C&R Announces Strong Team For Waitematā Local Board
Communities and Residents (C&R) is pleased to introduce its strong team of seven candidates standing for the Waitematā Local Board in the 2025 Auckland Local Body Elections.
Incumbents Sarah Trotman ONZM, Greg Moyle and Allan Matson, have been re-selected, and are joined by new C&R nominees Michele Wade, Leo Grachev, Muy Chhour, and Anne Batley-Burton.
The challenges facing the Waitematā Local Board are significant – from transport, intensification and crime; to the Hauraki Gulf, city parks, and the future of Auckland's City Centre. C&R's team is committed to representing you openly and effectively, ensuring your voice is heard.
Each of C&R's candidates brings a wealth of experience – ranging from business and heritage preservation; to social services, environmental protection, and animal welfare. This broad-based team has the transferable skills and community insight that have been missing from an ideologically driven board.
'We are committed to work hard for the people of Waitematā, restoring accountability and putting the local community first. With fresh ideas and a strong local focus, we will put our community and residents at the centre of our decision making – you can count on it,' says the C&R Waitematā Local Board team.
Candidate Profiles:
Michele Wade – A Herne Bay resident for over 25 years, Michele's experience has ranged from being a secondary school teacher to running her own successful fashion business. Having decided to ' stop complaining and get in the action ', her focuses include financial prudence and environmental protections, and she believes in proactive, practical local governance. Michele supports removing wasteful spending, delivering projects on time and budget, accountability to ratepayers, heritage protection, reducing congestion, and protection of the Hauraki Gulf. Michele's whakapapa connects her to Tainui, Ngāti Mahuta, and Ngāti Pūkeko.
Sarah Trotman ONZM – First elected in 2019 and rated, in that term, as the most effective Waitematā Local Board member, Sarah is a strong community advocate, ensuring core services and infrastructure are delivered with intergenerational sustainability and value to ratepayers. She has lived locally for 20+ years; her children attended Marist Herne Bay and Ponsonby Intermediate. Sarah is an effective business leader, director and celebrant. Sarah was recognised with a Queen's honour for services to business and community. She brings the ability for robust discussion, keeping organisations accountable and authentic consultation.
Greg Moyle JP ED – A lifelong Waitematā resident, Greg has served on the Auckland City Council and three terms on the Local Board. A former policeman and now a successful financial adviser, he is involved in numerous community organisations and is passionate about strong local body representation for residents and ratepayers; and promoting a community in which we can all enjoy living. If re-elected, Greg will fight to abolish crime and anti-social behaviour in the CBD and to protect our recreational and community facilities, iconic shopping precincts and our built and natural environments.
Allan Matson – A City Centre resident, current Waitematā Local Board member and heritage expert, Allan transitioned from merchant banking to architecture. He has served as President of Civic Trust Auckland and has held roles on Council's Heritage Advisory Panel and the boards of NZ Historic Places Trust and CBD's Heart of the City. With over 20 years' experience in heritage consulting, Allan is focused on better governance, more prudent public spending, greater protection of our built heritage and character, and responsible guardianship of our environment for the benefit of all Aucklanders.
Leo Grachev – Passionate about making Waitematā the best place to live and work, Leo is a next generation leader. The son of hardworking immigrants and with experience in supporting business development, he champions small business owners. Leo recognises the need to address antisocial behaviour and make our city centre and suburbs safer. Leo believes council can do better to deliver more cost-effective, democratic solutions and that something must be done to get Auckland out of gridlock. ' There is a responsibility to deliver for those who call this place home '.
Muy Chhour – Having been involved in business most of her life, from serving customers at the family dairy to managing 11 Asian supermarkets around Auckland, Muy brings deep business experience to the team. For 5 years, Muy served as Chairperson for the Karangahape Road Business Association. She is passionate about making our city more live-able and safer not only for businesses but for all who travel in it whether by car, public transport, bike or foot. Muy's experience brings a balanced, common-sense approach to resolving issues in our city.
Anne Batley-Burton – A Parnell local who has been involved in business from an early age, as the first credit card manufacturer in Australasia to importing Champagne and wine barrels, Anne brings decades of entrepreneurial experience. She is known for her integrity, determination, common sense and getting things done. Her major concerns surround crime and congestion, which are destroying the fabric of our city. A leading voice for animal welfare through educating the community about care and responsibility for their pets, Anne is the Founder of The New Zealand Cat Foundation.
About C&R:
Existing for over 85 years, C&R is a voluntary grass-roots association of members and is the longest-standing political group in Auckland's Local Government. We believe Auckland has the potential to be one of the world's greatest cities and are proud to stand for responsible spending, intergenerational sustainability, accountable local representation, and putting people before politics.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Spinoff
12 hours ago
- The Spinoff
All the celebrities* running in local elections around the country this year
Alex Casey takes a Hollywood tour through the star-studded candidates list. For those who love to follow weird local celebrity gossip, it's slim pickings out there at the moment. Noel Edmonds has gone quiet, Brad Pitt has left the building by way of McDonald's drive-thru, and Jay-Jay and Minou's love story can only sustain interest for so long (although admittedly mine is yet to wane). We are left with nothing but mourning for Sam Neill's beloved duck Magda, and there's not even a season of Celebrity Treasure Island this year to numb the pain of it all. If you've been left wondering what happened to all the quirky and interesting well-known personalities of Aotearoa, I recently discovered where many of them have been hiding out: local body politics. And while it took a little while to weed out the real big names from the flagrant imposters (looking at you Tony Bennett in Dunedin, Paul Williams in Waimakariri, Bill Hammond in Upper Hutt City), this year boasts a truly impressive number of celebrities* hitting the campaign trail. Anne 'The Champagne Lady' Batley-Burton (Auckland) The champagne importer, cat enthusiast and Real Housewives of Auckland star made big headlines in June, first announcing that she would be running for Auckland Council's Waitematā Local Board before also revealing that she was accidentally bowled over by her husband's car while trying to rescue a roaming cat. Running on the centre-right C&R ticket, Batley-Burton told the Herald she wants to reduce crime in Auckland's CBD ('quite scary'), stop the 'free for all' of housing intensification, and make desexing and microchipping free for cat owners. For more insights, here's a tipsy dispatch after I spent a whole day sipping champagne with her in 2017. Jamaine Ross (Auckland) You may know him for being crack-up on things like Frickin' Dangerous Bro, Guy Mont Spelling Bee, 7 Days and Have You Been Paying Attention, but Waitākere Ranges Local Board candidate Jamaine Ross now has a serious message: don't vote for him. 'Please don't,' the comedian pleaded from the front seat of his car in a recent video. 'This isn't a gag, this isn't a joke, this isn't some kind of weird reverse psychology thing to try and convince you to vote for me. Don't vote for me. I don't want to do it, OK?' Intriguing, confusing and conversation-starting for sure. Michael Organ (Whanganui) Famous for a star turn in the David Farrier documentary Mister Organ, Michael Organ is running for one of 10 Whanganui General Ward councillor positions on Whanganui District Council this year and I am genuinely too scared to write anything else. Pennywize (Wellington) Let the chills continue with this homage to an evil clown who famously lures kids into drains with paper boats and then eats them. Luckily, this Pennywize (with a z) is mostly looking to return 'sanity, common sense, swamps, moa and hokioi Haast's eagles to the streets of Te Whanganui-a-Tara' in their mayoral bid this year. If your blood is curdled by the idea of a horror sound-a-like roaming the streets, you just wait till you hear who is running in Ōamaru (Ferdie Kruger). Teal Mau (Wellington) Hairdresser Teal Mau captured our hearts when he competed with wife Sophia in My Kitchen Rules NZ in 2017. 'The coolest MKR chef remains 'international man of mystery' Teal, who it is revealed everyone is scared of because he looks a lot like Johnny Depp and almost never talks,' we wrote at the time. The comparison appears to have stuck around, not helped by the fact that Mau recently responded to a NZ Herald question about Depp with the phrase 'parley' – a pirate negotiation term lifted directly from The Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Mau is running for one of three Pukehīnau/Lambton General Ward councillor positions on Wellington Council, where he wants to give business owners a voice, keep young people in the city, and presumably find the beating heart of Davy Jones. Will Hall (Christchurch) He's faced down the Ferndale Strangler, but how might he handle the constituents of Christchurch? You might recognise Will Hall as Dr Kip Denton from Shortland Street, or the mutton-chopped Mike McCarthy from Westside, but the actor has more recently been gunning for a new role: repping the good people of Heathcote Ward on the Waihoro Spreydon-Cashmere-Heathcote Community Board. Running with the campaign slogan 'where there's a Will, there's a way,' Hall told Stuff in 2022, when he unsuccessfully ran for ward councillor, that there was Nothing Trivial (another show he starred in for several years) about his acting background: 'I'm new to politics and that's an advantage; no preconceptions, I'm independent, energetic with common-sense.' Mandy Mayhem (Dunedin) In a way, Mandy Mayhem being one of the 1,000 people in the Dunedin Study is about as famous as you can get. OK, so you're involved in the world's most detailed longitudinal study of human development? That DO impress-a me much. The Dunedin mayoral candidate is also a ringmaster, a black belt in taekwondo, spent six years on the Waikouaiti-Coast Community Board, and was elected as a Dunedin City councillor in 2022. She's also been described as a ' pirate queen ' – just don't tell Teal up in Wellies or we might have to hose down the Black Pearl. Suzanne Prentice (Invercargill) She's performed with Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash and basically every single New Zealand child alive for the Kids for Kids national tour in the 90s and 2000s, but these days you're more likely to find country music legend Suzanne Prentice in a meeting than on the big stage. First challenging Tim Shadbolt for the mayoralty in 2010, Prentice has since become a familiar name in Invercargill local politics and is now dreamin' her dreams of being re-elected to the Invercargill Licensing Trust in 2025. (PS: I don't know what the NZ equivalent of an EGOT is, but Prentice has already nabbed a New Year's honour and a star on the walk of fame this year alone.) Steve Broad (Invercargill) Speaking of Invercargill crooners, it's only bloody Steve Broad from NZ Idol and X Factor NZ! First arriving on our screens in 2005, all wide eyes and long hair, the blondini from the south came third in season two of NZ Idol (later won by Rosita Vai). A whole decade later, he returned to the singing competition stage for X Factor NZ in 2015, a season so massively overshadowed by the Kills-Moon explosion that we all forgot his moving rendition of ' Summertime Sadness '. He outlasted suit thief Joe Irvine, but Broad was eliminated in the quarter finals. In 2023, he successfully ran in the Invercargill City Council byelection, and will be looking to ' Stay ' on as a councillor in 2025. Paddy O'Brien (Invercargill) Invercargill's stardust continues to shine with O'Brien, the world's first ever professional rugby referee who is also standing for re-election to the Invercargill Licensing Trust this year. O'Brien refereed the first ever professional match between the Hurricanes and the Blues in 1996, and went on to referee 80 more Super Rugby matches, two Rugby World Cups, and 218 first-class matches. Marcus Lush (Invercargill) OK, Invercargill is basically Madame Tussaud's at this point. Although he called 'bullshit' on the celebrity title back in 2022, there's no denying that councillor candidate Marcus Lush is a heavy hitter to round out the city's cavalcade of celebri– sorry, notable characters. He has been in the public eye (and/or ear) since the late 80s, be it fronting documentary series like Off the Rails and South, or hosting stints on bFM, Radio Live and his current late-night gig on Newstalk ZB. An impressive CV, but even someone as experienced as Lush can admit his shortcomings. 'I'm not a Kardashian,' he once told The Spinoff. 'It's not like I've done a sex tape.'
NZ Herald
03-08-2025
- NZ Herald
Rare aerial imagery shows displacement and destruction in Gaza
Members of the Jordanian Air Force look down over the Gaza Strip from an airdrop flight last week. Photo / Heidi Levine, For The Washington Post The Israel Defence Forces says it only targets militants. It blames civilian deaths on Hamas, saying the militants operate in populated areas. 'IDF actions are based on military necessity and in accordance to international law,' the IDF said in a statement at the weekend. Hamas fighters killed about 1200 people, Israel says, and took about 250 others back to Gaza as hostages in the 2023 attack. More than 450 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza. Sky News and BBC journalists who reported from aid flights from Jordan last week said they were told that Israel had prohibited filming Gaza from above. The organisations did not say how the directive had been conveyed. Sky reported that it was informed Israel could delay or cancel aid flights if its journalists filmed Gaza. The IDF declined to comment on the matter. The El-Helou International Hotel in Gaza City, seen from a Jordanian aid flight last Wednesday local time. Photo / Heidi Levine, For The Washington Post A Washington Post photojournalist was given no such instructions before boarding a Royal Jordanian Air Force flight last Wednesday local time. On a subsequent flight on Friday local time, a member of the Jordanian flight crew told her she was not allowed to film Gaza, only the airdrop. The imagery here is from the first (Wednesday) flight, when two Jordanian C-130 transport planes, in co-operation with the United Arab Emirates Air Force, dropped more than 16 tonnes of food and baby formula into Gaza, with Israel's permission. Most of the photographs were taken through the plane's windows, looking east towards Gaza City. Destroyed schools in Gaza, seen from a Jordanian aid flight. Photo / Heidi Levine, For The Washington Post A close-up shows seven schools flattened by Israeli strikes: al-Zahawi Preparatory School for Boys, Asdood Secondary School for Boys, Abo Thar al-Ghafary School, Julis Secondary School for Boys, al-Awda Primary School, Sarafand Preparatory Male School and Samy al-Alamy Male School. Tents for displaced people occupy the school courtyards. Photos posted on Facebook just days before the war began showed young students lined up there. A lone building standing in a lot occupied by displaced peoples' tents is El-Helou International Hotel, home to a cavernous ballroom adorned with gold gossamer and lit by chandeliers. It was once a popular venue for weddings and gatherings in the north of Gaza City. The ruins of Maqoussi Mosque and the Ministry of Economy in Gaza, seen from a Jordanian aid flight. Photo / Heidi Levine, For The Washington Post Rubble, collapsed buildings, and tent encampments occupy ground where Maqoussi Mosque and the Ministry of Economy stood. The mosque's dome slumps into its flattened roof. Next to the mosque stands the ruined facade of Sheikh Radwan Health Centre, a clinic destroyed earlier in the war that was run by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. A zoomed-in image shows the ruins of the Jabalya refugee camp. Jabalya, the site of fierce fighting between Hamas and the Israeli military in previous conflicts, was effectively besieged by the Israeli military from October to December 2024. The delivery of food and water and access by civil defence and paramedics were mostly denied, and large swathes of the neighbourhood were demolished. An aerial view showing massive destruction and displacement in an area of Gaza City, photographed from a C-30 military aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force. Photo / Heidi Levine, For The Washington Post Adel, the Royal Jordanian Air Force pilot who flew the aid drop mission, said the sight of Gaza from the air 'made me shocked'. Adel saw 'growing' destruction compared with when he last flew over Gaza during the first round of airdrops last year, he added. He withheld his last name because he was not authorised to speak publicly. 'Everyone who will see this area will be shocked,' he added. 'We hope [for] this war to finish. We need to give them more and more food, because they are starving over there.' It was 'very sad' to see the Gaza Strip from above, Maher Halaseh, 36, a Royal Jordanian Air Force navigator who also took part in last year's airdrops, said on Friday. 'Everything is different. There's no buildings, nothing. A lot of tents on the shoreline. I start to see it when all the buildings were there. Nowadays, there's nothing. They are dying over there.' A closer look shows how hundreds of thousands of Gazans are living, in makeshift tents erected anywhere space can be found, including on the beach in Gaza's south. Humanitarian groups say the airdrops that resumed this week, while better than no aid at all, are much less efficient than sending aid by land. Aid organisations have called them 'an absolute last resort'. Instead, they have urged Israel to open land crossings and allow a high volume of trucks to enter Gaza. Israel says it does not restrict aid to Gaza. Jordan has become a staging area for the airdrop effort, with support from governments in the region and Europe, in response to escalating scenes of starvation. Airdrops are neither precision-guided nor do they come with the ability for organised distribution on the ground. In past waves of airdrops, heavy boxes of aid fatally crushed aid seekers and led them to the sea, where they drowned trying to reach food, health officials said. - Washington Post photojournalist Heidi Levine captured imagery of Gaza from a Jordanian Air Force aid flight.
Scoop
16-07-2025
- Scoop
Massive US-led military exercise underway in CNMI
, RNZ Pacific Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas correspondent The Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) will be front and center of the Resolute Force Pacific (REFORPAC) 2025 as the US Air Force launched its most expansive military exercise in the region last week. The Commonwealth Bureau of Military Affairs official Edward Camacho said nearly 300 aircraft and over 600 troops will conduct military exercise in about 25 locations on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota and their surrounding airspace during exercise set from 7 July to 8 August. The special assistant for military affairs to the CNMI governor Arnold Palacios said that Saipan military exercises started on 7 July, followed by Tinian and Rota's on 8 and 9 July 8, respectively. The Saipan exercises will be happening until 8 August, with both Tinian and Rota's concluding at the end of July. Relaying a message from the Pacific Air Forces deputy commander, he said the goal of the exercise "is to integrate and experiment with logistics, sustainment, and enabling capability to bring Fifth Generation Fighters, command and control aircraft, and airlift and air refueling into the Western Pacific region at the speed and scale that has not been seen." Palacios welcomed the US military and forces from allied and partner nations as they commence REFORPAC 2025. "The US Armed Forces and our esteemed international partners who are gathering in our region for vital military presence underscores a shared commitment to regional security, stability, and humanitarian cooperation," he said. Palacios said REFORPAC will go a long way in strengthening the alliance between the US and its allies. The Air Force will deploy over 500 Airmen on Saipan with two C-130 Hercules transport aircraft, four Black Hawk medium utility helicopters; approximately 115 Airmen on Tinian and six F-22 Raptor stealth fighter aircraft; and 25 personnel and two C-130 Hercules transport aircraft on Rota. Camacho said the Air Force assured stakeholders they will toe the line when it comes to mitigation processes to ensure the military exercise is not disruptive to the islands' ecosystems and way of life. He said REFORPAC is vital to the United States and the region's security "because it showcases our air power and then it also showcases our ability to work with other countries as far as operational interoperability capabilities and as well as communications and maneuvering." Asked to comment on a request made by four CNMI and Guam groups to have a 45-day extension on the comment period for the Revised Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS), Camacho said that it is not his decision to make. The Revised DEIS' current 75-day review window for public comments on the Mariana Islands Training and Testing and CNMI Joint Military Training proposals began 6 June 6 and is scheduled to close on 20 August. "I don't have any problem with an extension of the 45 days. Unfortunately, others might, and the others that might have that issue are beyond my level to make that decision."
