Wayne Brown's communications boss Kate Gourdie ordered the release of abusive emails to councillors. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Wayne Brown's communications boss Kate Gourdie ordered the release of abusive emails to councillors. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s head of communications Kate Gourdie has been outed as the person behind a “totally repugnant” release of abusive emails to councillors that called them “dips***s”.
In a statement this afternoon, Gourdie said she was unaware the emails contained insulting remarks and was sorry for the offence it had caused and will ensure it never happens again.
“The emails were sent in the interest of transparency, not to intentionally hurt anyone,” she said.
The emails arrived in councillors’ inboxes shortly after a shambolic meeting on June 1 where Brown took aim at councillors who did not support his sale of Auckland Airport shares, calling them “financially illiterate”.
The 18 emails were mostly negative, calling on Brown to “kick there [sic] ass as that’s where there [sic] brains are”, opponents of the sale to “quit en masse” and to keep up the attack on left-wing media - “They are all drongos”.
The emails were sent to councillors following a shambolic meeting where Mayor Wayne Brown called opponents of the airport share sale “financially illiterate”. Photo / Michael Craig
The Herald can reveal the junior staffer who sent the emails raised concerns with the mayor’s chief of staff, Max Hardy, telling him she had been instructed by Gourdie in an email and verbally to send the emails to councillors.
The email to Hardy, and copied into Gourdie, contained the image of an email on June 1 from Gourdie that said “please collate all of the correspondence from today in one document to share with councillors at 5pm(both negative and positive)”.
“I was reminded verbally to send out these collated emails both negative and positive.” said the staffer, adding she emailed her manager at 4.32pm to approve the collated emails, but the team were on another floor at the time for language week.
“As a support staff member can I please ask that Lead team managers read their emails from us(and follow through) on all critical matters for the Mayor, to keep everyone safe,” the staffer said at the end of her email, leaked to the Herald.
Brown today repeated he did not know about the release of the emails, which he has said went out “in a fit of excitement”.
“The story seems to be about councillors not liking to find out what people say about them,” he said today.
In a statement to the Herald, Hardy, a high-flying lawyer who took up the senior role in the mayoral office as Head of Staff in early March, declined to say it was a mistake to send the emails but said it was a mistake not to remove insulting material before circulating them.
“Listening to public feedback is an important part of the job for the mayor and all councillors, and from time to time we share that feedback with others.
“We have addressed the matter so that it does not happen again. My expectation is that our staff are respectful to elected members and recognise that we are all working to do what’s best for Auckland.
“I have confidence in my team, including Kate, who are doing an excellent job supporting the mayor,” Hardy said.
Max Hardy, chief of staff in the mayor's office. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Gourdie joined the mayor’s office about the same time as Hardy. Before that, she worked on Leo Molloy’s unsuccessful mayoral campaign and has worked in public relations at SkyCity, the TAB and New Zealand Racing Board. Prior to PR, Gourdie was a television reporter.
This month the Herald’s Damien Venuto ranked Gourdie 14th in a public relations power list, saying she isn’t afraid to take on a tough job and has an impressive knack for making sure her client’s side of the story is heard.
The head of communication and government relations may have gotten on her boss’s side but has left a sour taste among many councillors.
Manukau councillor Alf Filipaina, who earlier responded to the emails as a “sign of desperation” and “unbecoming”, today said they should not have gone out.
“It was their call. I can’t comment on why they made the call,” he said.
North Shore councillor Chris Darby said after receiving the emails he contacted Hardy and told him he found it “totally repugnant” that a staffer would forward a tranche of abusive emails to councillors.
“I left it with him to investigate and sort the issue within his office,” said Darby, saying the unsavoury rhetoric reflects on the reputation of the council.
Manurewa-Papakura councillor Angela Dalton called Goudie's actions naive. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Manurewa-Papakura councillor Angela Dalton called Goudie’s behaviour naive and not politically astute.
“We were all getting emails…and why Kate would think to send more emails, I don’t know. It can only be because she thought it would have some influence on our decision-making,” she said.
