At the end of the speech, in a kitchen area, the man said he asked Brown: \u201cWhat gives you the right to speak to people in the way you do?\u201d <\/p>\n
The man claims Brown then \u201clost it\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cA glass was broken. People who were there dealt with it, and Brown left\u201d. <\/p>\n
The claims are different to Brown\u2019s version of events. <\/p>\n
When Brown was initially phoned for comment at 7:30pm on Thursday, he said: \u201cNothing happened, mate – nothing to talk about,\u201d before hanging up. <\/p>\n
But shortly before 10pm, Brown\u2019s office provided a statement and said that an attendee, who Brown didn\u2019t know, \u201ctook a swing\u201d at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mayor refutes any allegation that he initiated a physical altercation. This was someone being physically threatening and aggressive, who took a swing at him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked for a response to the man\u2019s claims today, Brown\u2019s office said he stood by his earlier statement. <\/p>\n
The man says Brown\u2019s recollection has been twisted 180 degrees.<\/p>\n
Earlier today, the Herald reported comments from another attendee, who didn\u2019t witness the incident. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a bit of a spat between old blokes who have known each other for 50 years and had drunk a bit,\u201d they said on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
Another attendee, Kinser\u2019s campaign manager John Hanna, said he was at the event and in the kitchen at the time the man and Brown engaged.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not see that,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t remember anyone taking a swing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanna said he was among a group of people who were engaged in lively conversation in the kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were two old blokes chatting. There was a glass that broke but nothing to do with any aggression at all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if it was knocked by someone gesticulating, Hanna said: \u201cI talk with my hand as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his statement, Brown said he had noticed a rise in threatening behaviour, and linked it to lobby group the Auckland Ratepayers Alliance. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe threatening sentiment that has been stirred up by lobbying groups like the Auckland Ratepayers Alliance is problematic and needs to stop.\u201d <\/p>\n
In response, Auckland Ratepayers Association spokesman Josh van Veen said the claim was \u201cbizarre\u201d and police should investigate. <\/p>\n
\u201cViolence has no place in democracy. Police should investigate the alleged assault. Political disagreements must be settled through debate, not intimidation, and everyone should be able to participate in public life without fear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barry Soper ONZM is Newstalk ZB\u2019s senior political correspondent. Barry was ZB\u2019s political editor for many years after first joining the station and the press gallery in 1980. His best-selling book, One Last Question, Prime Minister, was published in 2026.<\/p>\n
Ethan Griffiths is a political reporter with Newstalk ZB, based in the Parliamentary Press Gallery. He joined NZME as a print journalist in 2020, previously working as an Open Justice reporter in the Bay of Plenty and Wellington, and as a general reporter in Whanganui.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the end of the speech, in a kitchen area, the man said he asked Brown: \u201cWhat gives…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1443,1117,58454,1975,51,44183,13912,6256,1550,2562,40371,9637,42,8241,1446,10934,3556,43,153167,1118,4762,14904,40,38,41,39,3542,1316,102],"class_list":["post-530697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-about","tag-accused","tag-altercation","tag-at","tag-auckland","tag-behaviour","tag-broken","tag-brown","tag-centre","tag-claims","tag-fundraiser","tag-glass","tag-headlines","tag-himself","tag-making","tag-mayor","tag-national","tag-news","tag-nuisance","tag-of","tag-party","tag-questioned","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-wayne","tag-when","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}