Simeon Brown opens a cycleway! And Auckland Transport abandons safety plans
Minister for Auckland Simeon Brown (third from right) with Auckland Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson (centre) and other dignitaries ready to turn the first sod of the last stage of the Glen Innes to Tāmaki Drive shared path.
This is a transcript of Simon Wilson's weekly newsletter Love this City – exploring the ideas and events, the reality and the potential of Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Minister for Auckland Simeon Brown dug the first sod for a new cycleway last week. He seemed very excited, talking about the
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RNZ News
04-06-2025
- RNZ News
The problem with local body candidates aligning with national political parties
By Julienne Molineaux of Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro Analysis - With accusations flying thick and fast last year about supposed "dysfunction" and a "shambles" at Wellington City Council, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown stepped in and appointed a Crown Observer. Announcing the move, Brown said the "financial and behavioural challenges" facing the council represented a problem under the Local Government Act. Part of the issue, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon claimed recently, was that there had been "way too much ideology and party politics". With the Green-endorsed current mayor Tory Whanau withdrawing from the next election, and former Labour cabinet minister Andrew Little announcing his mayoralty bid , it remains to be seen whether those partisan perceptions have diminished. But at the other end of the political spectrum, the ACT Party is actively recruiting candidates to stand at the 2025 elections using its branding and policy platform. The ACT website states clear policy positions for prospective candidates to campaign on. The Local Government Act, on the other hand, requires elected members to consult with people affected by their decisions and to do so with an open mind. Reinforcing this point, the Office of the Auditor-General says those managing public resources must avoid holding pre-determined positions: You are not required to approach every decision as though you have given it no prior thought, or have no existing knowledge or opinion. However, you are required to keep an open mind, and you must be prepared to change or adjust your views if the evidence or arguments warrant it. If ACT is successful in building a local government ticket nationally, this tension - and the kind of tensions recently at play in Wellington - could be seen in other councils. Political party affiliations in local government are not actually the norm. In 2019, winning councillors around New Zealand mostly left the affiliation section of their nomination forms blank (60 percent) or stated they were "independent" (18 percent). Only 3 percent of winning councillors were affiliated with a registered political party, and 4 percent with a local grouping or ticket. But the picture changes in our three largest councils: Auckland Council, Christchurch City Council and Wellington City Council. No winning councillors in those cities left the affiliation section blank in 2019, 38 percent ran on a local ticket, and 22 percent for a political party. And there are good reasons for local body candidates to run as party-endorsed or on a local ticket, as former local body politician Shirin Brown outlined in her PhD thesis on Local Boards in Auckland: shared costs, shared resources (such as party volunteers to deliver leaflets), shared expertise and brand recognition for voters. Importantly, a candidate with low name recognition can coat-tail on higher profile candidates on the same ticket, or the public profile of the ticket overall. Other research suggests the strategy works: in Auckland, at least, those who stand with a group affiliation are more likely to be elected than those who do not. In larger urban areas, with high populations and low levels of representation per capita, visible groupings of local government candidates make sense. Research reveals a major obstacle to voting in local elections is a lack of information about candidates and what they stand for. Once elected, though, there are questions about the cohesion of groupings. Shirin Brown found the ad-hoc nature of some local tickets for Auckland's local boards - formed for strategic election reasons but with little coherence or discipline once elected - sometimes collapsed once in office. In Auckland, ward councillors and the mayor have run with group branding, but there is little evidence of whipping along party, ticket or broad ideological lines. As a councillor for the Manukau ward (2016-2022), the late Efeso Collins stood for election as a Labour Party candidate, but he voted against some initiatives of the Mayor Phil Goff, a former leader of the Labour Party. Communities and Residents (C&R) councillors have mostly been aligned with the National Party, but have also included ACT and unaffiliated centre-right candidates. While they often voted against Goff, and earlier against Labour Party member Len Brown (mayor from 2010-2016), it wasn't always as a uniform block. Indeed, Brown's initiatives were simultaneously opposed by Cathy Casey (City Vision) on the left and Cameron Brewer (C&R) on the right. As this year's local elections approach, the Crown Observer for Wellington City Council, Lindsay McKenzie, has written candidate guidelines about political affiliations and their legal obligations to avoid predetermined positions. These cover the promises they make on the campaign trail as well as how they act once elected. They address the tension between the democratic act of signalling your values and policy positions to voters, and the requirement under the Local Government Act to make decisions based on local concerns rather than political affiliation. As McKenzie points out, having an open mind is not just an issue for party members. It also applies to those who stand as independents and adhere rigidly to policy positions they campaigned on. Irrespective of their affiliation, candidates in the upcoming local elections have a tightrope to walk - between declaring their values and policy positions, and being receptive to new information and perspectives once elected. Voters need to accept elected members may have access to information that was not available when they were campaigning. And the political media needs to give some leeway to councillors and mayors who change their positions.
RNZ News
30-05-2025
- RNZ News
Councils plead for bipartisan Resource Management Act reform
RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop and Transport Minister Simeon Brown announce extensions for ports' permits at a press conference in Auckland's Parnell. Photo: RNZ/Marika Khabazi Regional councils want greater certainty and bipartisanship on regulations, as they gear up for an expected spate of rule changes when legislation replaces the Resource Management Act (RMA) next year . The government has announced sweeping changes to the rules governing councils' oversight of everything - from housing, to mining, to agriculture - under the RMA, and these have been released for public feedback. Speaking on behalf of Te Uru Kahika - Regional and Unitary Councils of Aotearoa, Greater Wellington chair Daran Ponter said when policy resets every three years, regulators scramble to deliver the new government's national direction. "As regional councils we have effectively seen these national instruments landing on our lap as regularly as every three years. The music just has to stop. "We need certainty, we need to be able to have the chance as regulators to actually bed in policies and rules and provide a greater certainty to people who want to do things - who want to build, who want to farm, who want to mine - because the bigger block on those things at the moment, at national and regional levels, is that we continue to change the rules." Ponter said bipartisanship on regulations was needed to provide certainty. "I don't want to be in the position in three or six years' time that all the rules are going to change again, because the pendulum has swung the other way." Daran Ponter. Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas Ponter said in recent years there had been "more radical swings" in policy under successive governments. "At the moment, the meat in the sandwich of all this, is the regional councils, who get accused of not doing this, or being woke, of being overly sympathetic to the environment... when all we are doing is following the national guidance that is put in front of us." The government has released three discussion documents covering 12 national policy statements and and national environmental standards, with the aim of having 16 new or updated ones by the end of 2025, ahead of legislation replacing the RMA next year. The consultation covers three main topics: infrastructure and development, the primary sector and freshwater. It is open from 29 May to 27 July. Doug Leeder, chair of Bay of Plenty Regional Council, has governed through the implementation of four National Policy Statements for Freshwater Management. He said implementing national direction was a major undertaking that involved work with communities, industry and mana whenua. "Councils contend with the challenge also faced by iwi and hapū, industry, and communities that the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management has changed every three years since it has been introduced. "When policy resets every three years, it imposes significant costs on councils and communities, creates uncertainty for farmers and businesses, and makes it harder to achieve the long-term outcomes we all want. "We need to work towards something more enduring." Could bipartisanship on regulations work? "That's the challenge for the minister but also for the leaders of those opposition parties, as well," Ponter said. "Everybody is going to have to find a degree of compromise if something like that is going to work." But he said regional councils had worked constructively with successive governments and they were ready to do so again. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
29-05-2025
- RNZ News
Desley Simpson leaves right-leaning Communities and Residents group
Auckland deputy mayor Desley Simpson. Photo: RNZ / Nick Monro * This story has been corrected to remove speculation as to why Desley Simpson left C&R 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 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.
