Penny Bright fought hard to the end. Given barely a week to live when she went to Auckland City Hospital at the end of August, the activist carried on for another month and a half. Her last days were spent the same way as she conducted herself in the public gaze — fearlessly, stubbornly, assertively and with utter conviction.
From her hospital bed she fired off a demand to Auckland Council in an effort to discover what officials had spent on the city's rate dispute with her. She also lent what energy she could muster to a petition to Parliament in the interests of greater council transparency.
These were the issues which consumed her. The battles might have seemed personal but her goals were broader — she insisted on disclosure, she campaigned relentlessly for accountability, she threw herself into social justice causes.
She paid a price. By one estimate she was arrested more than 40 times, and cheerfully called herself a "heat-seeking missile."
She could, as journalists who dealt with her will acknowledge, be a pain. Her refusal to pay rates for a decade became a costly dispute, which involved the council spending a lot of time and money fighting Bright.
