John Tamihere canvasses councillors over Auckland mayoral bid
Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Former politician John Tamihere has been sounding out Auckland councillors as he ponders launching a bid for the mayoralty.
Tamihere told Stuff only one councillor told him they opposed his possible candidacy, and he'd make a final decision in the New Year.
Nine councillors confirmed they had been contacted by Tamihere, but none expressed a view on whether they supported or opposed him.
Tamihere said he had an exploratory committee looking at the viability of a mayoral campaign and whether to run a team of ward candidates.
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'I'm ticking boxes, and so far the boxes are all getting ticked,' Tamihere told Stuff, on the likelihood of him standing.
Auckland's mayor is directly elected by nearly a million voters but Tamihere said it was important to gauge what level of support he would get around the council table.
Auckland mayor Phil Goff spent $410,000 to win in 2016, and Tamihere said if he did run there would be a Givealittle fundraising campaign 'of some significance'.
Tamihere said if he launched a campaign, he would name a running-mate as deputy from current councillors.
Tamihere, the chief executive of social service provider Te Whanau o Waipareira, floated a possible mayoral campaign during a disagreement with council over a housing development.
Waipareira had been the selected developer for housing on a council site in Papatoetoe, but insisted the required mix of 30 per cent social housing be changed to 100 per cent.
That deal has now lapsed and council agency Panuku will re-offer the site to others once the council sets a policy on the best mix of housing types within a single development.
Manurewa ward councillor Daniel Newman said he met Tamihere having not been at the council meeting where he'd unsuccessfully sought backing for that level of social housing.
Newman said he had been keen to learn more about Tamihere's position on the question of what proportion of social housing should be in one development.
'I am keen to find out his plans on the mayoralty, pressed him on it, but nothing is certain until it happens,' said Newman.
Christine Fletcher said she had had a wide-ranging conversation with Tamihere in which she thought he had done most of the listening.
'We talked about some of the frustrations that councillors are not getting visibility or information [from the mayor],' she told Stuff.
'I rather hope he does stand as we haven't seen a really good mayoral contest since Len Brown and John Banks,' said Fletcher.
Albany ward council Wayne Walker didn't want to discuss the nature of his chat with Tamihere, other than part of it being over social housing ratios.
Māngere ward councillor Alf Filipaina said his call was quite short after he disagreed with Tamihere's view that housing developments could be entirely social housing.
Councillors Mike Lee and Ross Clow did not want to comment on their phone calls, and Linda Cooper and Desley Simpson said they had missed calls from Tamihere and had not yet returned them.
Councillors who said they hadn't been contacted were Greg Sayers, Chris Darby, Penny Hulse, Richard Hills, Sharon Stewart and John Watson.
Deputy Mayor Bill Cashmore wouldn't discuss his call but said he was 100 per cent behind Phil Goff.
Cathy Casey is overseas.
Tamihere has been a controversial public figure, spending two terms as a Labour MP with a cabinet post that he surrendered in 2004 over allegations concerning his previous role at Waipareira, which were eventually proven unfounded.
He lost his Tamaki Makaurau seat in 2005 after making unflattering comments about then-Prime Minister Helen Clark and other women leaders, moving on to host talkback radio and returning to lead Waipareira.