Auckland Mayoral Candidate Viv Beck has parted with Mike Hutcheson. Photo / Greg Bowker
Auckland Mayoral Candidate Viv Beck has parted with Mike Hutcheson. Photo / Greg Bowker
An advertising adviser to Viv Beck's mayoral campaign has parted ways with her team over what he alleged were "Trump playbook" tactics.
Mike Hutcheson said a social media advertisement attacking Beck's rivals Efeso Collins and Wayne Brown on the issue of co-governance was the "straw that broke the camel's back".
Hutcheson said he enjoyed working with Beck and liked her, but he believed Communities and Residents (C&R) were taking her in an attacking direction, which he did not think was appropriate.
C&R is the National Party's de facto local government arm in Auckland, which has endorsed Beck.
Hutcheson claimed some of the people around Beck had taken a line out of "Trump's playbook" with the social media ads.
The social media advertisement that led to Mike Hutcheson parting ways. Photo / File
Beck said: "This is not a Trump campaign but it is a very important election for Auckland and the messages need to be firm.
"The campaign team made the decision to move to a strong online presence at this stage of the campaign, highlighting issues that are important to many people across the region."
Beck said the online advertisement has been removed.
It was posted on her Facebook page under the comment: "It's just more pain with Efeso and Wayne".
It showed a picture of Collins and Brown against a red background headlined "For Co-Governance" alongside a picture of herself against a blue background headlined "Against Co-Governance".
Beck said Hutcheson "has done a great job in creating the 'Back Beck' campaign and I am personally appreciative of his expertise and guidance".
The loss of Hutcheson, a highly respected advertising veteran, adds to the problems Beck is encountering with an unpaid $353,000 bill for earlier advertising work done by Hello Limited.
The claim prompted an email to Beck last Thursday from Matt Blomfield, whose legal services agency was hired to recover the outstanding bill on behalf of Hello Limited.
In the email, he told Beck: "The statement is not true. Hello Limited has not received one cent from you or any associated organisation as payment against its outstanding invoices."
Yesterday, Beck said she was disappointed the dispute had been made public when both sides had been working to resolve it.
A week ago the Herald reported Beck had been locked out of her original social media and website accounts after a failure to pay for work that included setting up an online presence.
Today, Hutcheson told the Herald he came in about two months ago to try and help Beck, who "was on the right path", but believed she had been influenced by C&R.
"I was asked by some friends of hers to help her out and I went and said 'this is what I would do'. I wasn't part of her team. I was really giving some advice from the outside," said Hutcheson.
He said local government politics should not be ideological and he disagreed with recent social media personal attacks putting positions in people's mouths.
"It's not me," Hutcheson said.
A few weeks back, Beck signed up with social media contractor The Campaign Company and its creative boss Dylan Parshotam. The company is owned by Jordan Williams, who heads the Taxpayers' Union.
Parshotam previously worked for Topham Guerin, which did political communications for the British Conservative Party in the 2019 general election and worked with the Liberal Party in Australia.
Hutcheson said he was a political agnostic. He has done work for Auckland mayors Len Brown and Phil Goff, worked on campaigns for National and Labour, as well as campaigns for property magnate Sir Bob Jones and former Auckland City mayor Les Mills.
Beck, who is standing on a pro-business centre-right platform, has previously outlined her position on co-governance to the Herald.
She said she does not support co-governance over national assets, like water, which give equal say to Māori on an undemocratic basis, but is comfortable with Treaty settlements that have come with co-management.
"Co-governance now is extremely divisive and people have no say and I think that is concerning them," she said.
Taxpayers' Union head Jordan Williams, who owns The Campaign Company. Photo / Andrew Warner.
When it comes to the Tūpuna Maunga o Tāmaki Makaurau Authority, a co-governance statutory authority that oversees many of the city's volcanic cones, and the Independent Maori Statutory Board (IMSB), which provides advice and oversight of issues of Maori to Auckland Council, Beck has concerns.
She said the Tūpuna Maunga Authority is making decisions that are deeply upsetting to people, such as the removal of trees on Ōwairaka (Mt Albert volcano) and would want to have a good look at it.
On the IMSB, whose members sit on major council committees with voting rights, Beck is comfortable with the board having input into council, but does not support members having voting rights.
"I support democracy," said Beck, who would like the IMSB to be part of a review of the Super City.
