Bob Edlin: Mayor Brown misses the matter of ministerial accountability....

Mayor Brown misses the matter of ministerial accountability when he upbraids critics of Auckland’s Maori board

It’s a familiar line of argument – you denounce something as “Maori bashing”.

But Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has gone further and compared an Auckland City apple (or is it puha?) with a central government pear (or kumera).

Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Unsurprisingly, Wayne Brown might be a bully

I’m going to make a prediction that I’m fairly certain is going to bear out: no one is going to be shocked by reading in the Herald that Wayne Brown might be a bully.

This has kicked off again this week with a complaint from a new Auckland councillor, Bo Burns, that Auckland Council is so dysfunctional she has packed up and walked out of meetings twice because of behaviour she considered unacceptable. Then, the Herald dropped a much bigger piece expanding on all of this, featuring the accounts of multiple councillors who also complain and who then hone in on the mayor in particular.

David Farrar: Disgusting racism

RNZ reports:

Auckland mayor Wayne Brown referred to an RNZ staff member of Indian descent as “a Muslim terrorist” and commented on his beard as the man escorted him into the building for an interview.

Brown said the comments were a “fumbled attempt at humour”.

DTNZ: Wayne Brown to scrap council meeting lunches

Auckland’s mayor has ordered an end to ratepayer-funded lunches at full council meetings after scrutiny of a catering bill that reached $1.4 million in the past year and nearly $5 million over four years, though meeting lunches themselves accounted for a relatively small portion of that total.

Damien Grant: Why premiership of Luxon is floundering while Wayne Brown’s sailing back into office

Wayne Brown is funny. Perhaps entertaining is a better description and Aucklanders have embraced their straight-talking mayor, his quirky explainer videos and irreverent style.

It isn’t clear he’d remember how to tie a half-windsor if the need arose and maintains a grey half-beard in the Yassir Arafat style. He’s coarse in public and vulgar in private. He’s been mayor for three years and is running effectively unopposed for re-election.

Nick Clark: Bad vibrations

Future historians may seek to understand why early 21st century New Zealand struggled to get value from its infrastructure spending. They will need to look no further than Auckland's achievement in speed bump construction and subsequent destruction.

Bob Edlin: LGNZ chief to step down in August.............

LGNZ chief to step down in August – but some councils have already left (because it’s ‘far left’, a councillor says)

Local Government New Zealand President Sam Broughton paid tribute to Susan Freeman-Greene’s leadership after she announced she will be stepping down as chief executive at the end of August 2025

She has been in the job for almost five years.

Wayne Brown: Auckland CBD has a meth problem

In my lifetime, Auckland has never felt this unsafe. Crime is everywhere you look. As mayor, a lot of people are looking to me for leadership.

That is why my office recently launched a new approach to crime. The approach has seen more safety patrols to deter bad behaviour, but also a focus on addressing the causes of crime.

Cam Slater: Wayne Brown to Auckland Transport: Shaddap You Face

Auckland Mayor, Wayne Brown, has channelled Joe Dolce and basically told Auckland Transport to “shut up and listen”. They seem to lack ears, so it will remain to be seen if Wayne Brown can make them listen to Aucklanders’ concerns over Auckland Transport.

Professor Robert MacCulloch: Can TV One Sided News Stop Misleading the Public

Can TV One Sided News Stop Misleading the Public on Vital Matters of State affecting our economic futures

OneNews strikes again - breaking the law by reporting biased news when it has a statutory obligation not to do so. Time it's sold off or broken up. The "news" team aren't worth the celluloid their faces appear on. Today they're screaming the headline, "Aucklanders are sceptical of the Mayors Ambitious Plans". Mayor Len Brown wants to sell Auckland Council's small minority holding of 10% of publicly listed company, Auckland Airport Ltd, and lease the port's business operations. It's a no-brainer for most economists.

Cam Slater: Wayne Brown Needs to Stop Whinging

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is starting to sound like a cry-bully socialist upset that other people’s money has been taken away from ‘his city’. Instead of crying a river of tears why doesn’t Mayor Brown start doing that for which he was elected: cutting waste from council spending?

Cam Slater: No Thanks Wayne, Not What We Voted For

Apparently Wayne Brown is floating the idea of congestion charging for Auckland. Either he is being very cunning, suggesting it so when the ensuing outcry from angry ratepayers erupts he can say he is listening to concerns and cancel the idea, or deliberately provocative as he seeks new ways to gouge ratepayers.

Kate Hawkesby: Two Ws might ruin our weekend

Two Ws are potentially going to ruin our weekend: Winston and Wayne.  

Winston could kill all the fun Saturday night by holding the whole country to ransom and not forming a government. Wayne Barnes could ruin Sunday morning with his calls against the AB’s... we are potentially in for a rocky weekend of woe and misery leaving us all with a collective hangover Monday. The country could sink into a deep depression. More so than it already is. Yikes. 

Andrew Dickens: This country won't survive drastic cuts to the public workforce

So the World Cup has finished it' stellar month downunder with a victory for Spain.

Who, I hope, took the time to thank Palmerston North for the city's contribution towards their success. After all one would presume that if the team was so bored with the Palmie nightlife then they'd be getting good sleep and spending plenty of time practicing and improving their game during the day.

Cam Slater: Call a Referendum on Your Budget Wayne

Wayne Brown is doing what he was elected to do; slashing the profligate spending ways of Auckland Council and in the process he is annoying both the media and the liberal elites who seem to think you can go to heaven without dying.

Wayne Brown is having none of it, calling a spade an effing shovel. It is a splendid and awesome spectacle to behold as the media luvvies unhinge themselves at a plain-speaking mayor who will tolerate neither fools nor whining media:

Wendy Geus: Luxon Not Dancing to the Government’s Tune

The media’s bullying of National (and Wayne Brown) is becoming a little predictable, like Stuff‘s Glenn McConnell or the Herald‘s Simon Wilson who use storytelling artistic licence to sell the government’s narrative and misrepresent National and the Mayor.

The media’s current fixation is bilingual road signs. Chris Luxon does not bring this issue up; the media do every time. I can confidently say Luxon would rather take a dip in the Arctic Ocean than discuss this political hot potato.

The government’s propaganda arm then make up the narrative to paint him as the bad guy who is ‘struggling with Maori politics’ or ‘keeps returning to this uneasy question’, according to misleading commentary from the rigid worldview of Glenn McConnell.

Oliver Hartwich: The war on cone-tamination

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is worried, and rightly so. His city is battling an invasion of road cones, and something must be done about it.

It is not just Auckland that is affected. From our cities to our remote rural areas, cones have become a fixture of the New Zealand landscape, clogging up footpaths, roads and even beaches.

The cone-quest of our islands has become a national phenomenon. It would not be an exaggeration to say that New Zealand is starting to look like a giant VLC media player.

Cam Slater: Wayne Brown Flips the Bird at LGNZ

Wayne Brown is a plain speaking man who says what he means and damn the consequences. Yesterday the Auckland Council voted to quit the most useless quango organisation in New Zealand, Local Government NZ, and in the process has saved Auckland City at least $640,000.

As a parting gift for good measure, he called them out as a bunch of self-interested pissheads.

Karl du Fresne: Traffic cones and the precautionary principle

Driving between Eketahuna and Masterton recently, I came across some road works.
The road was reduced to one lane each way. There were the usual Stop/Go controls at either end, but this time there was a new twist.

I was at the head of a queue that was stopped at one end. A line of vehicles coming the other way was led through by a white ute with flashing lights.

As they reached my end of the road works, the ute pulled over to the verge. Then it did a U-turn and positioned itself at the head of the line of traffic waiting to go the other way.

Kate Hawkesby: Ease up on Wayne Brown, some of the media are drongos

One of the travesties of this week’s floods in Auckland has been the acrimonious fallout that’s happened at Council level over the whole response - mainly the beef between the media and the Mayor. 

I just want to preface this by saying that I think the way the Auckland Mayor has handled this has been appalling. But here’s the thing about calling the media drongos; is he wrong? 

I myself am in the media, I take it on the chin, we are drongos, some of us more than others, but come on, it’s a bit precious to be offended by that, we’ve heard a lot worse surely. And why can’t you call the media drongos?