On The Tiles - Local Edition: Dissecting the local body election results

Efeso Collins, left, and the man he lost the Auckland mayoralty to, Wayne Brown. Photo / NZ Herald

The relationship between government and councils is set to get more testy, with Wayne Brown in Auckland's top job along with several right-leaning mayors around the country.

New Zealand Herald senior writer Simon Wilson, the Herald's deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan, and Newstalk ZB morning news director Michael Sergel have dissected the local body election results.

They joined the Herald's political podcast On The Tiles - Local Edition for a special panel discussion.

Wilson said the relationship with central government will be a real test for new Auckland mayor Wayne Brown.

"Since his victory he's been saying again that he is going to stand up to Wellington by telling them they provide the money and Auckland decides what to do with it."

But Wilson said that although Auckland was a third of the nation's population, it was not the majority of the population.

People living in other parts of the country expected the Government to control the use of taxes responsibly, Wilson said.

"It's not likely that any government from the left or the right is simply going to hand over enormous amounts of money to any part of the country and let them just spend it the way they want to."

Three Waters reform was a point of controversy for many on the local campaign trail.

Notably, Wellington's new mayor Tory Whanau has openly supported Three Waters reform and beat incumbent Andy Foster, who was against the reforms.

But she was the exception rather than the rule, with many new mayors being anti-Three Waters reform.

Coughlan said it appeared there were new councils which would be more difficult for Labour to work with.

"Labour's life got difficult on Saturday", Coughlan said.

He said the Government could be thinking twice about ploughing ahead with Three Waters as it is in the face of these more difficult councils.

But it was hard to know either way, especially due to low voter turnout in local body elections, Coughlan said.

"A lot of people who Labour would expect to turn out for them in the general election didn't turn out on Saturday, so maybe Labour would want to think twice about taking too much of a lesson."

Phil Mauger is the new mayor of Christchurch after serving as a city councillor.

He was one of those who voted against the Government's medium-density housing planning changes.

Sergel said the election results were a vote against incumbency and the status quo.

"There is a clear message to the Government here that there is a lot of public anxiety for better or worse regarding both Three Waters and housing intensification."