived in, and frightened a few fish and old ladies who were watching. I want to do more of those.”
He said he would also continue to pressure the government to introduce a bed-night levy for Auckland, despite it being ruled out several times.
“Some of the MPs who were against that said, ‘We’re worried about the cost-of-living crisis’. People who face the cost-of-living crisis don’t have $500 to go watch Taylor Swift at Eden Park or a rugby league game, nor do they stay in hotels.”
He shut down pleas from the crowd to preserve nine holes at Takapuna Golf Course, which is about to become a water catchment to mitigate flooding risk.
The mayor said the council spent $75,000 investigating an alternative solution to drain floodwater into the nearby Shoal Bay, put forward by the golf course.
He said it was determined to be more expensive than the council’s plan and the NZ Transport Agency would not conisder having a pressure pipe under the motorway.
“We were forced to spend 75-grand to look at that. I’m an engineer, and I took one look at that and said, ‘That’s nuts’, and for $75,000, it was proven to be nuts.
“Those few golfers who play the 18 holes, go around twice!”
He said a $20 million offer from retailer Golf Warehouse to redevelop the area was the best option for the community.
Answering questions on intensification, he staunchly supported increasing housing around City Rail Link stations, which will open in 2026. He said people should not worry about high rises popping up everywhere.
“I totally support intensification along transport corridors. We just spent $6 billion on this blimmin train track, I want people to live there.
“We need more people living in the city. One of the things that has been holding that back is the seismic rules.”
He said the government would next week announce that seismic regulations no longer apply to Auckland, allowing empty offices in the city centre to be more easily converted to apartments.
“We haven’t had an earthquake in Auckland for 120,000 years, that was when man was walking out of Africa.”
He said a volcanic eruption was more likely, but hard to prepare for.
“There’s one coming, hopefully at the end of our lives, and we’ll be gone before it comes.”
Brown and Leoni were the only two invited by North Shore Grey Power for the mayoral candidates part of their event. Twelve candidates are standing in the city’s mayoral election, with voting closing on 11 October.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.