Kiwiblog

Audrey Young reports:

Auckland Mayor Len Brown has given an undertaking to the influential Iwi Leadership Group to talk to the new Auckland Council about dedicated Maori seats on the council. But no quick decisions are expected to be taken.

Mr Brown attended the group’s hui at Takapuwahia Marae in Porirua on Saturday as a guest.

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples asked Mr Brown to attend the hui with him.

The request to discuss Maori representation on the council was put by Tainui leader Tukoroirangi Morgan and Ngati Whatua leader Naida Glavish.

Mr Morgan said last night that Mr Brown gave an undertaking to discuss the issue with his new council which has only just been sworn in.

He had said it was a serious issue and it would be discussed comprehensively.

I have two objections to Maori seats on the Auckland Council – one principled and one pragmatic.

The principled argument is that race based seats are a bad thing, and over time will lead NZ to a Fiji type situation.

The pragmatic argument is that there is no problem to solve.

In the Auckland region, Maori make up just under 10% of the population (and only 8.3% of the adult population). On the Auckland Council, 3 out of 20 Councillors or 15% have Maori descent.

Mr Morgan and Dr Sharples said there was no support for getting the issue tested through a referendum.

It would be a brave Council that introduced race based seats on its own initiative, without letting the people have a say.

The Herald reports:

Len Brown didn’t spend much time sitting down during his first “Mayor on the chair session” in Aotea Square yesterday. …

From 12.30 to 1.30pm, Mr Brown sat – then stood – in the rain under an umbrella, chatting to members of the public who had a range of questions for him from whether he was a Christian to what he could do for students worried about losing accommodation during the Rugby World Cup and how to improve the angle of parking spaces. …

In Mr Brown’s weekly Mayor in the Chair sessions, no bookings are required and he goes to the citizens.

Each week, he will go to a different part of the city so he can get a feel for the community and talk to people about their concerns or issues.

It’s an idea he has brought with him from his time as Manukau Mayor and one that proved so popular, there was never a shortage of people to talk to during his hour with them.

You know that’s not a bad idea – having an hour a week where you can meet the Mayor on any issue without an appointment. Sure, it is partly a media gimmick, but it is also a good way to stay connected and provide an avenue for residents to get issues looked at, without the normal bureaucratic hurdles.

Bernard Orsman writes in the Herald:

The Super City is only 10 days old, but councillor George Wood has spat the dummy about the relatively minor job given to him by Mayor Len Brown.

The former North Shore Mayor and senior policeman said he was “somewhat deflated” to be told by Mr Brown he would chair the community safety forum when he wanted a public transport role.

He wondered if he was being sidelined for going public on the “crummy levels of public transport” in Otara – launching pad for the political career of Mr Brown. the the former Manukau Mayor.

Well I doubt that helped.

When Mr Brown assigned committee jobs, the five C&R councillors missed out on top roles. Mr Wood, whose ticket has questioned the affordability of Mr Brown’s rail projects, was overlooked for the top transport job.

The job went to former Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee, whose number one priority is to “support the mayor in expanding rail as soon as possible”.

Yesterday, Mr Wood acknowledged his position on public transport probably contributed to him missing a senior transport role, although all was not lost. The mayor has since said all councillors could be members of the transport committee.

While I think Len’s transport plans are going to cost Aucklanders a huge amount of money, they are what Auckland voted for. It is not unreasonable that the Mayor will want a chair who is fully supportive of his policy, rather than one who campaigned against it.

Add to the fact that Mike Lee’s background as ARC Chair makes him very experienced in the transport area, and I don’t think one can fairly criticise Len’s decisions. Again, this is not to say I agree with his transport priorities but as Mayor he should be able to select a chair who will back him fully.

Do you recall Len Brown saying h would announce 100 initiatives or policies in his first 100 days in office – 1 a day.

Today is Day 2. I presume Day 1 was spend lots of money getting sworn in. so what was the big policy for Day 2.

He announced it on Breakfast this morning. They’re going to clean the windows of the Town Hall.

Day 1 it turns out was doing designations for the planned rail tracks. No problems with that as early designations help, but I await with interest his policy on how much he will increase rates to pay for his rail plans.

Len may think he has a mandate for the rail – and he does if the ratepayers of Auckland who voted for him are willing to pay for it. But he does not have a mandate to demand the taxpayers of Wellington, Napier, Nelson and Christchurch pay for it. In fact the best quote I can give comes from Labour’s Stuart Nash:

All this posturing, threats and huge budget promises re Auckland from their new councillors etc makes me shake my head in disbelief.

Akld is but one of many cities in this wonderful country and if Aucklanders think they have pre-eminent rights on all of our taxes then they need to pull their heads out from their nether-regions and get real.  New Zealand does well when all New Zealanders are thriving.

Well said Mr Nash.

Len Brown is off to a good start. He reached agreement quickly with the Government on Queen’s Wharf, and has now announced the various chairmanships for Auckland. Almost every Councillor gets a “job” which is sensible, rather than allocate over to those on your side of the spectrum. The appointments are:

Committees of the Whole

• Strategy & Finance Committee – Penny Webster
• Accountability & Performance Committee – Richard Northey
  • CCO Strategy and Appointments Sub-Committee – His Worship the Mayor
  • CEO Review Sub-Committee – His Worship the Mayor
  • Tenders & Procurement Panel – Jami-Lee Ross
• Regional Development & Operations Committee – Ann Hartley
  • Social & Community Forum – Cathy Casey
  • Culture, Arts & Events Forum – Alf Filipaina
  • Economic Forum – Arthur Anae
  • Community Safety Forum – George Wood
  • Environment & Sustainability Forum – Wayne Walker
  • Parks & Heritage Forum – Sandra Coney
  • District Plan & Urban Design Forum – Cameron Brewer
• Auckland Future Vision Committee – His Worship the Mayor / Deputy Mayor
• Transport Committee – Mike Lee

Standing Committees

• Hearings Committee – Noelene Rafills
• Regulatory & Bylaws Committee – Des Morrison
• Audit & Risk Committee – Sharon Stewart
• Civil Defence & Emergency Management Group – Michael Goudie

Advisory and Statutory Panels

• Maori Statutory Board – Alf Filipaina
• Pacific Peoples Advisory Panel – Arthur Anae
• Ethnic Advisory Panel – Mike Lee
• Business Advisory Panel – Cameron Brewer
• Rural Advisory Panel – Des Morrison
• Youth Advisory Panel – Michael Goudie
• Social Policy Forum – Calum Penrose

With all these new committees and panels, it will be interesting in say a year’s time to look at what, if anything, they have achieved.

Bernard Orsman at the Herald reports:

Super City mayor-elect Len Brown will face angry protesters today at an invitation-only opening of a park honouring Leigh Auton, his outgoing chief executive at the Manukau City Council.

The naming of Leigh Auton Reserve on a historic coastal farming block between Beachlands and Maraetai has upset some locals, a local community website and local community board member Lance Gedge, who is boycotting the event.

Bevan Craig, one of six locals who spent $20,000 of his own money going to court to secure the reserve, said “Mr Auton and his henchmen” had walked all over the community for years.

“It is an insult to the many that fought hard against the council and developer to secure that reserve to find it now being named after the person they had to fight” said Mr Craig.

If Mr Craig is correct in his assertion that the Council was a hindrance, not a help, in securing the reserve then it does seem very insensitive to name it after the Council CEO.

Last night, a council spokeswoman said Mr Brown and Deputy Mayor Gary Troup initiated the naming of the park in recognition of Mr Auton’s 32 years’ contribution to the city.

She said residents of Clevedon and Maraetai were not consulted about the name because it was not required in the parks naming process.

Consultation with the public not legally required, so we won’t do it.

Asked why the local community was not consulted on the name of the park, a spokesman for Mr Brown said last night: “The community board is the community.”

I can think of a lot of people who would disagree with that.

Len Brown campaigned on three major rail projects and has a mandate to get them implemented. That is why we have elections.

However there is no mandate for taxpayers, rather than ratepayers, to be the major source of funds.

The Herald reports here on the likely costs of the three rail projects:

1. Central City Tunnel – $1.5b
2. Rail to Airport – $1.45b
3. Rail to Albany – $1.8b

That is a total of $4.75b and there are around 1 million adults in Auckland. So just send each resident a bill for $4,750.

The Herald reports:

The council is a balance of experience, youth and gender. It has eight women councillors, five sitting or former council leaders, and two Pacific Island and two Maori councillors – but no representatives from any other ethnic groups.

A pretty diverse Council, and one would think showed there is no need for race based seats.

On TVNZ’s Q & A yesterday, Mr Brown said a referendum on creating Maori seats on the council “may well” be possible in the next three years.

“I want us to have a full debate across the community, and I want to find out the best way of including the whole community in that,” he said.

“But I want to see Maori representation, particularly mana whenua [local tribal] representation on that council.”

Len Brown’s policy was to support Maori seats, so this is no surprise.

But I would be very cautious about mana whenua representation, because that implies that rather than have an election amongst electors on the Maori roll, instead the three local iwi would directly appoint a Councillor. So a dozen people in a room get the same voting rights as the entire Rodney District.

The current laws allows for Maori seats in the traditional sense, but a law change would be needed to have mana whenua direct representation as proposed by the Royal Commission and supported by Len. So this is highly unlikely unless people vote for a Labour/Green Government in 2011.

Len Brown gets to pick the Deputy Mayor, and off memory the Committee Chairs. Who will he pick?

Mike Lee is a contender. However he was a potential rival to Len, and as a former ARC Chair may find it hard to be Deputy.

If Brown wants to solidfy the region, Penny Webster the former Rodney Mayor is a possibility. Also Penny Hulse former Waitakere Deputy Mayor.

The committee chairs will also be of interest – will they all go to the left, or will they be shared around? I suspect Brown’s leadership style is to be collegial and make sure some go to those on the right – Cameron Brewer might pick something up? Also George Wood the former North Shore Mayor.

A related issue is who will become team leader for C&R? Could it be Jami-Lee Ross? As he is from the former Manukau City, that would help show they are not just Auckland City based.

Not online yet but I am told Len Brown has won the Mayoralty with a pretty large margin, and also that the left hold 11 of the 20 Council seats. I believe C&R have five seats and not sure how the others lie yet.

It’s an over 50% turnout so those who won can claim a good mandate to govern Auckland for the next three years – they have the challenge to make the Super City work, and be an improvement on what was there in the past.

I also understand despite being an incumbent Mayor, Andrew Williams failed to even be elected as a Ward Councillor.

With 95% counted it is huge – 220,000 to 160,000 – a real mandate.

UPDATE: Fuller results now in.

• Andrew Williams got under 1% in his Mayoralty bid. Colin Craig got 40,000 votes – watch him in 2013
• In Rodney, Mayor Penny Webster got elected to Council
• In Albany Michael Goudie and Wayne Walker won. Andrew Williams got a humiliating 4,429 votes only – in 10th place!!!! He did beat Cameron Slater, but Cameron will be very happy as his campaign was about stopping Williams. When before has an incumbent Mayor polled 10th just for a Council spot?
• On the North Shore George Wood stormed him, balanced by Ann Hartley in 2nd place. Two former Mayors.Grant Gillion and Christine Rankin very narrowly behind.
• Waitakere Deputy Mayor Penny Hulse takes first place locally with Sandra Coney 2nd. An unfortunate result some may say!
• Mike Lee crushed opposition in Waitemata and Gulf, beating Tenby Powell and Alex Swney combined
• Noeline Raffills won Whau fauirly comfortably for C&R
• Albert-Eden-Roskill has a split result with Chris Fletcher 1ston 19,500 votes and Cathy Casey 2nd on 14,000. Paul Goldsmith only 250 votes behind.
• Cameron Brewer has a massive victory in Orakei, with 17,000 votes to 10,000 for Doug Armstrong. Congrats Cameron.
• Sadly in Maungakiekie-Tamaki Richard Northey beat the talented Alfred Ngaro by 1,800 votes
• In Howick Sharon Stewart gets 1st with 22,500 votes followed by Jami-Lee Ross on 18,382. Team-mate Dick Quax just behind on 18,045.
• Former Mayor Sir Barry Curtis dips out in the Manurewa-Papakura ward, by 1,000 votes behind Calum Penrose. John Walker another 3,000 votes ahead of him.
• As expected Des Morrison wins in Franklin Ward

And for some of the boards:

• Gary Holmes got elected to the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board, which will upset Andrew Williams even further.
• The Upper Harbour Local Board gets Christine Rankin and Brian Neeson.
• Nick Kearney is one of the few right faces on the Kaipatiki Local Board
• He’s 85 I think but Assid Corban is back on Henderson-Massey Local Board. Future West got none.
• Greg Presland makes the Waitakere Ranges Local Board
• GBI Board Chairman Paul Downey is re-elected to the GBI Board in the regions’ highest turnout race
• Denise Roche tops the poll for Waiheke Board
• City Vision get a majority in the Waitemata Board
• Michael Wood tops the poll for the Puketepapa Board, and his wife Julia Fairey is in third place. They almost form a board quorum
• C&R win 6/7 seats on Oraeki Board
• Neelam Choudary misses out on the Howick Board
• Labour clean sweep the Mangere-Otahuhu Board
• Labour, including Daljit Singh, don;’t win any seats on the Papatoetoe section of Otara-Papatoetoe Board
• Colleen Brown tops the Manurewa Board poll followed by George Hawkins

The Herald reports:

Labour MP Phil Twyford says he should not have used his parliamentary email to endorse candidates in the local body elections and he is sorry.

Mr Twyford, Labour’s Auckland Issues spokesman, met Parliamentary Service officials today following an accusation from ACT leader Rodney Hide about improper use of parliamentary resources.

Mr Twyford sent emails – including one to endorse Auckland super city mayoralty candidate Len Brown.

“Parliamentary Services have told me that there is a case to answer and that it has been referred to the Speaker’s Office. This was a genuine mistake. I am now aware of the rules and I won’t be making this mistake again.

Telling people who to vote for, from a parliamentary account, is no mistake. Everyone knows the rules – you an not ask for money, members, or votes.

Even worse when it is the Spokesperson for Auckland Issues. While of course Labour back Len Brown (a Labour Party member), it is not a good look to have the Auckland spokesperson actively campaigning for and against candidates – as he will have to work with some of them after the election.

The Herald reports:

Auckland Council candidates are split almost equally over whether the new council should play a bigger role in providing social housing for low-income people.

Mayoral candidate Len Brown and 17 other candidates have told a survey by the Waitakere Housing Call to Action group that the council should maintain or expand the pensioner units it will inherit from existing councils, and work with the Government and community groups to provide more social housing. …

Mr Brown told a social issues forum in Otahuhu yesterday that he wanted to double the existing number of units.

He advocated putting “1000 new units of affordable housing, both personally owned and rented”, into Housing NZ urban renewal projects at Tamaki, Clendon and Papakura.

No no no. Local Government isn’t there to find schools, hospitals and provide housing. That is the role of central Government, Len Brown wants to spend over $1 billion of ratepayers money on housing – money that could either lower rates, or be far better spent on public transport, roads, parks etc.

Not everyone thank God wants to spend $1 billion on housing. No I dodn’t mean John Banks, but the two communist (Annalucia is standing for the Communist League, and Penny – well if it sounds like a duck, walks like a duck ….) candidates:

The candidate survey found some unexpected bedfellows. Far-left mayoral candidates Penny Bright and Annalucia Vermunt both urged expansion of social housing – but by the state, not the new council.

And Penny and Alllucia are right. This is the role of central Government – through Housing NZ. What next from Len – have the Council start its own welfare department?

Len Brown must have a lot of money to spend, as his TV ads have even been appearing in Wellington. Its his money, so he can spend it how he likes – but TV seems a costly medium for a local campaign.

Whale Oil points out in this edited video, that Len’s rhetoric and actions are somewhat inconsistent.

The Herald reports:

Manukau Mayor Len Brown has plans for Margaret Thatcher’s notorious poll tax if he is elected Super City mayor, says his main rival, John Banks.

The Auckland City Mayor has pounced on comments Mr Brown has made while discussing options to fund local government, including changes to the rating system, such as an income-related city tax.

These include comments from Mr Brown to the Takapuna Residents Association two weeks ago and a 2007 statement where he said it was “time to seriously consider replacing rates with a city tax”.

Mr Brown is now running at a fast speed from his own comments.

Mr Banks claimed a poll tax, which blighted the last days of Lady Thatcher’s time in power in Britain, would unfairly hurt low-income people who Mr Brown said he represented, and leave them shouldering the major burden. High earners were able to minimise their income, Mr Banks said.

I commented about this on NewstalkZB. The ones who would be hit hardest by such a tax (whether a flat poll tax or an  income tax) are state house tenants. They currently pay no rates at all, and their rent is set as a proportion of income, so doesn’t reflect the costs of rates (unlike private tenants).

So Brown’s musings, would in fact hit hardest state house tenants – normally the poorest people in society. Perhaps he thinks he has their votes sewn up, and is going for the North Shore votes!

“I have never advocated a poll tax. I have said we should be open to other options of funding council services rather than always increasing rates,” he said.

How about just keeping spending under control?

Oh dear. Whale has the photos and a story. Some clever Labour activists were out campaigning for Len Brown. To maximise publicity for Len, they parked his sign written van outside a popular nightclub.

Not so smart, is they left an e-mail printout face up on the dashboard in plain view – and a civic minded citizen took a photo.

Whale summarises:

Now we known with­out a shadow of a doubt the paid Labour staffers are help­ing Len Brown’s cam­paign and that they think that the left wing cam­paign on the North Shore is “bizarre” and has “fac­tion problems”.

Nice of them to share this with the world.

Whale blogs:

I got sent more than a few copies of a Len Brown email that has been sent to staff at Manukau City Council. The truly creepy thing about this email from the Brown cam­paign is that it was sent to inter­nal email addresses, and it was sent with embed­ded links that if you check the code are hard-coded to the indi­vid­ual receiv­ing it so that the mere act of click­ing on a link can iden­tify you to the Brown cam­paign team. …

Not only is he solic­it­ing dona­tions from staff of Manukau City but he is also encour­ag­ing them to join the cam­paign and it is all being tracked in some sort of big brother creepy way.

The peo­ple that have received this and for­warded to me all say that they have never joined any mail­ing list for Len Brown. The code of the email shows clearly that this email was sent inter­nally, osten­si­bly from the Mayor’s office. …

Bot­tom line is that Len Brown has used coun­cil pro­vided resources to cam­paign amongst coun­cil staff and thereby politi­cized the neu­tral hard work­ing staff of Manukau City.

Sending a fundraising e-mail to Council staff is incredibly unethical, if the report is correct.

The Herald reports:

Manukau’s singing, rapping mayor, Len Brown, wants to sing the national anthem at Eden Park during the Rugby World Cup.

What’s more, Mr Brown plans to invite Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin, who has sung the anthem at two test matches at Carisbrook, to join him in a duet.

“I’m known as the singing mayor of Manukau and I want to be the singing mayor of Auckland,” Mr Brown said.

All I can say is make sure you vote.

The Herald reports:

Manukau City chief executive Leigh Auton has charged ratepayers $244 for two combined birthday celebrations with Mayor Len Brown and Deputy Mayor Gary Troup.

The council’s senior leadership have birthdays on consecutive days between October 1 and October 3 and use their birthdays to get together and take stock of what is happening in the community, Mr Auton says.

Oh I see. A birthday party becomes a Council expense when you use it to talk about the community.

Mr Auton, who was given a $35,313 pay rise last year, despite restrictions on other council staff and the pressures of the recession, said the lunches were a “legitimate business expense” and he would not repay ratepayers out of his $412,079 salary.

Mr Brown, who is paid $157,096 as mayor, refused to comment on the ratepayer-funded birthday celebrations. His Super City mayoral campaign spokesman, David Lewis, pointed the Herald to Mr Auton’s “clear explanation of the work lunches”.

What really grates with people is that two men on a combined salary of $600,000 would try and find a way to justify the ratepayer paying for their birthday muffins, rather than one of them just shouting.

It is what people refer to as nickel and diming.

Whether or not one was “entitled” to do so is only part of the issue.

It’s like when Phil Heatley had his expenses problems. What many talked about what a Minister of the Crown on $250,000 bothering to charge a $7 burger at Burger King to the taxpayer. It didn’t matter so much that it was a legitimate expense.

The HoS supplies another nail into Len Brown’s coffin – and once again Brown is supplying them:

Supercity mayoral candidate Len Brown has considered pulling out of the race because of the impact on his family, he has revealed in an emotional interview.

He said only Jesus Christ had withstood such a high level of scrutiny as him, and come out clean. If ratepayers demand that he identifies who he meets with, then he will quit as Manukau mayor.

Oh for fuck’s sake, I can’t stand such preciousness. Oh woe is me, like Jesus I am persecuted for my sins type crap. The fact is the so called high level of scrutiny is nothing. If he really can’t handle basic transparency and accountability, he needs to find a new job.

Tens of thousands of people with business credit cards have managed to avoid ever buying their groceries and a hi-fi system on them.

Of the 192 card holders at Manukau City Council, 95% of them managed to supply legal tax receipts for their credit card purchases. Len Brown was responsible for 13 of the 25 instances where no legal receipt was included.

This is not a Jesus type level of cleanliness needed – this is basic accountability.

And claiming he will quit as Mayor rather than reveal who he meets with – that just makes me incredibly curious about why he will not reveal who was at the $810 dinner.

You see no one is demanding to know who comes to see him in his office. No one is demanding to know who he chats to at a bar or even has coffee with.

But if he is going to spend $810 of ratepayers money at a dinner, then the ratepayers do have the right to know who he shouted to dinner with their money.

The mayor insisted he had no obligation to disclose who he had taken to dinner on public money, and that criticism of his spending was a Citizens and Ratepayers “smear campaign”.

Now he tries to play the victim card. It was the Sunday Star-Times (NZ’s most left wing newspaper) that asked all the Mayors in the region for details of their credit card spending. Not C&R. The problem for Brown is he had used it inappropriately and had also failed to keep proper documentation. They are legitimate issues for him to be held accountable for. And he has been the person most responsible for turning what should have been a one day news story into weeks of bad headlines.

And he has utterly refused to identify who he and mayoress Shan Inglis hosted at their table for an $810 fundraiser dinner at Volare restaurant in Manurewa.

He had good reasons for refusing to identify his guests, he said.

“It is against my principles. I am fighting back on what I believe are they key issues of this campaign and what people are vitally interested in.”

He shouted: “I clearly don’t give a damn about this stuff.”

“It’s critical for me as a point of basic principle as a leader and mayor of the city.

“I sit in this room. I don’t tell anybody I am having an interview with you today. It is between you and me. It is totally confidential.”

He said there was no requirement for him to disclose who he spent council money on.

Well the media have reported that in fact the Manukau City Council policy does require disclosure of who was at the dinner, as they paid for it. I mean this is seriously outrageous to say that he can spend unlimited money on dinners for people, and there is no obligation to reveal who.

“Transparency is not a perfect thing,” he added.

“Transparency doesn’t just happen in a perfect world. You have to measure that up against other significant principles and that’s what I’m doing and I will live or die on that.

“If people make a judgment and say, ‘we all agree you should tell everybody who you are seeing all the time’, then I’ll say, ‘that’s it – I am not the mayor any more’.

Again a red herring. People are not asking to see his diary.They are not saying reveal everyone you meet. They are not saying tell us about every conversation you have.

They are asking who he spent $810 of ratepayer money on at the dinner.

Now I can only think of two explanations for Brown’s behaviour in refusing to reveal who was at the dinner.

The first is that he is just really stupid and doesn’t understand the difference between revealing who you talk to is not the same as revealing who you shout out for dinner at the ratepayers expense.

The second is that he desperately does not want to reveal the names of those at the dinner, because it would be damaging to him.

On why voters should trust him: “I will always front up. I will give you the straight answers, always with a limit.”

Oh let that be the campaign slogan – I will give you straight answers – but always with a limit.

Matt McCarten writes in the HoS:

After he defeated John Howard for the prime minister’s job the world swooned. Rudd was part of a new wave of intelligent, moderate social democratic leaders led by Barack Obama. John Key was also part of this new order.

But governing successfully, and winning campaigns, require two different skill sets.

Obama is struggling with that predicament. Fortunately for this Government, Key has made the transition seamlessly.

Rudd, however, has been a train wreck, stuffing up one policy after another.

Rudd’s arrogance and flip-flopping put him offside with the electorate.

And he had never been popular with his colleagues.

You have to hand it to the Aussie Labor Party: if its leaders don’t perform, they are quickly and efficiently dispatched.

The party’s had a string of leaders in recent years and if new leader Julia Gillard can’t save it from electoral defeat in a few months it will shaft her, too.

The party’s New Zealand parliamentary counterpart doesn’t have the same ruthless survival instincts to oust its leaders when it can’t win.

Our Labour MPs, in their hearts, knew Helen Clark couldn’t win the last election and know Phil Goff can’t win the next one.

But, as they did with Clark, they’ll go into denial and pretend that as long as they plod along they’ll still have a chance.

Ouch. Tough words.

Unfortunately, softness on the left isn’t restricted to national politics. Questions are being raised about its standard bearer Len Brown’s durability in the Auckland mayoral campaign.

Until this month he looked unassailable. But his stumbling over his credit card use made him look weak. His key advisers, by blaming his problems on a media beat-up, make him look like a whiner. No one votes for a victim.

Anyway, it’s legitimate for the media to put him under scrutiny as voters do want to know whether he’s up to job. His responses tell us a lot about what sort of person he is.

Brown has a winning way with voters face-to-face but he does have to convince us he can be a capable chief executive, given some of the recent spending in Manukau City.

Brown had better lift his game because other contenders are starting to smell opportunity.

Theatre director and actor Simon Prast’s entry into the mayoral race on Friday helps the right wing’s strategy of encouraging a split to the anti-Banks vote. Prast should be able to garner up to 10 per cent of the vote, and that will harm Brown.

I assume there will be more “celebrity” candidates. More worrying for Brown, though, is a strong rumour that a poll has been commissioned to test Stephen Tindall’s chances.

I’ve been hearing Labour are starting to panic over the Brown candidacy, and are looking around. If Tindall enters, they may swap their support to him.

After his display of head slapping, Len Brown should perhaps be known as Loosehead Len – and this is one of the kinder things being said. I’ll start with Kerre Woodham:

Just when I didn’t think things could get any worse for Len Brown, he goes and does it again.

And before his fans leap up and down and say I’m part of some spooky right-wing conspiracy, I’m not.

He had my vote before the events of the last couple of weeks. Not for any particularly compelling reason. I just thought that if we had a centre-right government, it balanced things up a bit to have a centre-left mayor. …

Then came the claims of persecution and the protestations of being victimised. That was unattractive, but what really turned me off was the performance Brown gave to the Manukau City Council on Tuesday night.

When I say performance, I don’t for a minute think he was acting. Far from it. I think he believed every word when he cried out passionately that he’d risen from his hospital bed after a near-fatal heart attack for the love of the people.

That when he walked in the door, looking like a bloody skeleton, it was because he cared, not because he could put a few more cups of coffee on the mayoral credit card. I’m sure that’s true.

But emotional blackmail is hardly a rational response to requests for financial accountability. Nor is beating yourself about the head and face.

That was weird. In his soliloquy, Brown repeatedly hit himself in the face and chest, saying if people had a problem, they should come and see him.

That was enough for me.

You need somebody a little less … overwrought … as mayor of New Zealand’s first super city.

And that is from a Grey Lynn liberal who was planning to vote for Len Brown.

Next Matt McCarten. Matt is as left as you can get:

This brings me to the parallel universe of local government politics in which Labour Party-backed mayoral hopeful Len Brown has credit card problems of his own.

His use was careless at best and, as many Aucklanders don’t know much about him, his misuse will worry them. But it was his response, like Carter’s, which is more revealing.

The cutting up of his credit card on television was a cheap stunt. Was he saying he can’t be trusted with a credit card to do his job?

Well perhaps he was, as he seemed incapable of keeping proper receipts and he outright refuses to comply with his Council’s own policy to identify who was at a dinner.

His explanation on why he used his card to buy personal items was because his wife had their joint card raises more concerns. Everyone knows couples can get a card each on joint accounts.

And as they are signature cards, you can’t borrow each other’s card. That one had porkie all over it.

It’s good he apologised but his emotional presentation to his council was disturbing. His opponents can’t believe their luck and are predictably using it as evidence Brown is unstable and loose with ratepayers’ money.

But Len explained away his actions as being the Maori way to do things. Fortunately the SST has talked to some actual Maori on this claim:

But broadcaster Willie Jackson rejected that. “The spin about it being a Maori gesture is rubbish. I’ve never heard anything like it.”

Jackson said Brown’s team had made a poor decision in claiming a cultural element to the antics.

“I don’t know what the hell they were talking about, having been a Maori every day of my life,” Jackson said. “Len needs to harden up or he’s going to gift this campaign to John Banks.

“This campaign was his to lose and he’s doing a good job of that.”

Willie is also of the left. This is hardly the vast right wing conspiracy. Willie was also backing Brown over the credit card before his display at Council.

Once Were Warriors star Temuera Morrison said what Brown did was “more like caveman stuff”.

He said haka participants slapped their chests and thighs “to get unison with everyone and feel the rhythm”. The gesture to invite people to “come and get me” usually involved poking out the tongue.

“I don’t know what this guy was doing,” Morrison said. “This guy is on another planet.”

Ouch.

Auckland University Maori studies expert Dr Ranginui Walker was also unconvinced. “In the old days widows used to cut their breasts and chests when their husbands died or when warriors were slain.

“But I’ve never heard of men doing any such thing.”

Well we can at least be relieved Loosehead Len didn’t start cutting himself on live television.

The NZ Herald reported:

Manukau Mayor and Super City mayoral front-runner Len Brown broke nearly every rule in the book when he put $810 on his council credit card for a dinner at a Manurewa restaurant last September.

The council credit card policy bars card-holders from submitting only an eftpos receipt to verify spending, but that is all Mr Brown provided after the dinner at Volare Restaurant.

He also breached rules requiring him to explain the purpose of the dinner, list who was present, provide an itemised breakdown of the dinner, a GST receipt and a tax invoice.

But Len Brown declared, according to the Sunday Star Times:

At the committee meeting he refused to say who he took to the Volare function.

“Will I give you the names? Never. I want to tell you that, I feel so intensely strong about this,” he said, saying the privacy of the attendees needed to be respected.

This is rank stupidity. Either Len Brown is getting very bad advice, or he is not taking it. According to the Herald it is Council policy to list who was present. The right to privacy disappears when you get paid for by the ratepayers.

How can you be Mayor of a Council and say publicly you refuse to follow their rules – that effectively you are above the law?

The SST has information that strongly suggests the function was not a fundraiser as described by Brown:

On Monday Brown told TVOne’s Breakfast co-host Paul Henry it was “a totally appropriate occasion. It was fundraiser in support of a young singing artist in our community”.

He added: “This is a bona-fide purchase of a table in support of a fundraiser for one of our excellent young musical talents coming through.”

Sounds clear, but:

But the event on September 27 last year was a dinner featuring professional Australian-based opera tenor Geoff Knight, a former member of the Highway 61 motorcycle gang who is aged in his forties.

In 2008 it was reported Knight was “already performing internationally, most recently a four-month stint with Rockdale Opera in Sydney, singing the lead tenor role of Captain Fitzbattleaxe in Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta Utopia Limited; and earning comparisons to the great Italian tenors”.

The evening was organised by the restaurant’s owner Daniel Nahkle. The cost per head was $70 which included “a sensational five course set menu”.

Speaking from the Gold Coast today, Knight said he was invited to sing at the evening by Nahkle and was paid “a small donation” for the night which “I split with the pianist”.

He said it was around a few hundred dollars.

So if the Mayor’s table was one of 15 tables, then they contributed around $20 to the young (in his 40s) Australian based singer and $790 to the restaurant for the five course dinner.

The Herald reports:

Earlier, it emerged that Mr Brown continued to break rules after being warned by senior staff to provide correct documentation when using his council credit card.

Finance director Dave Foster yesterday said he told Mr Brown about twice in the past year that he was not providing the correct documents with his card purchases.

Other senior staff had also raised the issue with the mayor.

But not much they can do when it is the Mayor – they can’t threaten to remove his card.

An Audit New Zealand-initiated probe of incomplete tax invoices has identified 25 cases among the council’s 172 credit card holders.

Of the 25 cases, 13 relate to Mr Brown, including an $810 dinner at Volare Restaurant in Manurewa that is also missing written documentation specifying the purpose of the dinner, who was present and giving an itemised breakdown.

So Len Brown represents 52% of undocumented credit card transactions at the Council, despite being just 0.6% of the card holders.

I can understand people initially being sloppy, but what does it say when you ignore your own senior staff’s warnings and requests that you are in breach of Council policy?

The NZ Herald reports:

Manukau Mayor and Super City mayoral front-runner Len Brown broke nearly every rule in the book when he put $810 on his council credit card for a dinner at a Manurewa restaurant last September.

The council credit card policy bars card-holders from submitting only an eftpos receipt to verify spending, but that is all Mr Brown provided after the dinner at Volare Restaurant.

He also breached rules requiring him to explain the purpose of the dinner, list who was present, provide an itemised breakdown of the dinner, a GST receipt and a tax invoice.

It was approved merely on the basis of an EFTPOS receipt. This is hugely sloppy.

Mr Brown’s credit card problems will come under the microscope today when documents detailing $16,977.22 of his credit card expenditure since 2007 will be discussed by the council’s policy and activities committee.

Whale Oil has details of some of these. I’ll return to that.

Mr Brown cut up his credit card on Campbell Live last week and told the Herald that if he became the first mayor of the Super City, he would use a purchase account and regularly publish details of his spending.

He said he accepted the public scrutiny, but believed it was part of a smear campaign by his opponents because of his poll lead over Mr Banks.

This is just hysterical nonsense. Sure opponents jump on the stories, but one has to be demented to think that the Sunday Star-Times is working for John Banks. They are the most left wing newspaper in New Zealand. They have actually scrutinised the expenses of all four major Auckland mayors, after Andrew Williams came to attention. Bob Harvey was covered also (and he is not standing for anything) but his affairs were not too out or order. The problem for Len Brown is his use of it on repeated occasions for personal purchases, and also nickel and diming it for every conceivable expense, despite a household income of probably well over $300,000 a year.

Whale Oil has details of some of the spending, They include:

• $280 to attend Labour Party conference (later refunded)
• $2,800 to Dress for Suc­cess Celebrity Wait­ers
• $768 at the Viaduct Restaurant and Bar. Now one might assume this is in Auckland, but in fact it is in Christchurch – rather distant from Manukau.
• $316 for food after the santa parade

He has also put up a 74 page pdf of all the spending – from kids ice creams to bottles of wine.

The Herald reports:

The dinner, at the Volare Italian Restaurant last September, cost $810 and was listed as an expense on the mayoral credit card.

Last night, Mr Brown told the Herald that the dinner was “most definitely” council business, a fundraiser attended by council staff and community members.

Council chief executive Leigh Auton also issued a statement in relation to the Sunday Star Times article, confirming that staff did ask the restaurant to make up a new receipt.

But he stressed that was only so that a GST number was included – as the original did not have one – and in no way was the restaurant asked to exclude any details from the receipt.

Mr Auton said that during a regular internal audit process, council staff had made several phone calls to suppliers to get copies of transaction receipts.

But at no time was anyone asked to “make them up”, he said.

“Yes, a staff member did ask for a copy of a receipt. But at no time was the restaurant asked to fabricate or exclude details, and this has been confirmed by the restaurant owner.

I said in yesterday’s post that this was one of three possible explanations, and it is the most benign of the three scenarios, which is good.

It is still a bit alarming that an $800 receipt was accepted with no GST number, as this is a breach of the GST Act. Also having a new receipt created is also a breach. The proper procedure is to supply a copy of the original GST receipt and mark it as a copy.

While it seems clear there was no wrong doing to deliberately get less embarrassing receipts, I would still ask the question if the Council has a copy of a more detailed receipt, and if so will it release it under the OIA?