Matt McCarten: New mayor gets moving with firm hold on reins

Len Brown is in a strong position with huge public support. Photo / The Aucklander

Len Brown has made a great start as new mayor of Auckland's Supercity. Penny Hulse was the wise and obvious pick for Brown as deputy mayor. She wasn't my first choice but she was a popular deputy mayor of Waitakere.

Hulse knows how not to overshadow her boss, so working for Brown will be a doddle for her after having to cover for Bob Harvey's eccentricities for years. She was Brown's first major decision and she will do well.

More curious and unexpected was Dick Hubbard's open letter to the new mayor on Monday's NZ Herald's opinion page. Hubbard's first piece of unsolicited advice to the winning candidate, whether John Banks or Brown, was to tell them from his - bitter - experience to take a holiday.

Is Hubbard nuts or just soft-headed? How would it have looked for Brown to tell us the day after his victory that he was tired and wanted a holiday? With judgment like that, no wonder Hubbard lost his mayoral chains after just a single term.

Fortunately, Brown is an experienced politico who knows that the first few weeks are the crucial period in which you set your agenda publicly. Brown won decisively and he is correctly using this honeymoon period to outline his priorities to us. Condensing his key policies into a five-point plan is a clever strategy. The Prime Minister has been forced to respond to concise proposals from the new Auckland boss.

I noticed John Key was careful not to reject outright Brown's ambitious demands for Auckland's transport needs. Rather, Key retreated into fudging and spinning a concern on the costs. Brown replied cheerfully with several funding options for his plans. One thing is certain, Brown intends to get his way.

Thanks to the Cabinet's expectation of a Banks and right-wing council win, Local Government Minister Rodney Hide gave the new Auckland regime a lot of power.

Hide's "bugger" comment to Banks confirms what we all know. The right wing and corporate privatisation plans are now in tatters. Brown's deliberate public coolness towards the Act leader surely means Key will have to replace Hide as local government minister soon.

Key knows the new mayor has the public support and a huge bully pulpit. The last thing Key wants in election year is to have Hide tussling with a popular mayor who has support of a third of the country.

Hubbard's letter also advised the new mayor to "find out fast who are the trusted ones and who are the ones to watch".

I think that comment says more about Hubbard's paranoia and his own failure than anything else. Hubbard was a political novice when he was elected mayor of Auckland.

He ignores the fact that Brown has been in local politics for more than two decades and already knows all the council senior players well.

In any event, the majority of the new council are his political allies and even those who are not are people he can work with.

I suspect Brown will give at least one of the powerful chair roles to the right-wing bloc to blunt any opposition. Christine Fletcher, the new head of the Citizens and Ratepayers faction, is liberal right and is harmless enough. The left's two heavyweights, Richard Northey and Mike Lee, will no doubt get oversight of the council-controlled organisations and transport boards respectively.

Brown will need to include at least one of his committee chairpeople from North Shore and someone from his own patch, Manukau. My pick would be Ann Hartley over George Wood from north of the bridge. There are several competent contenders in the south but Brown should include someone from the outer regions into his inner Cabinet.

Therefore, he may go with Des Morrison, given that he's part Maori and from Papakura. Appointing his old chief of staff and his campaign manager on his mayoral office payroll is a smart political move.

Every successful politician knows that the next election starts one second after you win the last one. If this week is anything to go by, this mayor will be in for a long tenure.