Wayne Brown talks to media on Auckland Floods. Video / NZ Herald
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown today said he will not resign over his handling of the extreme weather event in Auckland that has claimed the lives of four people and caused devastating damage to homes across the city.
Speaking to reporters at Sunnynook Community Centre, where dozens of volunteers are based to help victims of Friday night’s civil defence emergency, Brown said, “I’m certainly not going to resign.”
“I was elected to fix Auckland and this is a giant fix-up,” he added, saying the priority is getting people back on their feet.
Brown’s actions and leadership as the scale of the rainfall event quickly worsened on Friday night have come under intense scrutiny and ongoing criticism from commentators, community leaders and fellow politicians, particularly over the time it took to declare a state of emergency.
Community leader David Letele has called on Wayne Brown to resign. Photo / Dean Purcell
Community advocate David Letele has called on Brown to resign, calling his lack of leadership and response during the weekend’s emergency event an “absolute disgrace”.
“My message to Wayne is … I think he’s out of his depth. This was his opportunity to really stand up and deliver. He just hasn’t,” said Letele, who runs the Buttabean Motivation (BBM) food distribution centre in South Auckland.
Yesterday, one of Brown’s own staff members told a journalist “we’re doing a terrible job” and the mayor’s press conference with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on Saturday has been called a train wreck that ended with deputy mayor Desley Simpson grabbing his arm and leading him away.
Brown has since accepted his communications and those of the Mayoral Office were “not good enough” and said he would commission an independent review of the response to the weather emergency.
“The inquiry will look into all aspects, all people, myself included, plus the professionals, plus even the Government’s involvement in the response … lessons must be learned,” he said.
Brown continued a line of defence that he followed the instructions of officials, arguing the leader of the event is the duty controller.
“It would be a brave person to overturn the duty controller until you have got a clear understanding of what is going on … my role is ensuring we get the best, most efficient use of the resources available and that is what I have been concentrating on,” he said.
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown's press conference with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins. Photo / Dean Purcell
Asked what he should have done differently as events unfolded on Friday afternoon and evening, Brown said he would have liked to have known (more) earlier from people, adding, “you can only respond to what you know”.
“From the office, it was a very wet day. The first feedback, which is one of the reasons I want a review, actually came from my elected officials and the first thing in South Auckland came from customers in shops.
“I was quite surprised it wasn’t coming back from the emergency management so that will be part of the review. You can only know what you know,” said Brown.
Since Friday night, Brown said he had visited the four emergency centres across Auckland, worked on sites with building inspectors, and spoken with the family of the man who died in Remuera.
