Desley Simpson leaves Communities and Residents to be part of proposed working group
Auckland deputy mayor Desley Simpson.
Photo:
RNZ / Nick Monro
Auckland deputy mayor Desley Simpson has broken long-standing ties with the city's right-leaning local government party Communities and Residents.
The high-profile councillor has stood on the C&R ticket since she was first elected to council in 2016.
But her picture was quietly removed from C&R's website, leaving Christine Fletcher as the group's only councillor.
Sources familiar with the situation, who did not want to be named, told RNZ in December Simpson was no longer a member of C&R.
When asked earlier this year, C&R president David Hay would not confirm Simpson had left.
But Hay has now revealed to RNZ Simpson resigned 18 months ago, but they had not updated their website until recently.
He said Simpson's reason for leaving the party was to be a part of mayor Wayne Brown's proposed Entrust review working group.
Every three years, an election is held to select five trustees for Entrust, the majority shareholder of lines company Vector.
C&R has controlled the Entrust board for the past 30 years.
In 2024, around 9.39 percent, just 30,342 of eligible households in Auckland voted in the Entrust elections.
Hay said he also understood there was tension between Wayne Brown and C&R because the party supported Heart of the City chief executive Viv Beck when she went against Brown in the Auckland mayoral race in 2019.
Beck dropped out before voting began, however her name was still listed on the ballot.
He said C&R has been accepting candidate nominations for an Ōrākei ward councillor, a position currently held by Simpson, and for an Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa councillor ahead of the local body elections later this year.
The Albert-Eden-Puketāpapa ward has two councillors. C&R's Christine Fletcher and City Vision's Julie Fairey were elected to the roles in 2019.
Hay said C&R would announce their candidate selections soon.
Since news that
Simpson was considering running for mayor of Auckland
broke in January, she had been putting off confirming whether she would challenge her boss Wayne Brown for the city's top job.
She earlier told RNZ she would
advise the public of her decision
by the end of May at the latest.
Simpson has been approached for comment.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
44 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Fire on historic ship The Tui most likely caused by electrical fault
Historic ship The Tui was found on fire on 4 June 2025. Photo: RNZ / Peter De Graaf The fire that destroyed a historic ship in the Bay of Islands was most likely caused by an electrical fault, not by arson, a fire investigator says. The Tui, a century-old sugar barge converted into a replica sailing ship by the late underwater explorer Kelly Tarlton, was severely damaged by fire early on Wednesday morning. Police initially treated the blaze as suspicious and, given how little remained, Northland fire investigator Craig Bain was not hopeful of being able to establish the cause. Luck was, however, on his side. "As the digger was bringing bits and pieces out, we were looking for the likes of switchboards and hard drives for the security system, and anything that might show an origin point," Bain said. "Just by pure luck, once everything had been removed, I went into what was left and looked over the side - and lying in the sand were the burnt-out remnants of the mains switchboard. Digging through that a bit further I found what was left of the mains cable that feeds the switchboard, and that had significant arcing and a fair bit of melting on it as well, indicating significant heat." That led the investigation team to conclude an electrical fault was the most likely cause of the fire. The find was even more unexpected given how quickly they had to work to beat the incoming tide. Bain said the switchboard was still warm to the touch when found, and appeared to have fallen out of the boat early in the fire. Power was live to the switchboard due to the vessel's pending restoration, and it was possible moisture had entered it during the wild weather lashing the Bay of Islands that night. Bain said the finding that the fire was most likely electrical rather than suspicious could provide some comfort to the owners, as well as to the Tarlton family. "I think it's quite a benefit to the folks starting out on this project to restore the boat that there doesn't appear to be anything malicious about the fire, that we know of." Kelly Tarlton created the Tui in the 1970s to display his collection of treasures salvaged from shipwrecks around New Zealand. Later it housed a series of restaurants and cafes but for the past decade it had been empty and increasingly derelict. It was bought last year by researchers Cat Peters and Thibaud Guerin, who planned to turn it into a centre for free community marine education. In April this year their TriOceans Education Trust received a grant from Foundation North to restore the ship. Work had just started when the fire broke out. Parts of the ship not destroyed by the blaze had to be demolished that morning, both to allow firefighters to fully extinguish the flames between its two hulls and to ensure debris did not enter the Bay of Islands on the high tide at 2.30pm. The site was blessed before dawn on Saturday in a moving ceremony led by the chairman of neighbouring Te Tii Marae, Ngāti Kawa Taituha. Fiona Tarlton took part, representing the family, and said she planned to gift the marae a framed photo of the Tui and her late father. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer on the longest suspension in Parliament
Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii This week, Parliament took the unprecedented step of suspending both Te Pāti Māori leaders - Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi - for 21 days. Te Pāti Māori MP Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke was suspended for seven days - but had also been punished with a 24-hour suspension on the day over a haka all three had performed in Parliament, against the Treaty Principles Bill, in November. It is against the rules of the House for members to leave their seats during a debate - which all three did. Ngarewa-Packer told Saturday Morning that the 21-day suspension, which was seven times harsher than any previous sanction an MP has faced, was not proportionate. "I think the backlash from the public, nationally and internationally, validates that," she said. Previously, the longest suspension for an MP had been three days, given to the former prime minister Robert Muldoon for criticising the speaker in the 1980s. While New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the duration of the suspension would have been lessened if the Te Pāti Māori MPs had apologised, Ngarewa-Packer said that was never requested by the Privileges Committee. "What we have here is a situation where, and some are calling it Trumpism, we've been a lot more specific - we have an Atlas agenda that has not only crept in, it's stormed in on the shores of Aotearoa and some may not understand what that means, but this is just the extension of the attack on the treaty, on the attack on Indigenous voices. "We made the point the whole way through when we started to see that they weren't going to be able to meet us halfway on anything, even a quarter of the way, on any of the requests for tikanga experts, for legal experts when we knew the bias of the committee." Ngarewa-Packer added that the Privileges Committee process was not equipped to deal with the issue. "We hit a nerve and we can call it a colonial nerve, we can call it institutional nerve... "I think that this will be looked back on at some stage and say how ridiculous we looked back in 2025." Ngarewa-Packer also added that the language from Peters during the debate on Thursday was "all very deliberate" - "and that's what we're contending with in Aotearoa". "Everyone should have a view but don't use the might of legislation and the power to be able to assert your racism and assert your anti-Māori, anti-Treaty agenda." Peters had taken aim at Waititi on Thursday as "the one in the cowboy hat" and "scribbles on his face" in reference to his mataora moko. Rawiri Waititi. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii He said countless haka have taken place in Parliament but only after first consulting the Speaker. "They told the media they were going to do it, but they didn't tell the Speaker did they?" Peters added that Te Pāti Māori were "a bunch of extremists" and that "New Zealand has had enough of them". "They don't want democracy, they want anarchy," he said. "They don't want one country, they don't want one law, they don't want one people." Winston Peters. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Should I contribute to KiwiSaver or pay mortgage faster? Ask Susan
The short answer is it depends. Photo: RNZ I was wondering, is it better to invest more in your KiwiSaver or into your mortgage? We are lucky and have a little bit of extra cash every pay, so we have been making additional mortgage repayments. With the upcoming changes to KiwiSaver, we won't be able to continue to do this if we don't opt out. What is the better option? My thinking is the lower the mortgage, the less interest we pay, which would see us better off in the long term. Fisher Funds Kiwisaver general manager David Boyle says he has received questions like this over the years and the answer is: "it depends". "It's hard to know, without knowing the total financial position and how long they've got until they retire," he said. "Paying more off your mortgage and contributing to KiwiSaver are both smart choices, if you find yourself with a bit of money leftover before payday. "To help with this here are some things they should consider if they keep paying a bit more off the mortgage." It's probably worth talking to a financial adviser about this. If you opt to focus on paying your mortgage faster, you might need a plan to get you on track for retirement, once that loan is gone. The increase to contributions of 4 percent is stepped over the next couple of years. Are you likely to receive a pay rise over that period that will help you continue paying a bit off your mortgage, as well as contribute a bit more? You also have the option to temporarily lower your contribution rate back to 3 percent if you want. I am the epitome of being a victim of the government's totally unfair direct deduction policy. I should have started receiving my richly deserved superannuation when I qualified for it 9.5 years ago and the Winter Energy Payments seven years ago when they began. Consequently, over $300,000 has been stolen from me and I live in abject poverty as a result. I am a dual citizen from America. I have lived here 19.5 years, so on what legal basis has the government for denying the WEPs? Its written explanation is that it would be difficult to administer to NZ seniors not currently receiving a government benefit such as superannuation. That is mind boggling and I hope you see fit to write about this outrageous treatment of nearly 100,000 Kiwi seniors. Sorry, yes, I've checked with the ministry and it confirms that people who are not getting NZ Super because of an overseas pension cannot get the Winter Energy Payment. Generally, if your NZ Super entitlement has been eliminated by your overseas pension, it's because what you receive from overseas is more than the NZ Super payment. Send your questions to Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
