Michael Lee is a New Zealand local government politician. He has been the Councillor for Waitematā and Gulf on

Auckland Council Auckland Council ( mi, Te Kaunihera o Tāmaki Makaurau) is the local government council for the Auckland Region in New Zealand. It is a territorial authority that has the responsibilities, duties and powers of a regional council and so is ...

since October 2022, an office he previously held from 2010 to 2019. He was a member of the

Auckland Regional Council The Auckland Regional Council (ARC) was the regional council (one of the former local government authorities) of the Auckland Region. Its predecessor the Auckland Regional Authority (ARA) was formed in 1963 and became the ARC in 1989. The AR ...

from 1992 to 2010 and was its final Chair from 2004 to 2010.

Political career

Auckland Regional Council

Lee was first elected to the

as an

Alliance An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...

candidate in a by-election in 1992. He was re-elected as a councillor at every election thereafter until the regional council's dissolution in 2010. He held the position of parks chairman (the council managed a number of regional parks), and oversaw the acquisition of substantial further parkland by the council during his time. He succeeded in opposing the privatisation of

Ports of Auckland Ports of Auckland Limited (POAL), the successor to the Auckland Harbour Board, is the Auckland Council-owned company administering Auckland's commercial freight and cruise ship harbour facilities. As the company operates all of the associated fa ...

. He wrote his MSc thesis on such matters as land titles on

Hauraki Gulf The Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana is a coastal feature of the North Island of New Zealand. It has an area of 4000 km2, Before becoming chair of the council, Lee was at times called a 'maverick' for opposing its more conservative members. One of his key projects in the 2000s was successfully pushing forward the Auckland railway electrification, electrification of Auckland's rail network, succeeded by his support for the construction of the City Rail Link tunnel to increase the capacity of the rail system, both projects often against strong opposition from national government. Lee was also instrumental in a campaign that resulted in the reopening of the

Onehunga Branch The Onehunga Branch railway line is a section of the Onehunga Line in Auckland, New Zealand. It was constructed by the Auckland Provincial Government and opened from Penrose to Onehunga on 24 December 1873, and extended to Onehunga Wharf ...

rail line to passenger traffic, allowing services to begin on the

Onehunga Line The Onehunga Line in Auckland, New Zealand is the name given to suburban train services that operate between Newmarket and Onehunga (formerly between Britomart and Onehunga via Newmarket). Routing From Newmarket, Onehunga Line services foll ...

in 2010. While on the regional council, Lee contested election to Parliament in in the as an Alliance Party candidate and came second after

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

Lockwood Smith Sir Alexander Lockwood Smith (born 13 November 1948) is a New Zealand politician and diplomat who was High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom from 2013 to 2017, and Speaker of the House of Representatives from 2008 to 2013. S ...

Auckland Council

With the amalgamation of the Regional Council into the

in 2010, Lee was elected in the

Waitematā and Gulf ward Waitematā and Gulf Ward is an Auckland Council ward which elects one councillor and covers the Great Barrier, Waiheke, and Waitematā Local Boards. The current councillor is Mike Lee. Demographics Waitematā and Gulf ward covers and had an e ...

. He served three terms as an independent, left-leaning councillor. He was chair of the transport committee from 2010 to 2016 and was additionally appointed as a director of the council's independent transport authority,

Auckland Transport Auckland Transport (AT) is the council-controlled organisation (CCO) of Auckland Council responsible for transport projects and services. It was established by section 38 of the Local Government (Auckland Council) Act 2009, and operates under ...

. He was critical of the form of the new council as created by the Fifth National Government (though he supported the creation of the council itself), and especially of the creation of large business-like

council-controlled organisation Council-controlled organisations (CCOs) and council-controlled trading organisations in New Zealand are what were formerly known as '' local-authority trading enterprises'' (''LATEs''). Introduced under Sections 6 and 7 of the ''Local Government Ac ...

s (CCOs) to manage substantial parts of the council-owned assets and services at arm's length from actual council control. Lee was re-elected in the 2016 Auckland elections, despite a challenge from

Bill Ralston Bill Ralston (born 1953) is a New Zealand journalist, broadcaster, and media personality, active in television, radio and print. He has worked as a political correspondent, fronted the television arts show Backch@t, and was the head of news an ...

. He intended to retire after two terms but changed his mind in June 2019, announcing he would contest the 2019 Auckland elections. By this time, the City Vision ticket, which had endorsed Lee in 2016 by not fielding a candidate, had selected Pippa Coom as its candidate in March 2019 on the understanding that Lee would not stand again. Lee finished second to Coom in the October 2019 election. Lee contested the 2022 Auckland Council elections in the Waitematā and Gulf ward against Coom. The centre-right political group

Communities and Residents Communities and Residents (C&R) is a right-leaning local body ticket in Auckland, New Zealand. It was formed in 1938 as Citizens & Ratepayers, with a view to controlling the Auckland City Council and preventing left-leaning Labour Party cont ...

endorsed him by declining to stand a candidate. In what was considered one of the biggest upsets of the 2022 Auckland elections, Lee defeated Coom by a margin of 1161 votes and became the councillor for Waitematā and Gulf once again.

Private life

Lee was married to

Sandra Lee-Vercoe Sandra Rose Te Hakamatua Lee-Vercoe (born 8 August 1952) is a former New Zealand politician and diplomat. She served as deputy leader (and briefly leader) of the Alliance party and was later High Commissioner to Niue. Early life Lee was bor ...

. They separated in 1992. Lee completed an MSc thesis entitled ''New Zealand the 10,000 island archipelago'' at the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

in 1996 – it has not been published. He spent 12 years researching and writing ''Navigators & Naturalists: French Exploration of New Zealand and the South Seas (1769–1824)'', which was published in 2018.

References

External links

Mike Lee
(webpage of the former

) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Mike People from Auckland Auckland Councillors Living people Alliance (New Zealand political party) politicians Auckland regional councillors Unsuccessful candidates in the 1996 New Zealand general election Year of birth missing (living people)