The sport of politics: PM and Auckland mayor spar over events fund
Tuesday, 17 February 2026
Auckland will host “Australia’s greatest sport rivalry”, but it was the political contest between Christopher Luxon and Wayne Brown that took the field at Eden Park, reports Jonathan Killick.
“Do you want to add anything, Mayor Brown?,” asks Tourism Minister Louise Upston from a press conference podium.
“A bloody bed-night levy,” responds Brown, getting straight to the point.
As council and government revealed a successful joint bid to secure a State of Origin match hosted in the Supercity, tense background negotiations over funding future events spilled into the fray.
Read more:
It’s been confirmed that the second in the annual three-game series between New South Wales Blues and Queensland Maroons will take place at Eden Park in 2027.
The Government made a bid for the event from its one-off $70m “major events fund”, while the council’s share is likely to have come from ratepayers.
That doesn’t sit well with Mayor Brown who campaigned on getting a hotel levy, but has met resistance from the Government in securing legislation to enable one.
Prime Minister Luxon told spectators at Eden Park “it's something that we've said we'll consider for the next term, but it's not something we're going to do [now]”.
Brown responded: “He hasn’t got a next term yet. Pretty cocky.”
Said Luxon: “The Mayor and I have had lots of conversations about it. It’s something that when I was in the tourism industry we were talking about back then.”
Added Brown: “There’s been severe conversations.”
Brown isn’t shy about wading into national politics as the country enters election year.
“I’ll be refreshing the city manifesto and I’ll be bluntly asking, you know, which one [party] is best for Auckland?,” he tells The Post.
“I’m here on behalf of the ratepayers, rich and poor, and we want the best, and there’s been a long habit of Wellington politicians doing dumb shit that doesn’t help my city.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins might have capitalised on the stoush, but told The Post he too wanted to “keep all the options on the table” when it came to funding Auckland events. He wouldn’t even pick between the Blues and Maroons.
“I’m going to be diplomatic. There’s roughly an equal number of Kiwis living in both states [Queensland and New South Wales]. So, I think I’ll just hedge my bets and stay out of it,” he said.
Brown meanwhile said he understood it was the ACT Party that had a problem with the levy, and National had “lacked backbone” in the discussion.
“So if you like sports, don’t vote for ACT. It’s that simple,” said Brown.
Approached by The Post, a party spokesperson said ACT “opposes all new taxes”.
“Central and local government take up over 40% of the economy already. If Wayne Brown can’t fund the events he wants from that sort of money, he ought to sharpen his pencil.”
But Brown said the hotel industry itself had been pushing for the levy, and calling it a tax was “semantic rubbish”.
“It’s not a tax. They want it. We just got a new tax last week for the LNG [gas industry] and you can’t avoid that unless you don’t buy electricity. This one you can easily avoid, don't go in a hotel.”
State secrets and confidential bids
Officially speaking, just how much money from the public purse is being spent on hosting State of Origin is confidential.
However, Minister Upston pulled back the veil on what was understood to be a 50/50 bid between local and central government, with the Government’s contribution said to be $2.55 million.
That number tracks with Aussie media reporting that it was a $5m bid.
Pressed by The Post, Upston said “that was our contribution, but it’s for others to talk about their contributions.”
Brown was schtum.
“The council put money into this as well, but it’s commercial and in confidence … the NRL runs a very strict business oriented thing and I respect that,” he said.
The $5m purse would be roughly in line with the fees paid by the Western and Victoria state governments to take games to Perth and Melbourne in recent years.
Luxon quickly chimed in: 'So for every dollar we spend on a major event, we get about $3.20 back in the local economy.”
“What we wanted to do was to make sure as a country that we had enough competitive money to stand up to the Australian states and make our best foot forward.”
“It creates jobs. It creates opportunity. It creates people staying in bed-nights.”
Luxon also confirmed changes to noise restrictions on Eden Park, previously previewed by Chris Bishop, which will permit the stadium to have an uncapped number of night matches any day of the week.
That will be critical for the State of Origin match next year which is likely kick off between 9.30pm and 10pm to suit Aussie TV viewers.
Eden Park will also be able to hold more concerts, Luxon said, with a limit being increased from 12 to 32 a year. They must finish by 11pm.
“They’re common-sense changes and they’re going to kick in April this year and enable Eden Park to operate like a modern world-class national stadium,” the PM said.
For Mayor Brown it was just more Wellington interference.
“We know how to host major events, we know what they bring, which by the way, is why we’ll push the government for a bed night levy until they give up and give it to me, rather than raiding the ratepayers and taxpayers,” Brown said on stage.
Luxon just smiled and shook his head.
Yet the pair were able to find one piece of common ground - they’re both Queensland Maroons supporters.
And despite the unresolved conflict, the joint bid is expected to generate some $15m in economic activity and a historic spectacle for fans.
“Rivalries in sport make everything happen, and just put a real edge to it. It’s going to be fantastic” as Luxon put it.