Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has given his first extended TV interview since taking office six months ago. Here are some key highlights as he responded to Q+A's Jack Tame.
His council's response was roundly criticised in Mike Bush's independent review, released on Wednesday, which found systemic failures across the city's emergency management during the Auckland Anniversary weekend floods.
Auckland Council is also facing a budget hole in the hundreds of millions, with Brown proposing to keep rates rises below inflation while making sweeping cuts to some community services and selling the council's share in the city's airport.
It comes as the city faces challenges with funding the City Rail Link project and growing challenges with managed retreat going into the future.
The media-reluctant leader spoke in an exclusive interview with Q+A's Jack Tame this morning. It is the mayor's first long-form TV interview since taking office six months ago and the first time he's been publicly questioned following the release of Bush's review.
Auckland's mayor has given an exclusive interview to Q+A's Jack Tame following the release of a review on how his council handled the city's flooding. (Source: 1News)
Wayne Brown responds to Wayne Brown
Tame read Brown several lines from his own book on business leadership, after the mayor was criticised for lacking leadership amid the floods.
Released in 2007, he wrote the book: The Five-Minute MBA, according to Wayne Brown.
"When put in charge, take charge," Brown said in 2007. "As a manager, you have been selected to provide leadership at a particular level and your team will respond swiftly if they sense that you are already in charge."
The Auckland mayor was asked to respond to words he wrote in 2007. (Source: Q and A)
The now-Auckland mayor said, responding to himself from 16 years ago: "It's the chief executive in charge of those people. He has a responsibility.
"The mayor is in charge of a randomly selected group of 20 councillors. I am not able to direct any person. We direct the chief executive."
In 2007, Brown wrote: "Doing nothing because you are caught in the headlights without a plan is never the right thing."
Brown: 'No one contacted me directly' about floods
While the council's response to the flooding was "very poor", Brown said he hadn't been given enough information to make judgments on the night of the floods.
"I think the council's response was very poor. I was guilty, most of all, of assuming that they knew what they were doing," he said. "We all could have done better. I apologised for dropping the ball. I didn't realise a ball hadn't been thrown to me.
"We were caught in the headlights. I wasn't instructed. I received no information. You can't see from my office what's going on in Henderson or South Auckland.
"We only learned what was going on in South Auckland from people who were ringing in from premises I owned out there to say they were flooding, and I'm thinking gosh, why haven't I heard that from the organisation? Nobody contacted me directly."
He said a mayor "can't be expected to know" about the situation as nobody had called him to let him know about issues.
"Nobody contacted me directly... If they can't ring the mayor to tell you what's going on, you can't be expected to know.
"I should have known better. Had I known better, I would have done more about it."
Rates could rise in line with inflation - mayor
Brown was then asked about the sweeping cuts proposed in the city's annual budget.
Wayne Brown spoke to Q+A's Jack Tame in his first long-form TV interview since taking office. (Source: 1News)
The proposed cuts stretch to most services Auckland Council provides — with buses, parks, libraries, recreational facilities, clubs, events, and more in the firing line.
Speaking to Q+A, Brown said he was open to potentially increasing rates more than what he had proposed in order to cover the $295 million shortfall. The mayor had originally proposed increasing rates by an average of 4.66% — below forecast inflation.
"It may well be what comes out of this. I have come up with a suggestion to be discussed, and it will come back to all of the council," Brown said when asked if rates should rise with inflation instead.
"We've had the last six years, everyone got richer in Auckland as their houses went up and up and up, and we had 3% rate rises.
"And now when the houses are going back down again, and the mortgages have gone up by a hell of a lot. People are saying spend more on rates? I don't think that's fair on those people."
He said borrowing more was no longer an option and that airport shares had to be sold, or that budget cuts would become even more severe.
"If we don't sell the airport shares, the cuts will be more severe, and the rate rises will be more severe," the mayor said. "And there was one bloke suggesting we borrow more.
"Borrowing has been the default mechanism for years. And that's been during a period when borrowing was cheap. Well, it isn't anymore, and the cost of borrowing is going up."
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