Auckland mayor Wayne Brown raises ghosts of the past at opening of convention centre

Wednesday, 11 February 2026

The grim ghosts of the past almost seemed forgotten at the official early morning opening of the SkyCity’s New Zealand International Convention Centre on Wednesday, until show-stealing Auckland mayor Wayne Brown got up to speak.

“Isn't it great to be here, a wonderful day opening this amazing building,” Brown said, embarking on a speech that brought a mix of laughter and wry smiles from gathered dignitaries including Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

“Prime Minister, you'd be really proud to be here, considering that this was started by the National Party many years ago, when [then National minister] Stephen Joyce did the controversial 260 pokie deal to get it under way,” he said.

Brown was referring to anger from opposition parties and anti-gambling campaigners who decried the deal to extend SkyCity’s gaming licence and give it permission to add more casino tables and pokie machines to its Auckland operation in return for building an international quality convention centre.

“The construction of this has outlasted two Labour governments, and you're back again,” he told Luxon.

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Until Brown, speakers had kept their speeches firmly off the convention centre’s troubled past, and on the bright future for the convention centre, which was a play to get the country a share of the global conventions and conferences market.

Brown said he was elected to see projects completed.

“This one has been finished today, and later in the year we will hope to live long enough to see the City Rail open. This one has not been under my purview but is underneath my window,” he said.

“A string of mayors have looked out the window over this construction site from the start through some terrible times.”

He referenced the 2019 fire, which had only been hinted at by earlier speakers, including SkyCity chief executive Jason Walbridge and Luxon.

The fire was the result of some “a strange collection of insulation materials plus some rather odd safety practices which New Zealand specialises in,” he said.

The fire had broken out just months before the convention centre was due to be completed, after a staggering 4.8 million hours of labour put in by Fletcher Building.

Brown likened watching it being rebuilt to a Mainland Cheese advert.

“We look out the window and say, ‘No, not ready yet”,” he said.

“Yesterday we looked out and said, “It is ready. We can open it. Isn't that a wonderful thing for Auckland?”

However, he also mentioned something that has been worrying Auckland; whether the city has too many theatres.

The city now has a plethora of venues with The Civic, Aotea Square, the Spark Arena, the Town Hall, and the ASB Theatre, and work is under way to restore the historic St James Theatre.

“The number of seats in here will provide some pressure on some of our other theatre venues in the city. There's nothing like pressure to lift standards.”

MC Mirama Kamo thanked Brown for his speech, saying a speech by the mayor was always guaranteed to get people sitting up straighter in their seats.

Luxon said the opening was “absolutely, hugely” exciting for Auckland, that would put the city on the map as a destination for major events, exhibitions, conferences, and ceremonies.

He referenced an estimate that the convention centre would bring in excess of 33,000 new international visitors to Auckland every year, injecting more than $90 million into the city’s economy annually.

He thanked Sir John Key and Joyce for the legacy of National governments’ work in progressing the convention centre.

But he was also keen to send a broader message about the economy.

“Auckland is the engine room of the New Zealand economy. It's home to a third of our population, many of our largest and most successful businesses, but it's also the gateway to our beautiful country connecting us to the rest of the world.

“And the good news is that we see business confidence across New Zealand is the highest it's been since 2014, and we see consumer confidence is the highest it's been since December 2021,” he said.

He referenced Westpac and ANZ saying Auckland was now the region with the highest levels of consumer confidence, which he said was “a big improvement from where we were sitting in the middle of last year”.

“I think there's real cause for optimism, and now all of our collective focus is translating that optimism into real results and outcomes for New Zealanders with more jobs, and higher incomes and so they can get the best possible shot in life.”

Fletcher Building group chief executive Andrew Reding also spoke, after Walbridge had thanked the company and all the companies involved in the convention centre’s construction.

SkyCity is suing Fletcher Building for $330m as compensation for losses caused by the delay to the convention centre’s completion due to the 2019 fire.

That was not mentioned by either Walbridge or Reding, who were revelling in the completion of what everyone agreed was a world-class convention centre.

But, said one SkyCity insider, that reflected the nature of the lawsuit, which was not taken with animosity, but which was really an insurance dispute.

Reding said: “It is an honour and a privilege to be here today. I think it is a day that sometimes we thought might never have arrived, so I'm extremely glad that it has.”

The two companies have been closely linked for decades, and Reding recalled how far back the link went.

Both companies’ share price has dropped during the convention centre fire, though it was only a part of each of their woes.

Immediately before the fire, Fletcher Building shares were worth about $5. On the morning of the convention centre opening, Fletcher Building’s share price was $3.73.

SkyCity’s was 88cents, down from just under $4.

Reding said: “I joined Fletcher's in 1995, and at that time we were building the casino and the Sky Tower, which was a magnificent feat in its own right. So I find it somewhat apt to find myself back with Fletcher's 18 years later, and to find that we were building the convention centre.”

He said it had been an extremely complex and complicated project, and all up it had taken 14.6 million hours of labour to complete, including the post-fire rebuild.

“We as Fletchers are extraordinarily proud of the quality of the building,” Reding said.

And, then in what appeared to be a last reference to the 2019 fire, he said: “I'm so pleased to be able to hand it over to the stewardship of Sky City, and to watch them bring thousands of extra visitors, both into their own businesses and into New Zealand. So all I would say is, ‘Please SkyCity, look after it as well as you can.”

The official opening began with a blessing and formal procession through a spotlight pathway through the convention floor led by local iwi Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei.