Wayne Brown sat down with NZ Herald reporter Bernard Orsman to discuss his Mayoral campaign and policies leading up to the Auckland Mayoral Election. Video / Carson Bluck
In the second of a four-part series on the policies of the Auckland mayoral candidates, Super City reporter Bernard Orsman talks with businessman and former Far North District Mayor Wayne Brown about his no-nonsense plans to "Fix Auckland", from cutting executive salaries to opening the books on the City Rail Link.
If he wins the Auckland mayoralty, Wayne Brown will instruct council chief executive Jim Stabback to cut the staff bill for officers earning more than $300,000 by 30 per cent.
He will tell City Rail Link boss Dr Sean Sweeney to clear Albert St of site offices and stick to one lane for concrete truck deliveries to free up space for struggling businesses.
Brown will stop ratepayer funding for Eke Panuku Auckland and Auckland Unlimited, saying they eat about $100m of ratepayers' money a year with very little to show for it.
He asks: Why is the council subsidising a property development company(Panuku) and a tourism promotions company (Auckland Unlimited)?
Events, like Pasifika, could be run from a small unit inside the council, says Wayne Brown. Photo / Dean Purcell.
If they can survive on their own, well and good, he says. If they can't, they will be closed down and a small unit in the council will run community events, like Pasifika.
He also promises simple solutions, such as transponders on buses to trigger green lights to improve travel times and reduce congestion.
This is a taste of the policies Brown plans to "Fix Auckland" after years of fixing corporate stuff-ups, like the 2006 power blackout that plunged the central city in darkness for five weeks and getting Auckland City's new hospital back on track.
"I am an infrastructure engineer who builds and owns roads, footpaths, water and sewer pipes, power and telco cables. I know this stuff," he said at the launch of his campaign in March.
Fellow Northlander and former NZ First cabinet minister Shane Jones calls Brown a "disruptor" and in an interview with the Herald on his policies, the mayoral hopeful confirmed his is a take-no-prisoners agenda.
As Herald reporter David Fishers said in a profile on Brown, the 76-year-old sees Auckland as a broken engine; he's not left or right, he's not Labour or National - he's a "man on a mission".
Auckland Council chief executive Jim Stabback will be told to cut executive salaries by Wayne Brown. Photo / Supplied
Wayne Brown's policies to Fix Auckland
Council Finances
Brown shakes his head at the state of the council's finances, saying it's hard to get to the bottom of what's going on.
Covid has caused a $900 million hole in the council's budget, revenue has fallen and costs have risen, the new council faces ongoing budget deficits of $90m to $150m, more than $300m of transport and other projects have to be deferred. There's a looming budget blowout on the $4.4 billion City Rail Link.
The council and AT's budgets are under "extreme pressure", says a recent report.
Brown says part of the solution is for the council to "stop wasting money" and he's not afraid to use "blunt instruments".
One such instrument is to unsettle council management at the outset. As mayor in charge of the budget, Brown plans to pass a resolution to cut the salary pool of staff earning more than $300,000 by 30 per cent, middle management by 20 per cent and lower management by 10 per cent.
"The traditional way to cut costs in organisations is to ask the chief executive to cut costs. Typically they cut people at the bottom and with it go the services. There is no oversupply of people fixing potholes and taking away rubbish and doing the things people expect their rates to go to, but definitely an oversupply of people in upper and middle management," Brown said.
Another blunt instrument will be to make Panuku and Auckland Unlimited self-sustaining. "They will either adapt to be self-sustaining or they won't."
Wayne Brown wants to open the books on the twin-tunnel $4.4 billion City Rail Link. Photo / Jed Bradley
Rates
Brown will not say how much he will raise rates in his first term until he understands the state of council finances, but says they will be less than this year's 5.6 per cent increase.
He is working to the principle of rates being at the lowest level to provide the services needed.
Asked where he draws the line between services that are needed and not needed, he says "the public have a good idea".
"We absolutely need to have rubbish taken away, water, sewage, roads, footpaths and construction like infrastructure things and libraries and parks."
Asked what services could be done away with, he said he would question other councillors but singled out consultation on things that never go ahead.
City Rail Link
The "complete silence" by City Rail Link bosses not to disclose the new cost and opening date for the mega project has riled Brown.
CRL boss Dr Sean Sweeney says work is still being done on Covid-related claims by the Link Alliance contractors involving an independent estimator and the new cost will not be known until the end of the year, or later.
"I will be asking immediately what they do know and if they don't know that is even more frightening. It's not how I'm used to doing things and I'm an engineer who builds projects," says Brown.
Wayne Brown says nobody has explained to him the problem that needs fixing with light rail. Image / Supplied
No-one has explained to him the problem that needs fixing, says Brown.
Brown says light rail started off as a route to the airport, then it was for intensification on a route to South Auckland, then Labour and National passed the law for three by three-storey houses everywhere so intensification is going to pop up all over the place.
The other thing Brown does not like about light rail is it's a Wellington-initiated project and, in his view, Auckland has got enough brains to decide where to spend the $14.6b cost put on the project.
"There are other and better things to do with that money. If we are going to do something useful about transport, congestion and climate change, shifting freight from truck to rail is what the rest of the world has been doing for the last 15 years and there is a corridor owned by KiwiRail between Southdown where the inland port is and Avondale … that should be put in place.
So what will he tell Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern?
With a year before a general election, Brown plans to use his independence and clout to see what the parties are prepared to offer up in return for Auckland's support.
For instance, he's thinking of holding an auction on police numbers.
"How many police are you going to give us Labour? 5000, do I hear 6000 from you National. That's the position we are going to be in."
Wayne Brown wants Ports of Auckland to pay its owner, Auckland Council, $400 million a year. Photo / Supplied
Ports of Auckland
Brown is a Ports of Auckland geek. He chaired the Upper North Island Supply Chain Study, which recommended moving Auckland's downtown port to Whangarei.
He says it's a "disgrace" that the most valuable land in one of the most beautiful cities in the world is used as a car park.
If you go down Queen St and turn left, says Brown, you have restaurants, hotels and apartments and see people engaged with the Waitemata Harbour. Turn right, you have a car park that gives importers three days of free parking and an industrial estate that returns little to the council coffers.
Brown promises to change that, starting with moving the cars to Whangarei and increasing the port's payment to its sole shareholder, Auckland Council, from $14m to $400m.
That will be made up of $200m of rates and a $200m dividend.
When the Herald pointed out that the council cannot charge rates on wharves and the Ports Companies Act prohibits councils from interfering in the operations of the port, Brown disagreed.
He says as a unitary authority, Auckland Council can charge rates. As for the act, Brown says: "We own the port and appoint the board and give them clear instructions what we want from them to be there."
Climate change
Brown says it was brave of Mayor Phil Goff and councillors introducing a climate action targeted rate, now the question is how to use the fund - a mix of actions to reduce greenhouse gases and mitigating against sea level rises and weather turmoil.
He says there's a place for removing car parks for cycleways and bus lanes and reducing car use but it must be "sensible".
Wayne Brown said the Karangahape Rd cycleway costing $12,000 a metre is not a good investment. Image / Auckland Transport
"A cycleway that costs $200 or $300 a metre and doesn't inconvenience everybody is a good investment. A cycleway that costs $12,000 a metre, like it did on Karangahape Rd, is not a good investment."
Brown says the Government is going to have to step up more and walk the talk by catching the train to Wellington a few times.
Co-governance
Brown is relaxed, saying the Super City has quite a bit of co-governance, such as the volcanoes and parts of the Hauraki Gulf that is working alright.
He is opposed to co-governance under the proposed Three Waters model because it's a dumb idea in the first place, but where iwi have a long and strong interest in matters, like the maunga (volcanoes) "I don't have a problem with that".
The Auckland Unitary Plan is doing a good job in places like Hobsonville Point, says Wayne Brown. Photo / Dean Purcell
Housing
"Butt out" will be the message from Brown to the Government, saying Auckland's Unitary Plan is doing a good job and producing places like Hobsonville Point.
"The Government has spent some years attempting to fix housing with huge amounts of resources and all the laws behind them and they have failed miserably.
"The sudden agreement to force the council to accept three-storey houses on virtually every section in Auckland is an insult to our district plan and bears no relationship to the capacity of infrastructure to accept this.
"I'll be telling the Govt your role is not to tell us what to do, it is to fund what we do."
If you had a spare $100 million to spend on one thing, what would it be? Freight rail
As mayor will you have a council credit card? "No. I don't want anyone at council to have a credit card. Have a policy for staff to pay for things and be reimbursed. It's amazing how that will reduce costs."
Yesterday: Viv Beck Today: Wayne Brown Tomorrow: Efeso Collins Monday: Other candidates
