Win and a prayer: how Simeon Brown is defying his reputation

Sunday, 4 February 2024

Analysis: Simeon Brown is a victim of assumptions. Those who have preconceived ideas about his youth, Christian beliefs, or his character often revise their opinion on meeting the newest minister for local government, transport and energy.

“I would have very different ideas from him, but he’s actually a decent human,” says one source who has worked closely with Brown since National took office late last year. “He’s respectful and smart as all get-out. That’s why he’s in the Kitchen Cabinet.

“[His staff] say people talk to him like he's a 32-year-old who doesn't know what he's talking about. That doesn’t trigger him, but it is a really big mistake.”

Another politico, who worked with the Pakuranga MP in Opposition on Auckland matters, agrees they underestimated Brown. “I had complete prejudice towards him,” he said, a view that stemmed from Brown’s staunch anti-abortion views.

“I don't know if he is that bright, but he is on top of his briefs, has ideas and can engage positively and respectfully with people that disagree with him. And he does have a humility about him.”

So, where do these assumptions come from? Brown is young, entering Parliament at 25 in 2017, but youth is no longer a barrier to success in politics, in the wake of trailblazers Dames Marilyn Waring (first elected at 23) and Jacinda Ardern (the world's youngest female head of government at age 37).

The current Parliament includes Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke, 21, Tom Rutherford, 26, Tamatha Paul, 27 and 29-year-old Chlöe Swarbrick.

It may be his appearance (slight, baby-faced and clean-cut), combined with the fact that he began politicking as a teenager, that draw people to conclude he is naïf.

At 16, he publicly took on Labour Minister and former teacher Chris Carter over spelling mistakes in a series of emails. The two were disagreeing about proposed electoral finance reform, to which Brown was opposed and had emailed all MPs several times. “There is such a thing as spell check,” he precociously told a local newspaper.

There was already bad blood. Then a level 12 Correspondence School pupil, Brown had previously objected to Carter asking if he was a member of the Exclusive Brethren. (Two years earlier, the sect had tried to influence the 2005 election). Brown is a Reformed Baptist, and remains devout.

National Party sources say he came to the notice of up-and-coming National MP Judith Collins, who encouraged his interest in politics and remains a mentor to this day. But Brown first earned his stripes in community activism.

Born in Rotorua, Brown was the second of five children to Ivan and Sarah. The comfortably-off family moved to Auckland when he was 12, and lived on the edge of a park in Clendon.

As a teen he accompanied his mother Sarah to a local resident group’s meetings. She was its chair and at his first appearance he was appointed secretary, then treasurer, presenting submissions to council forums.

He was elected chair of the first Manurewa Youth Council, part of the new Auckland supercity, and eventually to the local board, in 2013.

Brown was delayed, with two other members, from immediately taking up his seat. During the swearing in ceremony, they had omitted the phrase “I declare” and instead used the phrase “I swear on the Holy Bible” voiding the legal standing.

By his late teens, his conservative views were firmly taking shape, and he mounted high-profile campaigns against street crime, alcohol sales and legal highs, as well as to remove mangroves from coastal waterways.

After graduating from Manurewa High School, Brown enrolled at Auckland University, to study law and commerce. Overturning a ban on anti-abortion groups, he formed the institution’s first ‘pro-life’ club in 2010. At the time, he said: “It’s child abuse in the womb.”

His position hasn’t changed, and his social conservatism sits in line with those of his leader, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. In 2019, the young father gave an emotional speech opposing legislation to remove abortion from the Crimes Act. Three years later, he ‘liked’ a controversial social media post from colleague Simon O’Connor, that celebrated the US Supreme Court's overturning of abortion rights. He was also one of a handful of MPs to vote against legislation to ban conversion therapy.

Brown’s first taste of national politics came when he submitted to the health select committee, supporting a bill to regulate the sale of legal highs. He appeared by teleconference, representing Manurewa Action Team, and asking that local communities be given the same control over shops selling psychoactive substances that they exercised over the placement of liquor stores.

He also wrote a submission to a select committee opposing Louisa Wall’s same-sex marriage bill.

Within a year, Brown was standing for election to Parliament, unsuccessfully running against Wall in Manurewa. In 2015, he graduated and took a job with BNZ in its Highbrook branch and went on to marry his Australian partner Rebecca. They now have two daughters, Anna and Grace, and a seven-month old son, Thomas.

After 30 years, former Cabinet Minister Maurice Williamson had decided to leave Parliament for a new job as a trade envoy in Los Angeles. Brown threw his hat into the ring, but Williamson, a vocal atheist, had doubts.

“He’s very religious and I totally disagree with him on some of the moral stuff, he was opposed to gay marriage. A lot of the delegates came to me [and said]: ‘he sounds smart, and capable, but we're really panicking because he’s on the lunatic fringe of the God Squad’.”

Williamson’s endorsement was conditional. “[I asked for] a watertight assurance that he’d keep his values, and Christianity, and all that separate and that he’d only bring to the table what is administration and government. He gave me that assurance and he has stuck to that to the letter.”

Brown was elected and entered Parliament in Opposition during a particularly tumultuous time for the National Party. He found his feet easily as an Opposition MP, taking on shadow portfolios in police and corrections, and had a particular knack for getting under the skin of the Government and its supporters.

For his tribalism, he has paid a high price. On X, of which he was a frequent commentator, critics would joke about ‘a rare mistep for Simeon Brown.’ But other attacks were more serious, including multiple death threats.

“He had to have the police around his house, they had to change their address and take the details off his car,” Williamson says. “It’s ghastly. The Left hate him. But he doesn't take any of the nasties to heart. He gets on with what he wants to do.”

A National Party staffer described him as ‘eager’ and said he had to be slowed when writing press releases in Opposition. Another former insider said he was one of the few MPs who contributed to policy writing during the chaotic 2020 election campaign. He squeaked into Collins’ shadow cabinet, when she ranked him 20th on the list.

He is considered to be one of ‘The Taliban,’ a faction in the caucus that are either evangelical Christians – like Luxon himself – or with morally traditional views. He doesn’t drink alcohol or coffee, but a rumour that he eschews television is unfounded. His office boasts two huge screens and he watches a lot of Paw Patrol with his children.

The staffer says he is also well-liked by Parliament’s staff, often drawn from the more liberal, Wellington middle-class.

The Auckland politico says his views are less obvious than some of his fellow Christians. “The anti-abortionism, on a day-to-day basis, that doesn’t come up. And he doesn’t give Taliban vibes the way some of the rest of them do. And that’s not his job. His job is to do transport.”

His other responsibilities (local government, energy, Auckland and deputy leader of the House) mean he has developed a close, working relationship with the leading lights of the party’s liberal wing: Chris Bishop (now minister for infrastructure and housing), and finance minister Nicola Willis.

The three will be instrumental in solving the country’s current infrastructure deficit. Early on, Brown put the brakes on cycling and walking projects and is currently working on the Government’s transport budget, which promises to be heavy on roads.

Perhaps his biggest challenge is in local government. An independent panel spent two years reviewing the sector and produced a worrying report, with 17 recommendations, last year. It suggested shrinking the number of councils, elections every four years, and a stark warning that home owners have reached 'peak rates'.

Chief among mayors’ concerns is the poor relationship between central and local government, and the ‘unfunded mandate’ – where local government is made responsible for the implementation of new legislation or regulations without any accompanying national funding.

The report’s findings don’t “really align with the direction of travel that this government is going,” Brown says. He is progressing National’s plans to implement ‘city deals’ - as seen in the UK and Australia - an as-yet nebulous concept that would see the government and councils work together on prioritising and funding future infrastructure needs.

“We do see the relationship between local and central government as being really important,” Brown says. “We're proposing a fast track consenting framework, a range of new funding tools and mechanisms through value capture. We want to see greater use of tolling and other revenue mechanisms to build infrastructure.”

There is a debate within the three parties in government about returning to councils a share of GST raised in their area. NZ First has long campaigned on the issue, and ACT has a plan to share a portion of GST from new builds with councils.

Brown doesn’t sound wild about expanding that idea. “There's an acknowledgment that we need to be doing a better job of supporting councils to support growth. But, as I said, there's a range of other funding and financing tools that we're developing.”

On the need for amalgamation, the government isn’t buying that fight. “It may well be something that's discussed as part of those deals, but ultimately, it requires leadership within those communities. At the same time, there's been a number of councils that have spoken to me about how that may have positive outcomes.”

The debate about how councils are funded crystallised around the last government’s plans to reform Three Waters infrastructure in attempt to fix crumbling pipes that councils could no longer afford to fix.

Brown was faced with an immediate challenge when Wellington threatened to run out of water just as he got his feet under his new desk. After years of neglect, the Capital’s ageing pipe network is now leaking up to 50% of its supply, and residents face tough restrictions to counter a shortage.

A former MP notes that there are shades of Judith Collins’ no-nonsense approach to the 2017 jet fuel crisis, where she took charge after a pipeline rupture caused major travel disruption. “He’s been taking notes.”

Brown had to get tough with two of the region’s mayors: Tory Whanau and Wayne Guppy, asking for details of their proposed solutions and calling them into the Beehive last week.

The relationship got off to a bad start. Whanau had said early last year that she would be “deeply concerned” if he ever became Transport Minister, a crack for which she had to apologise after the election.

Then, when both councils missed a deadline for information, Brown went public - a definitive rebuke. The sense from those close to the region’s problems is that Whanau would be wise not to underestimate the new minister for local government, who has powers to intervene, if he believes Wellington City Council isn’t performing its duties.

“My intention is to ensure that they're taking their responsibilities seriously,” Brown says. “We need to have a water entity or a water model for Wellington which is financially sustainable. And it is for the councils to work together and determine what that looks like.”

National wants local funding ring-fenced for water. “So the money that is paid for water, goes back into water.”

The point of Three Waters was to give sufficient borrowing headroom to repair the infrastructure (a bill of around $185b). National has scrapped it and prefers a council-controlled organisation model, where local authorities place water assets in a rate-payer owned company.

“That entity will be off the council's balance sheet,” Brown says. “It won't be reliant on the council's borrowing limits, so it's able to then make those long-term investments that it needs to.”

Whether this model will work remains to be seen. Late last year credit rating agency S&P Global cast a shadow over the arrangement. Its local government outlook report said it would view CCOs with a high degree of political control as “either part of its parent council’s tax-supported debt or at least a material contingent liability.”

Wellingtonians are anxious to know if the problem can be solved before the city runs dry. And, if it can’t, whether the government has the appetite to step in and install Crown observers or managers.

“Wellington's a great place, but ultimately, it needs to have leaders who are prioritising must- haves over nice-to-haves,” he says.

When pushed, Brown says there is a high threshold for intervention. For now, he is satisfied with what he has seen, making the Government’s expectations clear to Guppy and Whanau. “The public statements that I've seen in the last couple of weeks demonstrate a willingness to take it more seriously.”

“One thing I know for sure,” an Auckland politico says. “He will work completely, professionally and respectfully with the mayor. And if she does too, they can achieve things. He won't look at her as a Left-wing radical, but as the mayor of Wellington. And it's up to her whether she looks at him as the weirdo, anti-abortionist.”

Correction: Simeon Brown is MP for Pakuranga. An earlier version of this story incorrectly said he was MP for Papakura. (Amended February 4, 2024, 11am)