Halting the Wayne in interest

What great interest Wayne Brown has created in local body elections since being elected Mayor of Auckland (not so) Super City.

Journalists are obsessed with him, scrambling to turn any minutiae they can find about the man into headlines, while cartoonists lampoon him.

In fact, the media coverage of him has been so intense that in the space of a few short weeks, thanks to the lightning-rod effect, Wayne Brown has become a household name.

There has been despair over voter apathy in local body elections again this year, but Brown has now invigorated voter and media interest in a way that has eluded the highlypaid local government officials and other meeting-heavy think-tanks on the vexed problem of a 35 per cent voter turnout.

Much has been made of the $290,000 mayoral salary and whether Wayne Brown will work hard and long enough to warrant the money. Others may argue, that Brown has already earned his firstyear salary by the way he has shaken up the dreary local body system and put the serious issues squarely in front of all New Zealanders.

If a 70 per cent voter turn-out is the goal for 2025, then give Wayne the job.