Auckland mayor Wayne threatened to ‘rearrange’ lobbyist’s face
Saturday, 31 January 2026
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown was warned after an email in which he threatened to “rearrange” a lobbyist’s face sparked a police complaint.
The incident comes as Brown floats ambitions to bring parts of the supercity’s police operations under council control, a move he wants to form part of the Government’s city deal.
The warning stemmed from an email in which Brown told a young Ratepayers’ Alliance staffer to “get my face off that or I will rearrange yours”. He was responding to the group’s campaign against the council’s $36 million food scrap bin programme, which had featured a photograph of him.
Brown followed with a second line blaming former mayor Phil Goff for the policy.
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The Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance, a project of the Taxpayers’ Union and headed by its executive director Jordan Williams, reported the email to police on December 3, saying the language was threatening and that it had a responsibility to log such incidents involving staff.
Police documents released under the Official Information Act show officers did not approach Brown directly.
Instead, police contacted Auckland Council chief executive Phil Wilson on December 12, informed him of the complaint, and left the matter for council to manage internally.
Officers assessed whether any offence may have occurred, including under the Summary Offences Act and the Harmful Digital Communications Act, but concluded the threshold for criminal action was not met. The email was described as a “one-off reactive comment” and no further police action was taken.
However, in an email to Williams dated December 16, Detective Senior Sergeant Martin Friend said the mayor had been “made aware of the complaint and specifically spoken to/counselled in relation to the language in the email”, adding that Brown had acknowledged the language was inappropriate and taken responsibility.
Williams said that communication left the clear impression police themselves had spoken to the mayor.
“To be frank, I think it’s petty and unbecoming of someone that senior,” Williams said. “I’m not angry. I just think it’s pathetic. You can be a grumpy old man without threatening violence.”
Williams said the organisation routinely logged threats against staff.
He laid the complaint about the email, which was sent in June, amid a deteriorating relationship between Brown and ratepayer advocacy groups.
In the days leading up to the complaint, Brown told the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance to “f… off” in response to an email urging him to sign a pledge to keep rates down.
Speaking to The Post, Brown dismissed the Ratepayers’ Alliance as a “small-minded” lobby group whose business model was “to create trouble and get donations”.
“These people make up stories to get people to donate to them,” he said. “What am I supposed to do - just let them keep sending stuff that’s not true?”
Asked whether he accepted the language he used could be seen as threatening, Brown rejected that characterisation and broadened his criticism to police themselves.
“I’ve got emails threatening my family over Western Springs Speedway,” he said. “The police did nothing. The council had to hire security.”
He described police attention on the complaint as a waste of time and resources. “They don’t even bother catching people trading drugs at the moment, and they’ve got time to waste on that,” he said.
Brown revealed he wants to pursue control of Auckland’s police operations as part of the city’s proposed regional deal with the Government. That deal was expected to be completed late last year, but has stalled.
“In Buenos Aires and in London, the mayor runs the police. New Zealand is run far too centrally.”
Brown said he had not discussed the idea in detail with Police Minister Mark Mitchell, describing it as “above his pay grade”.
Mitchell rejected the proposal. “I enjoy a close working relationship with the mayor and we are motivated by the same thing and that is to make Auckland one of the safest cities in the world,” he said. “There will be no changes to the current working relationship between local and central government.”
Wilson told The Post: “I was made aware of this matter by NZ Police and raised it with Mayor Brown during one of our regular catch-ups, which fell around the same time.
“We had a short discussion and I consider the matter to be resolved. I then confirmed my actions with Police.”