Nominations for the local body elections closed yesterday. Getting not just a mayor but a council that supports improving public transport will be critical to getting projects like the City Rail Link across the line. For the CRL at least, I think we can certainly say it wouldn’t have progressed as far as it has without having received the large amount of support it has had from the current councillors. We already knew that three current councillors weren’t standing again with Sandra Coney, Michael Goudie and Des Morrison all not deciding to run again. The confirmed list of who is standing has now been released so this is just a quick post to look at who is standing for Mayor and council – I won’t cover the local boards as it would take up too much space. There are a total of 20 councillors covering 13 different wards which are shown in the map below:
Right, on to the canditates. I have highlighted the incumbent (if there is one) in red with people who stood unsuccessfully last time in blue. There are a handful that did stand last time in a different ward but I haven’t highlighted those.
Mayor
As expected Len Brown is standing again and so far the strongest contender seems to be John Palino. It’s interesting to see that David Willmott is standing again, as indicated in his affiliation his primary focus is on building roads and only roads. The video below shows many of his views and at the IPENZ talk we did on the Congestion Free Network he likened support of public transport and the environment to wanting the destruction of western civilisation.
| Mayor | BERRY | Stephen | Affordable Auckland |
| BRIGHT | Penny | Independent | |
| BROWN | Len | Independent | |
| BUTLER | Jesse | ||
| CHEEL | Tricia | ||
| DUFFY | Paul | ||
| GOODE | Matthew | ||
| HUSSEY | Emmett | Independent | |
| KRUGER | Sussana | Independent | |
| MINTO | John | Mana Movement | |
| O’CONNOR | Phil | Christians Against Abortion | |
| PALINO | John | Independent | |
| SHADBOLT | Reuben | Independent | |
| UNASA | Uesifili | Independent | |
| VERMUNT | Annalucia | Communist League | |
| WILLMOTT | David | Roads First | |
| YOUNG | Wayne | Working for the Homeless |
http://youtu.be/j21vbk-gA3c
Albany
As mentioned Michael Goudie is not running again which makes things interesting as we will definitely see a new face at the council table. I’m guessing the main fight will be between Wayne Walker, Julia Parfitt and Brent Robinson.
| Albany Two Seats | BENSON-COOPER | Mary-Anne | Independent |
| CHEEL | Tricia | ||
| MOORHEAD | Kevin | Independent | |
| PARFITT | Julia | ||
| ROBINSON | Brent Richard | Independent | |
| WALKER | Wayne | Putting People First | |
| WATSON | John | Putting People First | |
| WHYTE | Lisa | Independent |
Albert-Eden-Roskill
Both Christine Fletcher and Cathy Casey have strong name recognition while both Peter Haynes and Nigel Turnbull are both currently on the local board.
| Albert-Eden-Roskill Two Seats | CASEY | Cathy | City Vision |
| CHASE | Phil | Liveable Communities | |
| FLETCHER | Christine | Communites and Residents | |
| HADEN | Grace | Transparency New Zealand | |
| HAYNES | Peter | City Vision | |
| TURNBULL | Nigel | Communites and Residents |
Franklin
The only seat where all candidates are brand new.
| Franklin One Seat | CASHMORE | Bill | Team Franklin C&R |
| KLOETEN | Niko | Affordable Auckland | |
| MURPHY | Lyn | Independent |
Howick
This is quite disappointing, not because of who is standing but that no-one else put their hand up. It would be nice to at least have a contest of ideas.
| Howick Two Seats | QUAX | Dick | Independent |
| STEWART | Sharon | Independent |
Manukau
Unfortunately I don’t know enough about the area but I would have to imagine that the incumbents will be very strong.
| Manukau Two Seats | ANAE | Arthur | Independent |
| APPU | Baskaran | Communist League | |
| FA’AMOE | Tunumafono Ava | Labour | |
| FILIPAINA | Alf | Labour | |
| FOWLER | Roger | Mana Movement | |
| HANS | Avtar | Independent | |
| TRINDER | Joe | Mana Movement |
Manurewa-Papakura
Same as with Manukau, I imagine both Callum Penrose and John Walker will be very hard to beat.
| Manurewa-Papakura Two Seats | BROWN | Colleen | Team South |
| GOLDSMITH | Peter | Team South | |
| PAPALI’I | James | Mana Movement | |
| PENROSE | Calum | Independent for ManurewaPapakura | |
| TUMAI | Barry Edward | Mana Movement | |
| WALKER | John | Independent for ManurewaPapakura |
Manguakiekie-Tamaki
A classic two horse race with one left wing candidate and one right wing candidate. This should be an interesting battle to watch. Funny enough when I was out at Panmure for the opening of the Ellerslie-Panmure bridge both candidates came and sat down either side of me for the speeches, I wasn’t sure it was the safest place to be sitting 😉
| Maungakieie-Tamaki One Seat | KRUM | Denise | Communites and Residents |
| NORTHEY | Richard | Labour |
North Shore
This is another seat that will be very interesting to watch. As you can see many of the candidates stood last time and it was a very close race. It’s entirely possible that we could see some changes here.
| North Shore Two Seats | BERGIN | Joseph | Fair Deal For Shore |
| DARBY | Chris | Talking the Shore Forward | |
| GILON | Grant | Team of Independents | |
| HARTLEY | Ann | ||
| MACPHERSON | Calum | Independent | |
| WOOD | George | Fair Deal For Shore |
Orakei
Sadly this is another no contest with Cameron Brewer standing unopposed.
| Orakei One Seat | BREWER | Cameron | Independent |
Rodney
Again another two horse race. I don’t know anything about Steven but I imagine that Penny Webster will be hard to beat.
| Rodney One Seat | GARNER | Steven | |
| WEBSTER | Penny | Independent |
Waitakere
As mentioned, Sandra Coney is standing down this time which has likely helped to create a lot of interest in this seat (which also happens to be my ward). I imagine that Penny Hulse will be very strong here however there are a lot of names that have been around local body politics for a long time including Peter Chan, Linda Cooper, Brian Neeson and Christine Rose. Along with Albany, this has the highest number of candidates for a council seat.
| Waitakere Two Seats | CHAN | Peter | Affordable Auckland |
| COOPER | Linda | Independent | |
| FAZAKERLEY | Allan | ||
| HULSE | Penny | West At Heart | |
| NEESON | Brian | Independent | |
| ROBERTSON | Douglas | Mana Movement | |
| ROSE | Christine | Independent | |
| WOOLSTON | Jason |
Waitemata and Gulf
Mike Lee won convincingly in the last election, will the same thing happen again this time?
| Waitemata and Gulf One Seat | BERRY | Stephen | Affordable Auckland |
| FISHER | Charlotte | ||
| LEE | Mike | ||
| MOYLE | Greg | Independent | |
| THOMAS | Rob | Independent | |
| ZIVALJEIC | Aleksandar |
Whau
The battle between Nolene Raffills and Ross Clow was very close at the last election with less than 400 votes separating them. This should be an interesting contest to watch.
| Whau One Seat | CLOW | Ross | Labour |
| MACDONALD | Duncan | Community First | |
| RAFFILLS | Noelene | Independent |
All up the number of candidates seem a bit disappointing, especially as there are three people who will be elected unopposed. Of course with three people standing down there will definitely be some new faces around the place after October and you never know if there will be an upset in one of the electorates that do have lots of people standing.
Our friends at Generation Zero will be doing some hard work to get out there and get the candidates views on transport and the unitary plan issues so we can help you be better informed. As a quick warning for any candidates, both we and Generation Zero won’t be taking BS platitudes about supporting public transport. We want to know details of exactly how you support PT including the what projects you think should be built and by when.
It should be an interesting few weeks.
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David Willmott. As soon as he mentioned he helped plan Manukau, I knew where that speech was heading. Oh, gosh. So many lies and untruths in 7 and a bit mimutes.
Omg, does he really believe all what he says
Well done Bruce. I couldn’t get past 2 minutes before asking myself why I am watching this.
Geez couldn’t you get anyone, like a homeless person or someone you’ve just pulled out of the harbour to stand against Quax like a duck?
Indeed Matthew!
And the same goes for Orakei – was there no one to stand against Dr. No? 🙁
Now that registration has closed, is there a donkey vote possibility (like in Australia) or a write-in option?
Patrick for Orakei campaign anyone? 😉
“he likened support of public transport and the environment to wanting the destruction of western civilisation.”
Well that escalated quickly.
At least he’s honest about his intentions: he’s not going to listen to anybody and create more Autoraum for the people!
I was in said meeting – which was 90% engineers and transport planners – and various people audibly scoffed.
He has been saying that for years, so it’s perfectly true to form. In fact, he has these “questions” at pretty much any meeting he attends. All these evil moves of the last couple years (you know, building busways, planning for a rail tunnel) are a ploy to force us all to use public transport. Probably at gun-point, eventually. He is the light in the darkness, warning us of the dreadful mistakes we are making…
Even within his profession, he is known by a rather unflattering nickname.
Give him some respect for standing…everyone else just joins a blog and bitches like a girl. I wouldn’t vote for him but he deserves more respect than you guys just for standing.
Oh groan and troll comment.
Now I have that out of the way. I don’t speak for ATB but I do speak for myself running my own blog on Auckland issues and deciding not to run this round.
I had given it consideration and the main factor in not running was this in the end:
Would I make more of a difference in advancing Southern Auckland peeing outside into the tent, or peeing inside the tent. I concluded outside and into the tent thus did not decide to run.
Look ATB are advancing the CFN and give AT a good run most days so no qualms from here
Ben, whether we pee inside or outside the tent, the most important thing is to remember to wash our hands afterwards. I’m not quite sure of the metaphorical significance of this.
Christians Against Abortion For The Mayoralty For Some Reason!
True in washing one’s hands unless one wants to get Foot in Mouth Disease
The metaphorical significance of my bit was this:
The Tent: Council and the CCOs
Some us work inside the tent or want to work inside that tent as Mayor, Councillors, Local Board members, or working inside the CCOs to better Auckland
Some of us work outside the tent as Consultants, Advocates or private citizens to advance a better Auckland.
Whatever it maybe – the goal is the same and Phil should not be attacking ATB for what they are doing
Ha, yes I got the metaphorical significance of your comment, and good on you for that, I was just trying to be droll and extend the metaphor in a way that didn’t make sense. It’s something I tend to do offline; doesn’t always work so well in text!
😀
Oh really. Apart from not standing for mayor, there are plenty of people who visit this site that spend lots of time advocating, planning, are on local boards, local residents and ratepayers associations, organisations like GenZero etc etc. Their work is of no less importance than someone who wants to stand for mayor. I watched the 7+minutes of his speech. I disagree with his views. I gave him the respect by listening.
7 minutes!!! I still don’t know how you did that Bryce.
I’m a sucker for democracy and part of that is listening to all sides, even if you disagree with them :-).
On a side note, he is recommending Auckland continues down the path that has led to – poor PT, congested roads, kids unable to play outside of their own properties and having to be driven to school, having to drive to shops etc etc. Detroit is an example of what can happen when you allow sprawl to continue unabated (as well as putting all your eggs in one basket – auto industry).
Respect to you Bryce for taking the time to listen before making a judgement! How can anyone respect Matthew (only as an example) for not listening? They guy may have made a ground breaking salient point at minute 6 (he didn’t)… Please understand, and I say this with all due respect, the Auckland Transport Blog is a minority movement and no different from ‘Roads First’ in that it represents the select views of but a few.
That doesn’t mean your views shouldn’t be heard or that your views are any less relevant but grow up children and respect the rights of others to express opinions different to yours.
Phil, any moron can stand for mayor. Literally anyone who is a citizen of New Zealand. Not everyone can run a successful blog.
Really Nick….. I mean really???
Is the pinnacle of YOUR achievement running a blog…. I mean…really???
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/writing-a-good-blog.html
I don’t run a blog, but to do it properly must be harder than filling out a form to stand for a local election. I know Matt L in particular will have been to more Transport Committee and Council meetings that Willmott ever has. Do you suppose Willmott gets invited to present in front of the Transport Committee like Matt and Patrick did? Matt was cited in the Herald next to Mayor Brown last week, Patrick was on Campbell Live the week before that, and ended up on the couch next to the prime minister for one of the breakfast chat shows not long ago too. Last time I saw Willmott rear his ugly head was at an IPENZ function where he got heckled and booed.
Matt, how many people read this blog each day, eight or nine thousand was it? I wonder if even a tenth that have listened to Willmott rant. I note that YouTube shows the clip has been viewed 453 times in total.
Becoming mayor is an achievement, running for mayor is as hard as paying a bill at the post office.
Phil, you could argue that we’re actually doing Mr Wilmott a favour by giving him more of a platform for his policies; in fact, since we posted that link, the views of his Youtube video have more than doubled, going from 280ish to 620. Incidentally, that’s more than the number of votes he received in 2010 (537).
Actually, I do respect Matthew, as he, like myself would like to see a change in culture at Auckland Transport and take some bold steps in order to provide better transport choices. The problem in Auckland, as I see it, is too many people who cannot see that the past 60 years of traffic planning has led to broken promise after broken promise (just one more motorway / arterial and congestion will go away – yeah right!) instead of balancing the spending with other forms of transport – PT and active transport. Saying people can ride in bus lanes, brushing their hands and thinking “great, what next?” is not good enough.
Sometimes it just saves time to take an instant dislike to someone Phil.
Phil, you are missing the point that Matt has personally met this fellow (at least once that I am aware of, because I was in the room, and possibly more than that one time), and had a discussion (well, Matt had to listen to a rant) with him about exactly the topics Matt blogs about, and this person is standing for the mayoralty on.
I think Matt is well excused for having made his decision about this person long ago.
Starnius, you’re confusing your Matts. I, Handlebar Matt, am the one Phil is contemptuous of because I think Willmott is a bit of a dick and couldn’t bare to give him more than 120 seconds of my time (and maybe Phil is a bit contemptuous of me because I replied to one of his daft all the greenie vegans forcing us all onto organic bicycle strawman statements with “I’ve been thinkin’ He could be another Lincoln, if he only had a brain” – that might be something to do with it.) The other Matt, Clouds Matt? or Matt L, is a bit more respectful of Mr Willmott, in that he hasn’t got on here and called him a dick. But then again linking to the youtube of his mayoralty pitch, considering he is a bit of a joke candidate, was obviously done only for humour reasons. I, for the record, have never met David Willmot, and am unlikely to, since he doesn’t look like he gets out much.
My guess is that the reason Wilmott doesn’t get out much is that he doesn’t like paying for parking, since this market-based system is in fact a conspiracy by the Stalinist leftie tree-hugging hippy bludgers who are throwing this country to the dogs.
I hear John Minto is promising free and frequent public transport.
Along with promoting the Living Wage and increasing the number of council flats by 20 000.
and doubling the number of buses on the road within a year to make that ideal possible
And you know what side he’s on
Wow, what a rant! I’d have to ask Willmott how he can claim that Auckland is “closing down”, “contracting”, “imploding” and “failing”. Every indicator I’ve seen is that it is growing very fast with a stable economy and huge attractiveness to national and international migrants.
you Gen-X youngsters should be so relieved that Mr Willmot is so keen on sorting out houses on the periphery for you to buy. At least he advocates integrated land use and transport planning, even if his paradigm is antiquated
Um I’m not sure so many of us live on the periphery. Those that do (usually in family homes) would dearly love to move into the city if they could afford it.
Hence the campaigning to keep intensification across city and inner suburbs.
Luke, I needed an “intense irony” emoticon, it is his patronising assumption that he knows what the “youngsters” want that gets up my nose, but then my work has been in planning, so I have no standing in his eyes
haha, ok. That patronising attitude is very annoying. Got it a few times at some of the Unitary Plan meetings. Even got told to move to Australia by some lovely people in Mt Eden! That was for the cheek of saying so many young people I knew were moving to Australian cities and we needed to ensure Auckland had a strong urban feel to attract people back.
I remember getting shouted down at a shareholder’s meeting quite a few years ago. Some don’t like the ‘youngies’ expressing their view.
Building roads first – we’ve been doing that for the last fifty years. How much longer do we have to be building only one type of transport infrastructure before we make it more balanced? Wilmott’s answer to traffic congestion is to just keep building more roads.
Just watched the rest of David’s video. He is saying Auckland’s economy is stagnant and we need more roads and less regulation. But we mostly only have roads so it can’t be public transport’s fault the economy is stagnant. Also, wasn’t a reduction in regulations by this crowd currently in government the reason we have a multi-billion dollar leaky building problem?
David doesn’t seem to think I should have the choice to live in an apartment or use rail services. Also, young people should be able to buy their own property but it should be in the suburbs. I guess this is because that is where good folks live.
Apparently cities don’t work – hear that Sydney, Melbourne, Singapore, New York, London.
Thanks for putting this video up and ruining my day.
It’s only ruined if he somehow gets elected.
What?! Breaking news! Dinosaurs really do still exist in Auckland LOL?! Los Angeles is a city Auckland is trying to model itself on??! I’ve heard Vancouver, Seattle, Perth etc mentioned as places we should be trying to replicate but Los Angeles? Sorry Mr Willmott but I think you’re the only one who’s mentioned Auckland and LA in that vein. But David, at least you were on the money about changing attitudes and direction. Damn right! That’s exactly what we’re trying to do after the roads first status quo of the last 60 years!
Bits of LA, like Koreatown and Glendale have some really nice bits of urbanism. Auckland could indeed learn some things from LA. LA is spending a lot on light raill, and the subway is extending westwards along Wiltshire Blvd. Also you can get an all day pass on their Metro system for 5 bucks. Parts of SoCal are also greenlaning their roads with separated cycleways. So yep a few things Auckland could follow.
LA? Well, they’re heading in the right direction. http://www.metro.net/projects/progress_tracker/
Matthew & Bryce P, yes I know LA is taking steps. Like Auckland it’s made some big efforts to change the direction of the ship so to speak. Yep, they might be heading in the right direction but they ain’t no role model city yet. So when I hear Auckland and LA mentioned together in the same city the first thing that comes to my mind is role models for roads.
I actually think LA is doing more than Auckland.
Its going to be fun meeting him to score on transport. He’s also a mad rambler amongst other things. Trapped me after the IPENZ presentation and talked non stop for 5 minutes, impossible to escape. Also doesn’t listen one bit. Claiming current public transport was too slow, thats why everyone drives and also will. Of course this was after the congestion free network presentation where transportblog showed how we could substantially speed up public transport!
Disappointing that we’ll be lumped with clown Brewer for another three years and Dick “I supported the CRL from the start” Quax. I remember Christine Rose as being a very pro-PT ( think she took the train regularly to work) councillor on the Auckland Regional Council before the super city came along. Completely agree Matt L. It’s not just the mayor who is important for the continued progress of PT in Auckland it’s the whole council composition. The last thing we need even if Len gets back in is to have a lame duck mayor stifled by a right-wing dominated council.
Christine Rose was chair of the Regional Transport committee if I remember correctly
She also regularly cycled to work. She’s about as pro-transport in the sense of this blog as we could get.
What I find interesting is Niko standing in Franklin. He is an nbr journalist who for the past 6 months has been going on about anything that i would call progressive, its just sad that no alternatives are offered to transport and other issues in the super city. Anyway i live in hope but dont see much positive movement as yet
Just as a point of interest, why don’t you guys have a representative run for office in local (or national) politics?
I think the comments made previously about bring inside or outside the tent ate the response to someone from ATB standing in the local body elections
I can comment on Manurewa as I was interested in standing for the Local Board. John Walker is completely invisible and the locals do not even know if he lives in the area. Peter Goldsmith has connections to National, his hoardings have blue on them. Colleen Brown is on the Local Board, but not re-standing.
You know, the answer to all your PT dreams is quite simple…Just toll the roads and make PT free. Do any of the candidates have that as a manifesto?
I don’t see why NZ doesn’t do what the Swiss do and have a vignette for using motorways. If your car doesn’t have the sticker you cant travel on the motorway. All the school teacher types that whinge about regressive tax can shut up because the poor people can stay on the B roads (the worlds most dangerous road to Warkworth) or use the free bus. Meanwhile the motorways will be less car congested making Mr Audi/BMW driver very happy to pay an extra $200 a year one off fee.
If that’s not enough revenue to run the buses then we could replace rates with a council tax and get all the renters to contribute the same tax currently restricted to home owners.
John Minto has a policy of free Public Transport.
“All the school teacher types”?????
Wanker.
Seconded.
Erm, renters pay rates through their rent. Well, some landlords might pay it from their own pockets out of the goodness of their hearts but I certainly include rates when calculating the return on my investment properties.
While that’s notionally true Nick, the reality is that rents are set by the market while rates are set by Len! A quick look showed me that the rates for my rentals have increased 55% over the last five years (and are still capped), while the rent has increased just 15%. And insurance is set to double (I scraped in this year under the old system). Also, I’ve just spent $5000 renovating one flat between tenants. No, I’m not complaining, but it’s pretty clear that renters are onto a winner. Granted, unrealised capital value has increased about 20% over the same period, but the overall yield is still pretty poor.
Can tell you that in the Rodney ward, Steven Garner is a current Local Board member who supports the Holiday Highway as the solution to all the problems of Northland. So his views are pretty much the same as Penny Webster’s. Don’t think he will give PW a serious challenge, which is a huge shame. It’s also a shame that both candidates are from Warkworth. Almost talked myself into standing as a candidate for the “Anyone but Penny Webster Party” but have to confess to to suffering from the same apathy as seems to have affected everyone else in the ward.
Wow, you really do need STV badly, Auckland!
No we don’t! I want a clean and clear voting system. We have eight Local Board members in Manurewa, so how am I seriously meant to rank them? Just tick the box and let the winners come forward.