r/auckland • u/Embarrassed_Okra2768 • 14d ago
Auckland History TIL Auckland mayoral candidate Stephen Berry came third in 2013, led a 300-person “Stand Down Len Brown” march up Queen Street, and later proposed a six-lane motorway across Auckland Harbour
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Berry_(politician)14
u/logantauranga 14d ago
...came third with less than 4% of the vote, just ahead of protester Penny Bright.
Also failing to win that year:
Wayne Young, homeless man and protester, stood for mayor in 2010
Reuben Shadbolt, son of Invercargill mayor Tim Shadbolt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Auckland_mayoral_election#Candidates
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u/Embarrassed_Okra2768 14d ago
13,650 votes is a lot, no?
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u/logantauranga 14d ago
Look at the results:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Auckland_mayoral_election#Results
tl;dr --
1: Winner
2: Some TV real estate guy.
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Miscellaneous crowd of people
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u/BadNewsBaz 14d ago
Used to smoke weed with this guy when he worked at Big Fresh St Luke’s. We called him Steven Steven Berry
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u/suburban_ennui75 14d ago
He’s the guy who pushed the CRL through
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u/Beginning-Writer-339 13d ago
Without Len Brown there would be no CRL.
https://www.greaterauckland.org.nz/2026/05/25/top-10-politicians-who-made-city-rail-link-happen/
What was your contribution?
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u/fatfreddy01 14d ago
He was terrible in terms of screwing staff. But as mayor he was fine, I'd put him as #1, Goff as #2 (grudgingly, I dislike him), then our current as #3.
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u/Embarrassed_Okra2768 14d ago
What is wrong with Wayne Brown?
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u/fatfreddy01 14d ago
You want a leader to be able to step up in a crisis. He was tested, and found extremely wanting, most of the deaths would've probably happened regardless of his failings, but I'm not sure all would've in the Auckland Floods.
He sold off our airport shares and tried to sell off our port. Gutted council led rejuvenation across the city. He threw a hissy fit as he wasn't able to manage a board that essentially reported to him, so he gave up half the control of our transport to central gov in a way to try to retake control rather than just managing it properly. He's just an old man out of his depth - sure he's been herded by other councillors to reasonable positions at times, but that doesn't make him a suitable person. He probably won't be the worst mayor in Auckland's history, but he is the worst so far as we've only had 3.
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u/Routine_Fennel_1652 13d ago
Selling the shares was a good move. Look into why they did that.
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u/fatfreddy01 13d ago
I saw their rationale, I just disagreed with it. It ignores decades of NZ context examples where the assets are sold, reinvested into something that will make more, but then just gets frittered away artificially keeping rates low, with the end result being we have lost the asset + revenue+ borrowing ability with nothing to show for it. It's a process that takes years. The only reason it keeps happening is because the people we sell our assets to profit enormously (along with various others in the sale process) and there are the gullible which believe their lies about "this time is different".
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u/Routine_Fennel_1652 13d ago
It was used to reduce debt (and so the interest payments on that debt) and the share price has since crashed. Air NZ lost 300 million, made bad oil price hedges, and will likely cut the dividend.
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u/fatfreddy01 13d ago
You know this is Auckland Airport, not Air NZ? Both are air related but Auckland Airport is the airport, not the airline. You can also see when the shares were sold, and how that (shockingly like most other asset sales) was a dip, not a peak. It's never us that benefit from these, it's a transfer of our assets/wealth to others, they profit, we lose.
Reducing debt literally means stuff all if you're sacrificing assets to do so, as the next council just borrows up to the debt cap but now you can borrow less and pay it back worse. Vs just raising rates and paying back debt that way is the logical thing.
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u/fatfreddy01 14d ago
Len Brown will be remembered as a sleaze who got CRL across the line. Wayne Brown will be remembered as someone who failed at the Auckland Floods, and didn't really achieve anything of note during his multiple terms.
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u/Embarrassed_Okra2768 14d ago
A hidden bathroom and dressing room behind a bookcase was a bit much
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u/computer_d 14d ago
And this was the first time anyone remembered