Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is briefing business leaders today in one of his first major appearances since the devastating anniversary weekend flooding and February’s Cyclone Gabrielle. Video / NZ Herald
The Auckland Council Annual Budget report, which has already caused controversy, is set to be released today.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking that the “public has woken up” to the fact that council could not keep borrowing money.
“People seem to understand that we’ve inherited a bit of a mess and that the mixture of things that we have offered does show a way by giving a little bit of a hair cut here and there, rather than relying on one,” said Brown.
He said the fault mechanism of council’s borrowing money could no longer be a reality.
“It’s had its day, it’s most unwise to do that.
“The fact that the public has seen that we are in a place which requires some serious action, you just can’t go on borrowing, it’s just putting a mortgage of the future for the next lot that is coming through.”
Brown said budget consultations are always a bit tricky.
”Typically, everyone wants to keep everything, not pay for it and just have me sort it out somehow.”
Proposed budget cuts to Auckland’s economic and cultural agency have got Tourism Industry Aotearoa worried.
Spending on events and infrastructure would be cut by tens of millions of dollars, something Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Rebecca Ingram said could result in “a step backwards for the entire tourism industry throughout Aotearoa New Zealand”.
Of seven proposals set forward in the budget, three will directly affect Auckland’s arts and culture.
Silo Park.
However, it’s proposal F that could cause the greatest setback to Auckland’s culture, for locals and visitors.
This involves reducing the budget for Tātaki Auckland Unlimited (TAU) by $27.5m. Combined with the existing $17m savings target, Auckland’s economic and cultural agency would have to cut spending by $44.5 million.
NZ Herald senior journalist Simon Wilson told The Front Page podcast the reason these cuts are necessary is that there is an approximately $300 million gap between what the council expects to spend and what its expected income is likely to be.
“It has to plug that. It’s required by law not to have a deficit budget, so it’s got to balance the books,” says Wilson.
“The status quo is not an option. A whole lot of changes have to be made to income and to spending – and that’s why this has become a more important budget than we would normally see.”
Brown gave a brutal assessment of what he thinks is wrong with the city and who is at fault. He also threatened “to go feral” on the Labour and National parties ahead of the general election if they don’t deliver solutions for Auckland.
Individuals on Brown’s hitlist included chief executive of the City Rail Link Dr Sean Sweeney, ANZ NZ boss Antonia Watson and Auckland Transport interim chief executive Dean Kimpton.
He also attacked the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown lays a wreath at the Auckland War Memorial Museum Anzac Day dawn service 2023. Photo / Greg Bowker
Brown’s father, Lieutenant-Colonel Kelly Brown DSO, served in World War II in Greece, Crete, Italy and North Africa where he commanded a New Zealand Infantry company during the Battle of Alam el Halfa as part of the Western Desert campaign.
“I have always been profoundly moved by my father’s harrowing description of war,” the mayor told the Herald on Sunday. “Of the 137 men my father fought alongside in C Company only 44 survived the Battle of Alam el Halfa.”
