Media browned off with mayor
It has been nearly four months since Wayne Brown secured the biggest directly elected role in the country, and became mayor of Auckland.
Since arriving at the council HQ, Brown has given only two interviews, of sorts, and made a couple of short, managed media appearances on specific topics.
It is a deliberate choice. Brown doesn’t have a lot of time for the media, believing it favours trivialities and not the big issues. He is not a natural in an unpredictable media setting, like a multi-journalist stand-up.
Aucklanders generally don’t have the chance to talk to the mayor about what he is up to, or challenge him on things he is advocating for, and seek clarity about comments he makes, or thoughts he issues in writing.
That’s where the media comes in. Or not, in Brown’s case.
In his first month in the job, there were 54 media requests for an interview with the new mayor. Two were given, and offered no new insights.
Brown and his advisers believe they are communicating with Aucklanders by issuing written statements, with the mayor penning the occasional column.
The inadequacy of that approach was highlighted in Brown’s latest column in the New Zealand Herald, in which he made statements that certainly merited challenging.
‘‘There’s no growth, and Auckland’s population has fallen,’’ declared Brown as an argument for questioning the need for light rail across the isthmus, and for housing intensification along its path.
Auckland’s population did dip slightly in the middle of the Covid-19 border closures, but is still projected to lift – from
1.7 million to 2 million – by the early 2030s.
And the population did not fall everywhere across the city, with strong growth on the rural fringes, and the sharpest fall in the central city and suburbs – not Mt Roskill and Māngere, which are key light rail catchments.
Brown also repeated his view that empty offices in the city centre could be converted to apartments to accommodate population growth, an idea that seems out of step at a time of higher apartment vacancy rates and softer rents.
There is a debate to be had over the merits of different forms of light rail, but it would also be interesting to discuss with the mayor whether a mid-pandemic population blip is a basis for changing housing policy and long-term transport infrastructure plans.
It would also be interesting to discuss with the mayor the stillfledgling agreement with government, to discuss long-term transport and port relocation issues in a joined-up way.
With the details of that sensible agreement still being worked out, Brown has chosen to publicly bag light rail, and press for a faster shrinkage of the space used by the port – something he has yet to win political consensus around, even if a faster retreat was possible.
Also stated as fact in Brown’s column was this: ‘‘Auckland Transport is preparing to trial dynamic bus lanes on feeder roads, which, coupled with transponders already fitted on buses, should speed them up and leave a lane for parking to help keep the shops open.’’
It was news to Auckland Transport when Stuff sought clarification, so why does the mayor believe this is a reality?
There is much to discuss with the mayor.
Is climate change action on the back burner? Because that’s how it looks with funding at best frozen, rather than the stepping up which the previous council said would be needed.
Being able to interview the mayor is not some kind of trophy for the media organisations who would wish to, it’s an important part of the democratic process, and of being accountable to public scrutiny.