Poll shock: Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown goes from big election win to poor approval rating in the space of five months

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown's approval rating has declined in a new poll. Photo / Dean Purcell

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown’s approval rating is in negative territory after five months on the job, according to a new poll.

The first Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance-Curia quarterly poll on the mayor’s job approval shows 37 per cent of Aucklanders think Brown is doing a poor or very poor job running the Super City.

This compares to 21 per cent who think he is doing a good or very good job and 28 per cent who rated his performance as average. The unsure figure was 13 per cent.

The poll of 566 Aucklanders across three Curia polls in January, February, and March gave Brown a net approval rating of minus 16 per cent.

The poll comes five months after Brown stormed to victory with a thumping win over the Labour candidate Efeso Collins. The businessman and engineer received nearly 182,000 votes, or about 47 per cent of the vote in a field of 23 candidates.

This is almost the same percentage of the vote as former mayor and Labour heavyweight Phil Goff secured in 2016 and 2019.

Since coming to office last October, Brown has frequently displayed an abrasive style of leadership, calling for the heads of council organisations to go, refusing more than 100 requests for media interviews and referring to “media drongos” in a leaked text message.

His first budget contains deep cuts to community and arts grants to plug a $295 million hole and Brown’s behaviour at the time of the January 27 floods came in for criticism. An independent review set up by the mayor of the city’s immediate response to the floods was set up and due out in the coming days.

A week after the floods, Brown admitted he “dropped the ball” on the night of the floods and apologised.

Asked to comment on the poll, a mayoral spokeswoman said Brown does not care about fluctuations in public approval.

“The mayor was elected overwhelmingly by ratepayers to fix Auckland and is focused on the enormous job ahead,” she said.

Josh Van Veen, a spokesman for the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance said leaving aside the 13 per cent of unsure respondents, most Aucklanders think Brown’s performance has been at least average.

“That should give Brown some encouragement. An independent review by ex-Police Commissioner Mike Bush could yet vindicate the Mayor for his handling of the February flood response. The annual budget process will also give Brown an opportunity to turn public opinion back in his favour as he seeks to cut the number of overpaid bureaucrats and sort out Auckland Transport,” Van Veen said.