Wayne Brown (New Zealand Politician)

Wayne Kelvin Forrest Brown (born 22 August 1946) is a New Zealand politician and the mayor of Auckland since the 2022 Auckland mayoral election. He has worked in leadership roles in several large New Zealand businesses and public infrastructure organisations. He was mayor of the Far North District Council from 2007 to 2013.

Early life and family

Brown was born in Auckland on 22 August 1946, and was educated at Auckland Grammar School. He went on to study engineering at the University of Auckland from 1964 to 1967, and graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering degree. He then spent several years overseas.

After returning to New Zealand, Brown established an engineering consulting practice in Auckland. In 1974, he married his wife, Toni, and the couple went on to have two children. Two years after marrying, they moved to Kerikeri in the Bay of Islands.

Business career

An engineer by training, Brown is a property developer. He has served as a director of many New Zealand organisations, both public and private. These include TVNZ, Māori TV, Transpower, Vector Ltd, and was chair of the Land Transport Safety Authority. In the 2000s he chaired the Government-owned telecommunications firm Kordia.

In 2019, he led a review for the New Zealand Government which recommended shifting the Port of Auckland to Marsden Point in the country's north. There was some controversy around this idea, with other reports suggesting it would be more expensive or that the port should be shifted to Manukau harbour. In 2020 the government deferred its decision until 2021.

, his business interests include a public bar in Ōtāhuhu (the Milestone Bar), where he is a member of the Business Association, and at least one company directorship and shareholding.

Public service career

District health boards

Brown was appointed chairman of the Northland District Health Board and Tairāwhiti District Health Board in January 2001 when district health boards were established; he had previously chaired the respective Hospital and Health Service (HHS) boards. In December 2001, Brown was appointed to chairman of the Auckland District Health Board and remained chair of Tairāwhiti DHB. During the 2001–2004 local government term, Brown was forced to resign from Tairāwhiti DHB, where he had been elected, due to an administrative error by the Ministry of Health. The underlying legislation, the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000, did not allow a person elected to a district health board to also be a member of a second board, but this had been overlooked. Brown remained the appointed chair of the Auckland DHB. Brown was reappointed by the Health Minister Annette King for another term in October 2004, but the new Health Minister, David Cunliffe, chose a new chair for Auckland from December 2007, appointing Patrick Snedden. Brown describes his performance as chair of these boards as a successful "fixer". However, several anonymous senior medical staff have been reported to dispute this.

Mayor of the Far North District, 2007–2013

In the October 2007 local elections, Brown challenged the three-term mayor of Far North District, Yvonne Sharp, and had a "landslide victory". Brown received 10,081 votes, almost twice as many as Sharp, from the total Far North population of 55,000. He appointed Sally Macauley as deputy mayor. For the October 2010 local elections, Brown, at 64, delayed announcing his candidacy "just in case someone younger and brighter came forward" to continue his work, but when this did not happen, he put his nomination forward in August. He narrowly defeated John Goulter, and appointed Ann Court as deputy mayor. In the October 2013 local elections, Brown was decisively defeated by John Carter (8521 votes to Brown's 2502), who had represented the area in parliament until 2011.

As mayor, Brown received some criticism in an enquiry by the auditor general for blurring roles and was advised "to separate his personal and official roles more carefully in future". In September 2022, Brown stated that he had "learnt a lesson" and this was unlikely to be a problem in Auckland as most of his current business interests are outside Auckland.

2022 Auckland mayoral campaign

On 29 March, Brown launched his Auckland mayoral campaign at an event hosted by the Avondale Business Association, with a plan to "Fix Auckland". His team included National Party strategist and lobbyist and political commentator Matthew Hooton and National Party-aligned strategist Tim Hurdle. Near the end of his campaign Brown said on camera that if successful he wanted to glue pictures of a certain journalist on urinals so people could "pee on him". This drew widespread criticism in the news media.

Brown won the mayoral election with 181,810 votes, over 54,000 more than his nearest rival Efeso Collins. Collins announced his concession immediately through Twitter, giving support and congratulating Brown on his victory. Collins offered Brown his full support but stepped down from local politics, pointing out issues in the current voting system and particularly low voter turnout in South Auckland. Brown's election marked the first time a centre-right candidate had won the Auckland mayoralty, ending 12 years of centre-left leadership of the city.

Mayor of Auckland, 2022–present

Following his election as mayor of Auckland, Brown appointed Hooton as his interim head of policy and communications, economic adviser and campaign strategist Tim Hurdle as his interim chief of staff, and Hurdle's wife Jacinda Lean as interim deputy chief of staff. In mid-October 2022, former New Zealand First Member of Parliament Jenny Marcroft became an adviser to Brown. During his first month as Mayor, Brown called for the heads and board members of several council-controlled organisations including Auckland Transport and the Auckland Council's development arm Eke Panuku to resign as part of a leadership shakeup. Auckland Transport's chair Adrienne Young-Cooper resigned shortly after Brown won the mayoral race. In addition, Brown called on Auckland Transport to prioritise roading and carparking networks. He criticised the council-controlled organisation for using transport policy and services as a tool for changing how Aucklanders lived.

During his mayoral election campaign, Brown had campaigned on stopping the Three Waters reform programme, and on 17 October, Brown instructed Auckland's water management company Watercare to stop working on the programme, describing it as a "doomed proposal". On 31 October 2022, Brown along with the Mayor of Christchurch Phil Mauger and the Mayor of Waimakariri Ben Gordon proposed an alternative Three Waters plan. Key provisions include retaining the national water regulator Taumata Arowai while preserving local ownership over water resources and infrastructure. Other proposed changes have included providing affordable finance to support investments in water infrastructure and encouraging local water services entities to merge into regional water entities.

See also

* List of chairpersons of district health boards

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Wayne
1946 births
Living people
Businesspeople from Auckland
People educated at Auckland Grammar School
University of Auckland alumni
New Zealand civil engineers
Auckland District Health Board members
Tairāwhiti District Health Board members
Northland District Health Board members
Mayors of places in the Northland Region
Mayors of Auckland
21st-century New Zealand politicians