Mayor joins fight on suffrage tribute site

Margaret Wilson gets Len Brown to add his name to a petition to save the suffrage centenary memorial. Photo / Richard Robinson

Super City mayoral contender Len Brown has joined forces with the National Council of Women to keep the suffrage centenary memorial at its current site in central Auckland.

The Manukau mayor yesterday visited the memorial to sign a petition by the National Council of Women calling for a binding commitment from the Auckland City Council to protect the "national treasure for future generations" in Khartoum Place.

Citizens & Ratepayers councillors aligned to Mayor John Banks have refused to guarantee the survival of the memorial in Khartoum Place and asked officers to investigate the option of moving it.

Mr Banks is undecided on the issue, saying there were influential personalities with different views. He planned to bring the parties together and promised to reach a position before the October local body elections.

Mr Brown said if he became the Super City mayor, he would fight to keep the memorial in Khartoum Place, saying it represented one of the most significant events in New Zealand history - the first nation to give women the vote.

"I'm really thrilled to support the National Council of Women in their endeavours to ensure we don't leave it in a kind of twilight zone," he said.

Margaret Wilson, a member of the National Council of Women's Auckland executive, said the body was not going to tell people who to vote for in the upcoming local body elections.

"However, we do commend Mayor Len Brown who has shown that he is prepared to put himself on the line," she said.

The women's group is battling Auckland's arts fraternity, which is keen to resite the memorial in Auckland to open up the view, with a staircase from Lorne St to the $113 million Auckland Art Gallery upgrade in Kitchener St.

Art gallery owner Gary Langsford yesterday stressed that the arts fraternity, including the council's advisory panel for public art, wanted to retain the memorial. He said it could be moved to a more appropriate location, allowing Khartoum Place to become the "front door" to the art gallery.

He said Mr Brown had not done his homework by speaking to urban designers and architects, who did not favour retaining the tiled memorial.

Mr Brown said he was aware of all sides of the argument, but was sympathetic to the National Council of Women's "compelling case".

The memorial was unveiled in 1993 by Irish President Mary Robinson and Governor-General Dame Catherine Tizard.

This is the second attempt to move the memorial. A similar attempt failed in 2006 when several prominent dames rose up and Mayor Dick Hubbard intervened to stop a removal plan by officers.