Why the silence of Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown matters

Friday, 27 January 2023

Todd Niall is the senior Auckland affairs reporter for Stuff.

ANALYSIS: It has been nearly four months since Wayne Brown secured the biggest directly elected role in the country, and became mayor of Auckland.

Until the flood disaster, Brown had given only two interviews, of sorts, and made a couple of short, managed media appearances on specific topics, since arriving at the council HQ.

His reluctance to front, explain and be challenged was already an issue. And then came the unprecedented Friday night rain, which resulted in a state of emergency being declared.

**READ MORE:

* The year of harsh political reality for Auckland and Wayne Brown

* Auckland Council staff report mayor Wayne Brown over upsetting comments in the workplace

* Wayne Brown's first 100 days: Auckland's chief grinch or fiscal saviour?

**

It was a time for the self-styled “Fixer” to shine, but his preference to stay out of the limelight continued in extraordinary fashion.

On Monday, the fourth day of the crisis, Brown’s office told media that he would not do interviews or a press conference all day, as he was in briefings.

The previous day, perhaps in response to early criticism of his invisibility, he ran his own PR campaign, visiting south Auckland centres without telling the media and posting photos of himself in his Twitter feed. Two media organisations happened to cross paths with him.

Being slow to front at the start of the emergency can be called a lesson. On days three and four, it is something deeper and more problematic.

It is a deliberate choice. Brown doesn’t have a lot of time for the media, believing it favours trivialities and not the big issues. He is not a natural in an unpredictable media setting, like a multi-journalist stand-up.

Aucklanders generally don’t have the chance to talk to the mayor about what he is up to, or challenge him on things he is advocating for, and seek clarity about comments he makes, or thoughts he issues in writing.

That’s where the media comes in. Or not, in Brown’s case. In his first month in the job there were 54 media requests for an interview with the new mayor. Two were given, and offered no new insights.

Brown and his advisors believe they are communicating with Aucklanders by issuing written statements, with the mayor penning the occasional column.

The inadequacy of that approach was highlighted in Brown’s latest column in the New Zealand Herald, in which he made statements that certainly merited challenging.

“There’s no growth, and Auckland’s population has fallen,” declared Brown as an argument for questioning the need for Light Rail across the isthmus, and for housing intensification along its path.

Auckland’s population did dip slightly in the middle of the Covid-19 border closures, but is still projected to lift – from 1.7 million to two million – by the early 2030s.

Brown also repeated his view that empty offices in the city centre could be converted to apartments to accommodate population growth, an idea that seems out of step at a time of higher apartment vacancy rates and softer rents.

There is a debate to be had over the merits of different forms of Light Rail, but it would also be interesting to discuss with the mayor whether a mid-pandemic population blip is a basis for changing housing policy and long-term transport infrastructure plans.

It would also be interesting to discuss with the mayor the still-fledgling agreement with government, to discuss long-term transport and port relocation issues in a joined-up way.

With the details of that sensible agreement still being worked out, Brown has chosen to publicly bag Light Rail, and press for a faster shrinkage of the space used by the port – something he has yet to win political consensus around, even if a faster retreat was possible.

Also stated as fact in Brown’s column was this: “Auckland Transport is preparing to trial dynamic bus lanes on feeder roads, which, coupled with transponders already fitted on buses, should speed them up and leave a lane for parking to help keep the shops open.”

It was news to Auckland Transport when Stuff sought clarification, so why does the mayor believe this is a reality?

The mayor of the country’s biggest city needs to be able to do the political equivalent of “walking and chewing gum” at the same time. A flood briefing does not preclude media appearances – a role filled by Brown’s councillors who were at the same time on the ground helping their communities.

Being able to interview the mayor is not some kind of trophy for the media organisations who would wish to, it’s an important part of the democratic process, and of being accountable to public scrutiny.

Read more about how Stuff manages the distinction between opinion and reporting by its journalists.