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PHIL GOFF AT HIS ELECTION PARTY PRESS CONFERENCE.
PHIL GOFF AT HIS ELECTION PARTY PRESS CONFERENCE.

Local ElectionsOctober 15, 2019

10 questions with Auckland’s re-elected mayor Phil Goff

PHIL GOFF AT HIS ELECTION PARTY PRESS CONFERENCE.
PHIL GOFF AT HIS ELECTION PARTY PRESS CONFERENCE.

Phil Goff was returned to office by a huge margin on Saturday. How will he put that mandate to use this term? Hayden Donnell asks the questions.

The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.


Phil Goff is once again Auckland’s mayor. Preliminary local election results show him with a lead of nearly 100,000 votes over his nearest challenger, John Tamihere. That should give him a decisive mandate, but if anything, his job is only going to get more difficult. Goff’s council is probably a little more unfriendly than last term. He’s lost a key ally and backroom negotiator in Waitakere councillor Penny Hulse. And there’s speculation a councillor could be fomenting a more organised opposition to his leadership. I spoke to him about the challenges ahead.

How are you going to end the so-called ‘A’ and ‘B’ team stuff on council this time round?

I know a lot more than I did three years ago, and I know a lot more about the individual councillors. I didn’t know many of them at all when I went in, now I do know them and I’m confident that I can work productively with them.

This is what Penny Hulse banged on about on her way out the door – some people have been seemingly determined to oppose you – can you offer them an olive branch?

There are people who are politically committed to being oppositional. I can’t do anything about that. But what I can say to every councillor is: “I want to work with you, and I want to work constructively with you for things that will deliver for Auckland.” That’s my mindset and that’s how I’m going into it. And I’m not making any exception to that rule. I will set out to work with everybody that’s been elected.

What was the biggest thing at stake this election? 

I think what John Tamihere was saying was that he wanted to reassert the car as king. It was the alleged war on motor vehicles – which is not a war on motor vehicles, it’s simply an acknowledgement of the fact that to decongest our city, we’ve got to make alternative modes of transport available to people … This term is about investments in infrastructure, the change in mindset towards greater public transport, active modes of transportation, building houses at a rate that meets demand, and cleaning up the beaches and harbours. 

Was this the worst campaign that you have participated in?

Not the hardest one.

What was the hardest?

Being leader of the opposition, after you’ve been in government for nine years.

Second hardest?

It had a dimension that most other campaigns didn’t. Normally as an MP fighting in your electorate, you have a way of working with your opponent which is respectful and you never set out personally to attack your opponent. I’ve never done that. This was a different flavour and it did have that element of alternative facts and personal attacks. 

PHIL GOFF WITH FORMER WAITAKERE MAYOR BOB HARVEY. PHOTO: HAYDEN DONNELL

Some of the aggressive local campaigns opposing things like the division of Chamberlain Park in Mt Albert and the town square development at the Anzac St carpark in Takapuna, they seem to have succeeded at the local board level at least. Are you going to have to stop those projects?

I think you’ll see the Anzac Square in Takapuna go ahead. The two incumbent councillors have been re-elected on the Shore, and they are two excellent councillors and I welcome the fact that they’re there.

I haven’t analysed it yet, but if the local board in Albert Eden don’t want to go ahead with dividing Chamberlain Park, then that probably determines the outcome. And I know exactly why the local board wanted to do that. It wasn’t about losing public open space, it was about catering for a wider cross-section of people to be able to enjoy it recreationally. And there were some pretty nasty tactics that went into that, and went into the Shore, and that’s always regrettable. 

Voter turnout was down again (from 38.5% in 2016 to 34.6%). What do you blame that on?

I think the low turnout is partly because all the people I know, they’d ring up and say, “look, we don’t know anything about the District Health Board, what do they do? Who are the people? Who do I vote for as a local councillor? We haven’t heard of them.”

So will you support STV for council elections? Will you support getting the DHB elections off the ballot?

I am utterly unconvinced that electing the District Health Boards is a meaningful exercise. And I say that because I’m really well informed, but have I ever read anything in the paper about a decision made by the District Health Board? Do I know who the people are in most instances? No. And I’m the ultimate political junkie.

What would be the one project that you would hang your hat on this term? The one thing you’d like to point to as your biggest achievement?

I don’t know if it’s a “one thing”, but it would be to further advance giving this city a world class infrastructure. 

I think it’s upgrading the provision of public transport generally. Because it’s busways, it’s light rail, it’s heavy rail, and it’s active modes of transportation. So I’ll make it a one thing – it’s further progressing the development of world class infrastructure in this city and starting in a meaningful way to tackle the problems of climate change. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length

The Spinoff local election coverage is made possible thanks to The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism click here.

Keep going!
the redemption of the tron

Local ElectionsOctober 14, 2019

Cheat sheet: The remarkable redemption of Hamilton City Council

the redemption of the tron

The extraordinary battle for the Tron has ended in a way no one quite saw coming, with the city relinquishing its stranglehold on the title of New Zealand’s most embarrassing council. Angela Cuming reports.

The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism, click here.


The so-called City of the Future has finally been dragged into the 21st century, with Hamiltonians taking it upon themselves to get rid of the bad apples rotting in the council chambers and replacing them with some much more diverse, progressive councillors. These are changes the election has wrought in Hamilton local politics.

Who lost their council seats?

First, the goodbyes: three of Hamilton’s most controversial councillors: Siggi Henry, James Casson and Garry Mallett, all lost at the ballot box.

Why is it a good thing they are gone?

Where do we even start? To recap: the tinfoil hat-wearing, disabled-parking spot hogger Siggi Henry was the anti-vaxxer who believes that measles is not deadly and that fluoride lowers IQ. She also once claimed that refugees might not know how to use toilets

James Casson was the one who once referred to Muslim refugees as “scum” in a Facebook post and later criticised New Zealand’s handling of the Christchurch terror attacks and questioned why the nation was mourning those killed. Casson later resigned from his job at Immigration NZ.  

Garry Mallett is the one who was the subject of a formal complaint over allegations he used the words “fags” and “homos” while on council business. 

He’s also a proud supporter of Hobson’s Pledge and a former president of ACT New Zealand who during the 2005 general election made a vomiting gesture during a discussion about homosexuality. 

In his final weeks as a councillor he had been dedicating his time to railing against what he saw as “racist” Māori-only seats and wards.

Left to right: Hamilton councillors James Casson (in clown makeup), Siggi Henry (right), and Garry Mallett

Who has been elected instead?

The Tron elected some pretty progressive councillors including Sarah Thomson, a 28-year-old community lawyer and advocate for climate action (she’s the one who took the Government to court over climate change in 2017) and Kesh Naidoo-Rauf, a 34-year-old pharmacist, who ran on a platform of diversity and environmental action. They join education advocate Maxine van Oosten as the three new faces on the council. 

Special mention must go to entrepreneur and proud millennial Louise Hutt, 26, who came within 153 votes of grabbing a spot on the council – an outcome that would have been almost inconceivable a few years ago. 

So why the winds of change?

Hamilton’s voter turnout in this election hit 38.78 per cent, the highest it’s been since 2004, and that clearly influenced the results.

This was probably the first election in Hamilton where social media played a large and significant role and helped reach mostly younger and first-time voters. It was also the undoing of a few sitting councillors (see Henry and Casson). 

The city’s changing demographics would have played a part too. The city’s median age is just 32. More young people and migrants are calling with the Tron home, and that is undoubtedly having an effect at the ballot box. 

What about Hamilton’s mayor?

That was the other big news, with incumbent Andrew King losing to Paula Southgate. King is a former used-car salesman and shareholder at Kings Finance, which offers among other things property development finance for building companies. Southgate is seen by many as the ‘anti-Andrew’ and campaigned on a platform of progressive things like water quality, affordable housing and creating green spaces across the city. Her victory is further proof of a big shift to the left in local politics. 

Speaking of the environment, where does the council stand on the whole climate change thing?

Well, Hamilton City Council voted against declaring a climate emergency but that was earlier this year and a few of those councillors who voted no – including Casson and Mallett – are now gone. Expect to see this issue back before the new-look council before too long. 

The Spinoff local election coverage is entirely funded by The Spinoff Members. For more about becoming a member and supporting The Spinoff’s journalism, click here.

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