By Chris Trotter*
How often do politicians apologise? Sincerely apologise? Not offer voters the weasel words: “If my actions have offended anyone, then I apologise.” That’s the apology politicians offer when they don’t believe they’ve done anything worth apologising for. The question is: how often does a politician offer voters an apology like this?
“I dropped the ball on Friday, I was too slow to be seen …The communications weren’t fast enough – including mine. I’m sorry for that.”
The politician speaking those words is Wayne Brown, the Mayor of New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland. Justifiably criticised for his inadequate initial response to the torrential rainstorms that deluged his city on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 January 2023 (since described by meteorologists as a one-in-200-year weather event) Brown has publicly owned-up to his personal failings and said “I’m sorry.”
Not that Brown will receive the slightest positive acknowledgement from his many media critics for stepping-up and accepting his share of responsibility for the multiple failings of public agencies that occurred on the night of Auckland’s devastating rainstorm. The reasons for this are relatively straightforward: Brown is male. Brown is white. Brown is over the age of 65. Brown is also known to be openly contemptuous of journalists. And, most importantly, Brown defeated Efeso Collins, the mayoral candidate many (most?) Auckland journalists wanted to win.
Before examining Brown’s relationship with the news media in more depth, a word or two is needed concerning the shocking level of ageism to which he has been subjected from the very beginning of his campaign to become Auckland’s mayor.
It is remarkable how adept – and shameless – young and supposedly well-educated New Zealanders have proved to be at discriminating against their fellow citizens on the grounds of age. Journalists who would lavish barrels of ink on any person writing disparagingly about the personal appearance of a female politician, nevertheless feel free to dwell upon the ravages time has wrought upon the features of a “grumpy old man”.
That discrimination on the basis of age is outlawed in New Zealand cuts almost no ice with the sort of journalists who glibly describe Brown as “The Boomer King”. It is almost as if the journalists responsible for such ageist slurs are unable to recognise in themselves the same, deeply-ingrained, discriminatory impulses that they condemn so bitterly when manifested by racists, sexists and homophobes.
One can hardly avoid the conclusion that these ageists’ hatred for older human-beings is every bit as visceral as the racists’ hatred for people of colour, and the misogynists’ hatred of women. That they nevertheless feel free to express their prejudices openly is as worrying as it is shameful. Where is the Human Rights Commission when the “hate speech” it condemns so vigorously – and promptly – when directed at Māori, women, Muslims and the LGBTQI community is aimed, instead, at older New Zealanders?
The oddest thing of all about ageism is that every single person who indulges in it will one day (absent the worst sort of bad luck) grow old. How much racism would there be if every White person slowly became a Black person? How much misogyny, if every man turned gradually into a woman? When old age is humankind’s common destiny, ageism makes no sense at all.
The propensity of old age and guile to defeat youth and idealism, is also a common feature of human experience – especially in the field of politics. That Wayne Brown proved the accuracy of the aphorism, by soundly defeating his younger opponent, Efeso Collins, in the mayoralty race of 2022, did little to improve his already poor relationship with “progressive” Auckland journalists, many of them a whole generation younger than himself.
Jacinda Ardern’s “Politics of Kindness”, and her Government’s strong support for Māori and Pasifika, encouraged the Prime Minister’s generation to look forward to Collins becoming the Auckland super-city’s first Pasifika mayor. If Auckland voters had been willing to elect Labour-endorsed has-beens like Len Brown and Phil Goff, then surely, Efeso would be a shoe-in? That Aucklanders might elect a “grumpy old man” like Wayne Brown struck Ardern’s generation of activists as preposterous. They were confident that their assumptions about the nature of contemporary politics and the shape of Aotearoa’s political future were unassailable.
That Brown won the mayoral race easily – principally by applying basic electoral principles to the structuring of his campaign – threw into sharp relief the organisational deficiencies of a generation encouraged to accord bold declarations and positive intentions the same ontological status as practical competencies. As an engineer, Brown was only interested in what works. So instructed, his advisers told him to target only those Aucklanders with a proven track-record of participating in local government elections. These tended to be older, and considerably less tolerant of political dreams and visions, than the younger, typically non-voting, Aucklander.
As it became increasingly obvious that Brown’s pragmatic, non-ideological, “Mr Fix-It” pitch to the active Auckland electorate was going to overwhelm Collins, the active dislike of “progressives” – most particularly those located in the younger generations – grew. Among the least successful at hiding their animosity towards Brown were the city’s journalists – a failure that convinced the newly-elected Mayor that he would be better off not engaging with them.
Brown was right. The reaction of the New Zealand news media – especially those elements of it based in Auckland – was depressingly similar to the United States’ news media’s reaction to Donald Trump’s “impossible” presidential victory of 2016. Unable to accept that it was the political incompetence of “their” candidate that made a Trump victory possible, the American media instead abandoned completely its cherished principles of fairness and balance. Henceforth Trump was the enemy to whom no quarter should be given. Brown, who had also won on the votes of “deplorables” and, like Trump, held most journalists in contempt, would be treated as a reactionary interloper.
It should not be thought, however, that journalists were alone in their animosity towards Brown. Across the entire Auckland City bureaucracy similar misgivings were growing at the prospect of Mr Fix-It telling the Council’s highly-paid managers and professionals how to do their jobs. It would certainly explain why, when the deluge struck, and many of the Supercity’s bureaucrats failed to respond effectively to the emergency, their first instinct was to make the Mayor the scapegoat for what was clearly a system-wide failure. And why the first instinct of the city’s “progressive” journalists was to help them.
Hence Brown’s all-too-public frustration and anger at his inexplicable early exclusion from a number of crucial informational loops. That exclusion in no way excuses Brown’s failure to be seen and heard by Aucklanders as the floodwaters rose and the crisis deepened, but it most certainly does explain them.
And Brown, at least, has had the decency to say he’s sorry. It would be most unwise, however, to hold one’s breath in anticipation of Auckland’s anti-Brown journalists and bureaucrats doing the same.
*Chris Trotter has been writing and commenting professionally about New Zealand politics for more than 30 years. He writes a weekly column for interest.co.nz. His work may also be found at http://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com.
142 Comments
POAL run at a loss costing Akl rate payers. He also made some statements during his election campaign about Bledisloe wharf and having it returned to the people of Akl instead of it being used for port operations. I know someone with knowledge of the port operations who said it was highly unlikely that this could be achieved without some drastic changes in where goods could be offloaded. Marsden was not a viable option.
Not sure why POAL can't just raise their prices for their services. Its not as if their services can be switched to Tauranga which I understand already has capacity problems.
Essentially fixing a perceived port problem in a specific port area that sounds nice during an election campaign. But then which politician of any sort can solve an Akl port problem during an election campaign.
If his aim was just to shake port management up then he may have achieved that. Time will tell.
Just about anything is feasible including Marsden. Cost is billions for a major transfer of POAL to Marsden and I don't think just closing down Bledisloe wharf and transferring that part to Marsden is feasible but I'm open on that to any public report that can show the closing of Bledisloe wharf is relatively inexpensive in transferring its operations to Marsden in both capex and opex.
Do not live in Akl but what happens there has a huge effect on the rest of the country and more so NI.
As an Aucklander, I'm more concerned that a) someone already appointed to 'review' the POAL operation and has recommended against it and b) with a supposedly extensive governance history doesn't automatically recuse themselves regarding matters of POAL. Wayne Brown was part of the 'Gift a Seat to NZ First and use Auckland Jobs to Make it Happen' cabal and how he has managed to boom his way out of that I have no idea.
I don't think a few extra leasehold apartments on reclaimed land that will soon be underwater anyway are going to make up for it, and given how hard it is for hospo outlets to get staff, I'm not sure a second Wynyard Point is sustainable, either from a customer base or an employee base perspective. And the absolute last thing we should do is spend billions on a stadium that will block the view that is supposedly so important we have to unwind the Port operation to get in back in the first place.
If someone was proposing something like Melbourne's Albert Park by the sea, complete with recreational marinas, open spaces and the possibility of opening it up as a parkland section for a waterfront race track, then I'd be on board. But no one is proposing that, or anything close to it. In fact, there's very little discussion about what we're actually getting for the pleasure of giving away a huge number of jobs, as well as supply chain certainty in our biggest city. Whether that is by design or by accident, I leave that up to you.
The problem is that being a politician is much more difficult than being a business man. You need to learn to take advice from other people who have been around longer, you need to embrace the public as you go and you need to understand that your mistakes are in public view. Business men make mistakes all the time, but are swept under the carpet or are not known to most and that is a big difference. Luxon is showing the same signs and better learn quickly how to be a politician.
They probably left Brown off emails because they knew what a prickly arse he is to deal with. The guy supposed to be the Mayor. He failed his city. There's no come back on that.
Now his cutting Citizens Advice funding. Nice guy.
Auckland is suffering a catastrophic flood! (and more too come)... So he takes away some free legal advice for it's struggling residents. That's a prick of a thing to do for saving hefty 2 million.
I understand the Mayor can only declare a state of emergency after civil defence declare they can no longer handle the situation which is what happened and the Mayor made the declaration. His media performance was poor but the real judgement should be how well Akld Council deal with fixing the issues and that is largely in the hands of the bureacrats and the workers they direct, the Mayor and councilors can set targets but are not responsible for achieving them so failure should result in those tasked with the job being held actually accountable.
He is the leader so the buck stops with him.
If he needs to rearrange the decks to cut costs or improve performance thats cool. But a leader cant blame his troops for an appauling team performance .
I understand probably he is finding government harder than expected but thats nobody elses fault.
Good article Chris.
We live in extremely polarised times. Newspapers have become Viewspapers and Social Media runs amok. A dwindling number of writers offer any balance or any pretence at balance. Facts? - who cares?
Progress? I don't think so. The Age Of Reason is indeed a long time ago
As I posted elsewhere yesterday, unfortunately Brown's management skills during a flood might get tested again next week. Let's hope this forecast for early next week changes significantly as time goes on, and if it doesn't that Auckland Council deal with it more effectively
https://metvuw.com/forecast/forecast.php?type=rain®ion=nzni&noofdays=10
The article is trying to shape up Brown as a victim through media bashing and ageism... yet the real story is of Brown's incompetence & failings as a leader. If Efeso Collins was mayor and had done the same thing as Brown, he'd be facing exactly the same level of backlash.
The article rants about ageism yet provides next to no examples of this. The closest example is a description of "angry old man" - watch any of Brown's press conferences and tell me how else you'd describe him... We're getting a little precious here if that's the extent if it.
Additionally the article rants about Brown getting a hard time from the media because he bet Efeso Collins? Perhaps Brown only accepting 2 out of 108 media requests in the last month could of caused some angst. Or how about Brown recently referring to media as Drongos...
Let's not forget that just 35% of eligible Aucklanders voted in the election, majority from communities with a higher median age & more home ownership. Who voted in Brown & what does he represent?
The 'treatment' of Brown was just describing what he literally said and did. The fact that makes him look like a jerk is Brown's problem, not a media agenda.
If you can show me another example of a mayor being dragged away from an argument with the press during a state of emergency then let's hear it.
Forget mayor's
forget treaties
forget Maori co governance
forget colonization..
here's my "Why? Tangi" celebration...
Excellent summary Chris of the abysmal decline of NZ mainstream media since someone permitted them to offer their personal opinions instead of verified facts.
I also noted that yesterday Brown announced an independent enquiry into the preparedness and the responses of the first 48hrs, including his own.
Sorry Chris but he comes across as an arrogant prick with a very large ego.
And yes there is friction between generations and this is because of housing costs.
The best thing he could do is resign.But he won't and he may very well be one of the reasons National possibly lose the election this year.He is hardly a positive advertisement for the old guard.
If he does stay around then I hope he also carries out a review of how many houses are built in flood prone areas and how many homes are being consented in flood prone areas.I guess he doesn't want to know the answer to that so you won't hear much.
Agree that his personality isn't exactly conducive to media or more generally likeability but in saying that, his predecessor spent far too much time in front of the camera commenting on all sorts of things outside his remit. In particular, I felt Goff's performance during lock down, other than a cheerleader for central government measures, was woeful. Besides which, charisma and media savvy can only take you so far.
I also agree that a lot of the ageism stuff is driven by resentment from younger generations about being shut out of the property market. You can detect it here regularly in the comments section.
I thought Brown was more a labour person anyway given his relationship with the Clark government, but he stressed he did not get endorsement from either National or Labour.
I’m not sure I agree with this article. I reckon the media helped Brown win, he was the underdog they kept talking up. But without his election PR team it turns out he can barely string a sentence together hence he avoids the media.
I don’t think we need an engineer as mayor, we need someone with vision who wants change, not someone who wants to do the status quo slightly better (depending on your definition of better). Many overseas cities have really overtaken Auckland in the last decade, Wayne’s special traffic lights won’t make us catch up.
"I don’t think we need an engineer as mayor, we need someone with vision who wants change"
You can still have change without a vision. There was a German politician, ex Chancellor if I recall, who was once asked by a journalist "Where is your big vision?" His reply "People who have visions should go see a doctor”
Also vision and hallucinations are not far apart.
I fecking hate the word change
Change is a word used by people who do not know the solution to the problem but need a quick answerr!!!!
It means nothing!
Does a chess master move his pieces just for change or for a ...
Tactical advantage
To improve his situation. Or to...
Negate a threat
FFS " change Has no quantifiable value to it!
It seeks not to improve and offers no goal to achieve!
I can change anything without achieving anything.
Instead of change just use the word improve!.. and then there is a commitment.
Saying change means " I don't know!"
I thought it was fairly obvious but here are some things that need to change in Auckland:
- People can’t afford housing
- Traffic is terrible
- We have bad CO2 emissions per capita
- The stormwater doesn’t seem to work very well
Most of those don’t just need improvements; they need a rethink, a change. But Brown will fix it with some traffic light tweaks (does he have any other policies?)
I'm unsure if this was intentional or not, but this comment manages to insult a whole category of people out of nowhere. I could argue that if engineers indeed didn't have vision you'd have written this comment with a feather on a piece of paper. But could we please stay out of generalisations?
I am an engineer! Engineers like to find the optimal solution to a problem, politics is nowhere near that simple - you need to bring people along with you and make constant compromises to try and make everyone happy.
Here is an example: I want more cycling infrastructure in Auckland. But many other people think it’s the work of the devil. How does an engineer fix that?
Produce a few successful cycling solutions! I've never tried it but I'm guessing the cycleway along the western motorway going to the city ought to be a success. Maybe the problem is trying to retrofit cycleways into existing roads.
One simple example - many years ago I grumbled to my council about cycling on Glenfield road next to the Eskdale domain. It was and still is dangerous, noisy and smelly cycling so near to cars and trucks. I suggested they should put the cycleway thru the top of the Eskdale Domain. The council rep laughed at me saying it involved two different council bodies one responsible for roads and the other for parks so it could never happen. Now I'm older and take a bus and never go to meetings with the council.
They either have to build very expensive completely new cycleways which could only form a useable network if they spent hundreds of billions, or take road space away (normally car parks). What does the engineer do? The logical thing is to take the car parks away as people should store their possessions privately
In a democracy you ask the citizens and then convince enough of them that the selected solution is the best available.Failure usually (should) result in the selectors discovering if their skills have any value when they join the unemployed after the following election.
Chris Trotter overplays the ageism thing here. I think he should be seasoned enough to understand that the generational battle isn't really about age, it's about housing, for which age is a proxy.
I wanted Efeso Collins to win, primarily because Brown seems like a NIMBY who would happily tolerate any amount of homelessness and human suffering rather than have any of 'his' constituents suffer multi-story dwellings in their suburbs.
But Trotter is right that Brown won a fair election, with the media against him. And he won it because so many of the people who 'should' have voted for Collins, didn't. I think it's a shame. But that's the problem the next Left-ish mayoral candidate will have to attack with some new ideas.
I agree housing is a proxy for the generational battle, but would also add higher education which was free for the generation of which Brown comes from.
As if house prices aren't enough of an obstacle to one's future aspirations, on top of that, today's younger generation have to re-pay student loans to the tune of 12% of before tax earnings. Who can cope with that on top of a mortgage and on top of raising a family?
These just weren't obstacles that my husband and I faced in our early years of marriage/partnership. Entering into such a life-time commitment without debt brings benefits that are unimaginable by today's youth.
And PS - just as in CHCH, the Student Army has turned out in strength. So who should we look to for leadership in future?
Well put.
At least the youngsters have interest free loans and WFF though!!!
I started my studies in 1990 just as universal student allowances were scrapped, plus loans with interest were introduced. The interest payments were painful.
Also as a 26 year old father, WFF wasn’t around, and it was hard without it!
Also as a graduate in the mid 1990s the job market was hard.
My point isn’t really to whinge about my own challenges but rather to point out that every generation has its challenges.
Baby boomers faced some very hard economic times in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as the real threat of nuclear Armageddon (which us Gen X also had to contend with).
Minorities in the Boomer generation also had to contend with a level of discrimination that was quite astounding, not to mention women.
It's times like this I like to point out that millennials were alive for three major economic busts (AFC, Dotcom, GFC), a global pandemic, a war on terror and the greatest schism between wages and living costs in decades. Oh, and we also have that nuclear armageddon thing now.
Not saying it's worse, but the existential dread of being young doesn't just disappear for everyone else once people age out of it. I'm sure many millennials would struggle to appreciate you couldn't build a bigger house in the 50s because materials were effectively rationed, just like I'm sure many Gen Xers and Boomers don't get that there isn't the same level of wage inflation today that made their inflation shock pressures or 20% interest rates less of a burden than they otherwise would have been.
Every generation
Blames the one before
And all of their frustrations
Come beating on your door
I know that I'm a prisoner
To all my Father held so dear
I know that I'm a hostage
To all his hopes and fears
I just wish I could have told him in the living years
Oh, crumpled bits of paper
Filled with imperfect thought
Stilted conversations
I'm afraid that's all we've got
You say you just don't see it
He says it's perfect sense
You just can't get agreement
In this present tense
We all talk a different language
Talking in defence
Mike and the Mechanics
I must say that I am surprised and pleased with his apology. My objections to him are based on his dictatorial management style of targeting individuals and teams. Which whilst heartfelt only tends to alienate everyone whom he has to work with with in the future. To achieve structural change at the top of these beauracracies I think he should be targeting competency behaviours rather that individuals. At least the recipient individuals and teams of those competency based behavioural expectations would know what is coming and seek to comply if they were truly competent.
The cynic might say that his "PR" team advised him to apologise. I don't buy it for a minute, the tennis chat "I have to talk to the media drongo's" tell's you all you need to know about his attitude. He failed abysmally at his feel real test and it cannot be undone by a PR team.
because it’s part of the job description to be approachable, trusted, well spoken, etc. Brown is like the company manager that no one likes and almost everyone avoids, it’s pretty unprofessional and it gets bad results (such as no one telling you to call a state of emergency).
im definitely fine for him to have some personality, maybe he’s a good laugh down at the pub, but when he’s on the clock ( which is most the time as mayor) he needs to be professional and think before he speaks.
I guess the real test as to how genuine his apology is will be how he performs now and into the future. If his personal behaviour changes as to how he comminicates with all and sundry then all power to him. If not then yet another empty ‘apology’ from a politician. The cynic in me thinks you are probably right based on the law of averages. I am a man who has made apologies and works hard every day to stick to them and I hope he can back up his apology and change his ways.
WTF did he apologize for?.
The poor drainage left by his predecessors?..
Idiots that stayed at home while it flooded?
Muppets driving the streets when flooded?
Morons canoeing in the oolluted torrents
The designers, engineers, and govt ministers that developed this disaster.
FFS . The only thing he's guilty of is " taking it on the chin" and not pinning the blame on the winkers that caused this?..
I presume the water reservoirs are full!
The middle piece about how well he did to win the election is fluff.
He was up against a completely uninspiring left wing candidate, and campaigned largely on bluster and deliberate mis-information.
The piece around the '$12k a meter bike lane' shows he is happy to deceive to further his own cause.
He apologized because he had no other option - and Hooten would have told him to. He really is as bad as he appears.
As for the contempt of the under 40's for the boomers - the issue goes way, way beyond the housing problem (and I speak as a boomer). The youngsters I speak to are infuriated with the world they stand to inherit, with the horrendous effects of climate change set to dominate the next 50 years. The boomers did next to nothing about it 'on their watch' and denialism is still concentrated in the over 60's. It's no wonder they appear so ageist - but I don't think it's the age factor per se, it's the mind set that so typifies the boomers that enrages the young - and they have every right to be angry.
Blaming the "boomer" is the laziest cliche out there, and there are a few. You really think that Boomers/parents colluded to lock future generations out, are responsible for immigration, council reg's, building product prices? You think they don't worry about their children/grandchildren being able to buy a house and live near them? Many are forced to help their kids buy, mortgaging or selling their property. The same Boomers that are largely left by Western offspring to fend for themselves in old age (in contrast to Asian culture). As for climate change, my kids and their friends could not care less, it's never discussed. Very happy to jump on planes and drive cars. (I'm not a boomer)
Not sure you can hold the fact younger Kiwis are being financially milked by older ones who don't realise you can't take it with you against them.
Some of us would love to live more comfortable lifestyles, and not worry about money, but that's not the world we've grown up in. We're just here underwriting the good-times 'me first' generation until they shuffle off. Then some of the rest of us might get a shot at a decent lifestyle, provided they haven't totally ringfenced central city housing and removed the possibility of actual progress in our cities.
You want older people to die so you can have their houses? Jim Jeffries nailed it
Yes. I definitely said in my comment that I am wanting people to die so I can have their houses. It's right there, in those exact words. I'll go back and edit that comment so it's in bold.
Does Jim Jefferies have any bits about people who get their backs up over comments like "People aren't immortal" like pissing your pants over it can change it? I'm pretty sure he's in the 'You're probably going to die at some point, so try not to be a dick' camp, btw.
No, I didn't. Take another look and slow down a bit.
As for 'they built everything' - I'm pretty sure most of the useful stuff has been built and rebuilt over and over again because they didn't want to pay rates and taxes to support the infrastructure being maintained to the extent that it was functionally useful over that period of time. And that's before you take into account the things that they didn't build, such as the infrastructure to support the huge population increases in major cities that drove a lot of the speculative wealth that they've extracted from Kiwis, with implications for decades to come for the rest of us.
And as for my life improving - having a political bloc that sees it as divine right to enrich itself at the expense of future Kiwis on the basis of factually incorrect talking points and wilful ignorance of the fact they have inflicted huge damage on the state they so proudly claim to have built (when it was more the sacrifice of the Greatest Generation that actually set the path they followed than anything else) slowly dwindle in influence, to the extent that the rest of us can get on with things and remedy some of the problems they want to pretend don't exist will improve many people's lives dramatically.
Or, even better, they can start accepting statistical reality about things like climate change, housing affordability and the drastic need to improve access to healthcare and medicines - all things they would benefit from too - and we can make some of these changes in the here and now. But I can't make that decision for them.
I talked to an old white female marriage celebrant during the election. She started out: "I would not normally vote for an old white guy like Brown, but Ofiso Collins does not come across as very convincing.............."
Talk about ageism and sexism from an old lady! Completely brainwashed into thinking that old white guys are useless by default.
he does tend to incite the behaviour he complains about:https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/10/auckland-mayoral-candid…
Auckland Mayoral candidate Wayne Brown has been caught on camera calling a NZ Herald journalist a "prick", saying he was going to glue "little pictures of him on all the urinals" so people could "pee on him" if elected.
Didn't read the article but I did not realise that there is a relationship between who is mayor of Auckland and the amount of rain that falls from the sky. It would not have mattered what he did or did not do, the outcome would have been the same. What could have made a difference was better weather forecasting, but even then most people wouldn't have listened so again the outcome would have been 95% the same. As usual everyone is rushing about the place looking for someone else to blame.
It didn't need to be as bad as it was in many places;
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/why-the-onehunga-sluice-gates-didnt-open
Simply, very poor preparedness all round.
Hard to believe they didn't cancel that Elton John concert at 5pm. Not sure who was responsible for (not) making this call.
The lack of information on the day was appalling.
I was working from home, and I remember looking outside the front door at 3pm, and thinking that it had been raining hard all day, and thinking ‘surely there’s going to be some pretty serious flooding’ (although I didn’t think it would be nearly as bad as it was). Then going to the Herald and not really seeing anything much in terms of coverage or warnings. Not blaming the Herald, btw.
Surely there would have been enough weather information at midday on the Friday to issue much more in the way of warnings? People could have started leaving work then, rather than the clusterf#%* that occurred from 4-8pm
It seems to me that the warning system was just as insufficient as the early responses.
I think if you were to investigate the true state of all the storm water drains in Auckland Kate, it would make a very sad read. I used to work in Onehunga in Neilson Street back in 2005 and one drain there outside the premises was blocked with gravel to the very top, probably still is. Cost cutting in the form of maintenance of just about anything, always comes back to bite you in the arse.
Indeed, deferred maintenance sure does come back to bite you. This to me is one of the massive failures of local governance (nearly) New Zealand wide. Local government has been too busy competing with one another to 'look' better than the rest (i.e., economic development/growth through shiny expensive 'wish list' fulfillment).
NZs really just too small for that kind of philosophical competition - and as a result we have skyrocketing rates despite the fact that everywhere we have deferred maintenance of the unseen, but essential, infrastructure.
That's an eye opener. Points to a combination of poor maintenance and operations which always leads back to management at a senior level.
That Oliver you-tube video skit on infrastructure posted is pretty close to the bone. Both councillors and senior executive management in the majority of NZ Councils responsible for infrastructure issues with Central govt not far behind.
Perhaps for the first time I whole-heartedly agree with the points of view expressed here by Chris Trotter.
For some time now I have thought that New Zealand is being poorly served by a 'media machine' whose apparent fixation is too often on the 'politics' within any event. Just give us information and facts then each of us will form our own interpretation of the rights, wrongs and ways forward from these events.
The appointees by the GB to the CDEMC failed. Stewart and Leonie. The comms people failed.
Phil Wilson and Jim Stabback should resign as they are responsible for the Appointments and governance policies and selection processes within council for all roles in council.
The people want blood. 5 people died because of these overpaid bureaucrats irresponsibility.
Where's the sorry from "the red team" for forcing an experimental medical procedure on the whole of NZ? For effectively sacking over a thousand health care workers. For locking down the country for years on end unnecessarily. For capturing the media and heading the country in the direction of North Korea. Where’s the sorry for all of that?
Yeah sure. Just pointing out how comically insignificant Wayne Brown's perceived infraction is compared to what Labour did to us all. Does anyone remember JA locking down the whole of Auckland for one single case of covid. Notwithstanding the economic damage, we were the laughing stock of the whole world.
Firstly, no need to apologise. It was a public health measure grounded in logic, not childish Braveheart-style ramblings about “freedom…blah blah something…”
Secondly, you’re showing your bias with your out of date lexicon about “Socialists”. I don’t remember seeing any nationalising of the means of production, and there’s still quite a lot of love shown towards the property-owning bourgeoisie.
Well said. Referring to media as 'drongos' was unhelpful, but one can understand the frustration. For instance, listening to some of the smug, vacuous questions presented to Hipkins in his first post cabinet press conference, I wonder if some of these people are really in the right job? Are there attention span issues? Can't help but feel some of them really just like the sound of their own voice.
Poor article in that it claims ageism, sexism or racism at play toward Wayne K. Brown. I personally simply perceive him to be incompetent thus far, benchmarking against great Mayors. Perception can equal reality of the job in politics. He also stated at the start of his tenure he wouldn't 'work long hours', he's proved that true
We had major slips/roading problems here in the Hutt some months ago. I recall one night coming across a live Facebook video post from the Mayor providing an update to the emergency work being done. He was giving the update from his car in the garage at home. I supposed that he wanted to get this last thing done that evening, before returning to his young family inside the house. In the middle of the video - the light inside the car went off, as they do, automatically after a few minutes. He turned it back on and carried on explaining individually about each and every slip he had attended to on site during what was obviously a very long day.
My thought at the time - that's dedication, that's leadership.
As an aside, he also referees school boy rugby. Pretty astounding service-ethic.
Brown’s failure is not due to his relationship with the media nor ageism.
It was a shocking failure of leadership. In a crisis people look to a leader for information, assurance and direction. Brown provided none of these during the period of peak flooding. He was missing in action.
This was followed by another shocking failure of leadership in his eventual standup press conference. Not only did he abysmally fail to provide any assurance and direction his display was rather clearly one in which he appeared to be more concerned about defending himself and in doing so deferred to the two stooges. Whatever one thinks about Jacinda’s policies, in press conferences she had the key facts and controlled the meeting.
Brown grew up in a time when the leadership of Churchill was widely acknowledged and provided a model of what leadership is in a crisis and was widely studied in schools - Brown clearly flunked his basic schooling.
The only positive about Brown as far as I am concerned is that he is mainly Auckland’s problem. His boisterous rhetoric so far indicates Auckland is in for a torrid three years of cr*p - no wonder Hopkins saw urgent need for a Minister with responsibility for Auckland.
"Not that Brown will receive the slightest positive acknowledgement from his many media critics for stepping-up and accepting his share of responsibility for the multiple failings of public agencies that occurred on the night of Auckland’s devastating rainstorm. The reasons for this are relatively straightforward: Brown is male. Brown is white. Brown is over the age of 65."
Ah yes, life is so tough for white men over 65.. such a discriminated against demographic...
Give me a break.
Let’s reverse the situation: imagine all the young people banded together and voted in an 18 year old transgender with tattoos and piercings, and let’s say that new mayor told people that lost their houses in a flood that it’s their own fault, spent time telling his tennis mates he couldn’t play when he should have had better things to do, and didn’t address the public in a natural disaster other than to shift the blame. Do you think the older generation would make ageist comments and generalisations about that?
Surprised no one has mentioned the overwhelming argument against this whole suggestion: Desley Simpson. Many people putting the boot into Brown over his garbage absence of leadership while houses were already flooded were begging for Simpson to take over as interim mayor. If ageism is the real motivator here, I wouldn't have expected that to be happening.
100%. The issue is incompetence, even before the floods Brown never told us what he’s doing despite supposedly making massive changes inside council, never spoke to media because he considers them drongos (and he’s probably right but I’m afraid it’s part of the job). I’m not a fan of Desley Simpsons political leaning, I wouldn’t vote for her, but she is most definitely competent and would do a much better job.
One thing I have against Brown is his total lack of humour - what a dour and uninspiring presence he has.
Now I know why he shuns media interviews - he's had a lobotomy.
I suppose if it gets the drains cleared and a few heads knocked together it will have to suffice.
Reality is the situation unfolded very quickly. People need to stop looking to authorities to help them. Everyone could see it was pouring down and things were turning pear shaped. Those who can help should be out there doing it. Help your vulnerable neighbors. Help your self.
As a farmer in a farming community that's what we do. There's no help coming for us. The sooner people take responsibility for themselves and there community the better off everyone will be. How many beauracrats and council staff do we need/want to pay for? In a situation like Aucklands there is never going to be enough.
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