Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown got increasingly frustrated with reporters this afternoon after facing a barrage of questions over comments he made that triggered an Auckland Airport share trading halt.
Brown's first council budget proposal has passed almost unanimously - but that news has been overshadowed by his speculation the airport, a publicly listed company, was planning a major equity raise.
Twenty of the 21 people in Auckland's governing body voted to take the mayor's annual budget proposal to the public for feedback. That was what Brown wanted reporters to focus on.
Instead, he was asked whether he'd apologise for causing the hour-long share trading halt.
"Who's been hurt?" an increasingly irate Brown answered reporters.
When asked if he was embarrassed about what had happened, he responded: "I'm not embarrassed by anything."
Brown said he didn't think his comments would have shaken councillors' confidence in him.
Earlier on Wednesday, Brown's office said in a statement the mayor was "speculating about how the airport company might finance its ambitious capital expenditure programme".
"The mayor is not in possession of any information not available to the market," the statement said.
His spokesperson tried to step in multiple times as Brown faced media to say the mayor had already spoken about his comments. Reporters pushed back and said Brown should answer for himself.
Auckland Airport halted share trading for a time after Wayne Brown's comments. (Source: 1News)
"Any informed person can make a suggestion," Brown said. "I didn't make a statement on behalf of anything. I'm just a person who looks out there and sees what I think."
Asked for a justification for his comments, Brown said he didn't know why the sharemarket regulator had decided to pause trading.
"It must be because I'm quite well known."
Mayor keeps rates down by proposing cuts
People can give their thoughts on the mayor's budget proposal from early next year. It puts forward an average household rate increase of 4.66% and a general rate rise of 7%.
While 20 had voted for it around the council table, many councillors didn't agree with all of Brown's proposals.
Brown said tough decisions need to be made because the council faced a $295 million shortfall. This is largely due to persistently high inflation and rising interest rates.
Without the cuts, Brown said ratepayers could have expected a rates increase of greater than 13%.
The list of cuts and fee rises Brown has put in front of councillors today includes:
- Selling all of the council's airport shares - worth about $2 billion - to save $88 million in interest costs in the next year.
- Scrapping 10 council-run early childhood education centres, impacting about 300 children. The Kauri Kids ECEs run at a $200,000 loss to the council each year. Council staff say leasing the sites could lead to $1 million in savings.
- Requiring local boards to cut 5% from their budgets. Four local boards in the city supported the idea in principle. Eleven didn't, saying poor outcomes would result.
- Keeping public transport service levels as they currently are - complete with cancelled trips because of current bus driver shortages. The Mayor's proposal says public transport usage has dropped because of Covid-19 and "behavioural changes", meaning current service levels "will remain sufficient". Under Phil Goff, a council plan said making a significant shift away from driving to other modes of transport is the "single most important contributing factor" to halving the city's greenhouse gas emissions by 2030.
- Increasing public transport fares by a weighted average of 6.5%.
- Increasing fees for sports and non-profit community groups that use council facilities.
- Scrapping initiatives in South and West Auckland that try to form solutions to economic and social challenges.
- A 15% rise to $750 in cremation fees at cemeteries run by the council. A burial plot will now be 30% more expensive and cost $2900.
- A new $40 fee every time someone wants to swap their recycling or rubbish bin.
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