Speaker 1: Cielda.
Speaker 2: I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a
Speaker 2: daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. Auckland's Mayor
Speaker 2: Wayne Brown has never shied away from telling us exactly
Speaker 2: what he thinks. He waged war on council controlled organizations
Speaker 2: like Ekepinuku and Tatagi Auckland Unlimited, with proposals to abolish
Speaker 2: them all together and bring their activities in house.
Speaker 1: He's never thought twice in criticizing who.
Speaker 2: He calls the weasels in Wellington or central Government, and
Speaker 2: is also never shied away from voicing his concerns around
Speaker 2: Auckland Transport, which is currently dealing with a wave of
Speaker 2: violent attacks on drivers and passengers. Today, on the Front Page,
Speaker 2: Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown joins us to discuss these issues
Speaker 2: ahead of his trip to China, where he hopes to
Speaker 2: put the city of Sales on the do list for investors.
Speaker 1: First off, how was Brazil?
Speaker 2: You're off to China next as well? And how are
Speaker 2: you going to get more Chinese investment in Auckland.
Speaker 3: Well, they're kind of linked. Brazil and China are led
Speaker 3: miles apart, but we suffer in New Zealand because the
Speaker 3: member of the world is on a flat like that,
Speaker 3: and we're always down this bottom corner down here, And
Speaker 3: in America they save a bit of time by rolling
Speaker 3: it back and they cut that bit off, and so
Speaker 3: when they see a MEMP in America, we don't even exist.
Speaker 3: And when we do exist, we think, well, we're separated
Speaker 3: from the rest of the world, but in fact it's
Speaker 3: the globe, and people forget that. In America, they still
Speaker 3: have a flat out society. It's called TV. But the
Speaker 3: shortest route from southern China to Brazil is if you
Speaker 3: fly and land in Auckland and head off to Salpulo.
Speaker 3: But as at the moment, no planes go there. And
Speaker 3: I'm trying to encourage it to happen because the trade
Speaker 3: between Brazil and China is four hundred and ninety billion.
Speaker 1: We want to cut of that.
Speaker 3: And if it comes through here, even if we only
Speaker 3: get one percent of it, which we would do easily enough,
Speaker 3: probably I'm looking at four or five percent of it.
Speaker 3: One percent of it doubles the Auckland GDP. That's how
Speaker 3: big this stuff is. And it's the sort of stuff
Speaker 3: that I'm kind of in a unique position to probably
Speaker 3: make it happen more than the government will, because the
Speaker 3: government sort of a half pay aware of that, but
Speaker 3: then be handed and a whole bunch of civil servants
Speaker 3: in Willington nothing ever happens. And I know Brazil pretty well.
Speaker 3: I've been going there for a long time, start off
Speaker 3: with safing, but it gone into other things. And I
Speaker 3: wrote a book called a five Minute Mba, which was
Speaker 3: translated into Portuguese and becoming a best seller in Brazil.
Speaker 3: So and I gave a copy of that to the
Speaker 3: mirror of sal Paulo and to the vice president of
Speaker 3: the sal Paula Origin, so it's kind of an interesting thing.
Speaker 3: And then in China, I've been going there for a
Speaker 3: long time with business, my own businesses and other ones,
Speaker 3: so I know how to behave in both of those ones.
Speaker 3: I've led business delegations to China, I've led them downe
Speaker 3: to you, and now I've led one to Brazil, so
Speaker 3: I know how to put the stuff together. The council,
Speaker 3: we spend a whole lot of money on business development,
Speaker 3: which doesn't develop any business at all. We've built a
Speaker 3: television studio. We can't get rid of that lost money.
Speaker 3: My predecessor did that. I wouldn't do stuff like that.
Speaker 2: How confident are you that you're going to get that
Speaker 2: route in place?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm quite confident because I've now got an airline.
Speaker 3: China Southern are quite keen to do this at the moment.
Speaker 3: If you go from if you want to go to Brazil,
Speaker 3: you have to fly lat Ham and they land in
Speaker 3: San Diego. It's a nice flight to San Diego, and
Speaker 3: then you get on a horrible, really small plane and
Speaker 3: fly across the Andes to Brazil to South Paulo, and
Speaker 3: it takes a long time and it's uncomfortable as momenteering,
Speaker 3: and the flights are full.
Speaker 4: You can't even get on the damn things. So there's
Speaker 4: a demand there already. And China Southern.
Speaker 3: We have five Chinese airlines flying into Auckland anyhow, and
Speaker 3: China thousand is the biggest, is the biggest airline outside
Speaker 3: America in the world, and they have three thousand flights
Speaker 3: a day, which is hard to imagine.
Speaker 2: In terms of like having conversations with Chinese investors as well.
Speaker 2: I know the government is keen to get more foreign
Speaker 2: investment into the country.
Speaker 5: Peter says, China is New Zealand's most important and complex
Speaker 5: by lateral relationship. It's ten years since New Zealand signed
Speaker 5: a comprehensive strategic partnership with China. Since then, It's exports
Speaker 5: to China have doubled. China's ambassador said recently he hopes
Speaker 5: that trade continues to flourish.
Speaker 6: China stands ready to work with New Zealand on the
Speaker 6: basis and mutual respect, mutual benefit, none interference in each
Speaker 6: others internal affairs, and constructive management of differences.
Speaker 2: Maybe they can help pay for transport here, Wayne, Wasn't
Speaker 2: the government's three year budget for transport in Auckland about
Speaker 2: five hundred and sixty four million dollars less than you
Speaker 2: guys hope for.
Speaker 3: Yes, it was, and we've kind of adjusted. We've believe
Speaker 3: they are sharing because I've got control of the fine
Speaker 3: answers here moderately. Will you know, we're not lifting our
Speaker 3: rates by as much as anything like as much as
Speaker 3: other cities. And that's despite the fact that I wanted
Speaker 3: into a three hundred and seventy five million dollar lost
Speaker 3: carefully concealed by my predecessor. So we're in quite good
Speaker 3: order in that part of it there. And also there
Speaker 3: is nearly two hundred thousand Chinese in Auckland, and.
Speaker 4: A lot of them come from Guangzhou.
Speaker 3: And we've got a thirty five year sister city arrangement
Speaker 3: with Guangzhou. So I'm going to visit that that we
Speaker 3: should respect these relationships. They're very important. And in China,
Speaker 3: mayors of big stuff and I'm shijan Or mayor of
Speaker 3: the largest in New Zealand, and that will be treated
Speaker 3: with a fever to respect in China. And so you
Speaker 3: can sometimes open doors. Even in Brazil, I was able
Speaker 3: to meet the Vice President of the region and some
Speaker 3: other people that did. In fact, the Minister of Foreign Trade.
Speaker 3: He's a bloody good miniSTR. I've got to say I'll
Speaker 3: get on well with Todd McLay. But he went to
Speaker 3: some other things and I went to some things, different things,
Speaker 3: and then we come to other and work together and
Speaker 3: we're kind of and so there's a certain technique in
Speaker 3: being comfortable in places like China and Brazil. It's a
Speaker 3: bit like you get used to being on a Maria.
Speaker 3: People who used to going on the Marai are used
Speaker 3: to going and arow and people haven't been on Arab
Speaker 3: who don't know what to do and China and Brazil
Speaker 3: have their own behaviors and I'm comfortable with them. And
Speaker 3: I speak hard in any words of Portuguese, despite the
Speaker 3: fact that we got a book there. But I do
Speaker 3: speak about of Chinese, not a lot, but enough. When
Speaker 3: I open a speech, I always have two or three sentences,
Speaker 3: not just one word, and that goes down very well.
Speaker 4: All of that stuff is relationship building.
Speaker 3: Thirty five years of being involved with Ganjo, our city,
Speaker 3: that is a very important thing. We're going to the
Speaker 3: Shanghai city. I know quite well the Shanghai Import, export,
Speaker 3: exhibition and trade, and so partially when I'm doing is
Speaker 3: getting this flow between here and South America. And it's
Speaker 3: also just using my contacts and doors that I open
Speaker 3: to benefit those businesses that come with you. Like in Brazil.
Speaker 3: We visited a firm there which is getting into aerospace,
Speaker 3: and I'm going to put them together with Zeno back
Speaker 3: here because they can be complementary. Everyone doesn't have to
Speaker 3: re emit the wheel. It's been invented.
Speaker 2: If we look back at Auckland, I wanted to talk
Speaker 2: to you about a couple of things back here in
Speaker 2: terms of ten point six million dollars needed for the
Speaker 2: broken pedestrian footbridge and the viaduct. A is it going
Speaker 2: to be opened by Christmas? And B is that a
Speaker 2: mismanagement by ek Pinuku it'd bit.
Speaker 3: To be bloody open by Christmas. You'd have to say
Speaker 3: it hasn't been well managed over a period of time.
Speaker 3: But on the other hand, we have had it in
Speaker 3: Auckland of there's nothing so permanent as something called temporary,
Speaker 3: and that was a temporary one built years ago and
Speaker 3: it became permanent. They should have been thinking about that
Speaker 3: earlier in the peace before they suddenly just got us
Speaker 3: rusting a bit. Similarly, if you go down to Princess Wharfa,
Speaker 3: is that weird looking cloud plastic building which is deteriorating
Speaker 3: fast that was built fifteen years ago for two.
Speaker 4: Years and still there.
Speaker 3: And so we've got to get in the habit of
Speaker 3: if somebody is going to be temporary, we should finish
Speaker 3: it and dump it in the interim period. While they've
Speaker 3: been mucking around by spending a really an inordinately high
Speaker 3: amount of money for repairing that bridge, I got to say, though,
Speaker 3: we've got them to put in a temporary little ferry
Speaker 3: that goes back because in force and I was down
Speaker 3: there the other day and the people saying, we love
Speaker 3: the ferry.
Speaker 4: We don't have the bridge now, so what's cheaper?
Speaker 3: You saying, well, the fairy's cheaper. But we've got them.
Speaker 3: They're doing the bridge. We're quite good at moaning as
Speaker 3: a country, and the people there moaning that's killing our
Speaker 3: business because we don't have a bridge. They're actually not
Speaker 3: on an island.
Speaker 2: Or talking about CCO is what's the plan there?
Speaker 1: When are we getting rid of them?
Speaker 3: Last year would have been a good time. I can't
Speaker 3: have to bring my counsel with me, and I have
Speaker 3: to bring the government with me.
Speaker 4: AT which is a very widely disliked.
Speaker 3: Organization and has adopted a very independent culture because it
Speaker 3: was granted an independent status.
Speaker 7: In his own blestering letter to transport bosses, Wayne Ground
Speaker 7: called disruptions unacceptable and omni shambles and said he could
Speaker 7: use other words. He says Aucklanders have reached the end
Speaker 7: of their patients.
Speaker 3: What's driving one of my actions here is that I
Speaker 3: don't mind being criticized for things that I've actually done wrong.
Speaker 4: But I'm fed up.
Speaker 3: I've being criticized for things that I don't have much
Speaker 3: control over, and I think what I'm wanting to have
Speaker 3: is that turned into a delivery mechanism and get them
Speaker 3: concentrating on delivering and the not concentrating it because they're
Speaker 3: wondering into policy and things, which is really what the
Speaker 3: Council should be doing. And so and I think I'm
Speaker 3: working pretty well with Minister Simme and Brown over this
Speaker 3: and I'm looking forward to quite a good result out
Speaker 3: of this and some of the other things they're doing.
Speaker 3: The CEO reform was one of the things that was
Speaker 3: right at the top of the things I campaigned on,
Speaker 3: and so people liked it. I went to three hundred
Speaker 3: menis not one person said, oh, I know, I leave them.
Speaker 4: As they are.
Speaker 3: And so we have a lot of I don't like duplication,
Speaker 3: but we're not any duplication. We have triplication. We have
Speaker 3: quadruplication in some places. Everybody does events and in fact
Speaker 3: the best events aren't even done by any of those
Speaker 3: parts and pieces of the last Saturday I joined fifteen
Speaker 3: thousand are the very happy people in the main street
Speaker 3: of Ada who for the Oda Who Food Festival, which
Speaker 3: half of the people on the council demon I was
Speaker 3: on and it's the biggest food festival in the country.
Speaker 3: They sold one hundred and twenty different food stalls months
Speaker 3: before it happened. I just sold that snap overnight. Every
Speaker 3: food person wanted to be there and it was fantastic.
Speaker 2: So with this CCO plan, have you got a timeline
Speaker 2: or what kind of mechanisms do you have to work through? First?
Speaker 1: Who you need to get on board to make that happen.
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, I have to get on board
Speaker 3: the councilors that we need to do something about it,
Speaker 3: and they are on board. We've got them on board encouragement,
Speaker 3: but they are with regard to AT I do need
Speaker 3: the government to work with me because it does have
Speaker 3: a statutory position.
Speaker 2: Well, speaking of Auckland transport, you haven't seen these figures,
Speaker 2: but OIA figures released to Newstalk zb's Michael Sergel shows
Speaker 2: that there were ninety three incidents a week on Auckland's
Speaker 2: public transport in the year to August. That's an average
Speaker 2: of thirteen a day, and in August alone, on one
Speaker 2: train network alone, at reported twenty three assaults, nine robberies
Speaker 2: or thefts.
Speaker 1: Is that good enough?
Speaker 4: You want the real rus to do more? No?
Speaker 3: The question you meant is that bad enough, and it
Speaker 3: is really bad, but it's a reflection of society is
Speaker 3: just getting worse behaved everywhere. I mean, we've had people
Speaker 3: shot and Ponsonby of all places, and badly at is reflecting.
Speaker 4: What's going on outside everywhere.
Speaker 3: We've got lots and lots of people catch the bus
Speaker 3: until the driver the stuff off. You know, I'm going
Speaker 3: to bash it. I'm not paying, you know, and you
Speaker 3: think not good. So it just reflects society. Reading the
Speaker 3: paper today, that's an enormous number of children went at
Speaker 3: school last month. They're not going to grow up to
Speaker 3: be doctors and engineers.
Speaker 1: And it is Auckland a safe city, do you reckon well?
Speaker 4: And relatively safe, you know.
Speaker 3: I have just been to South Paulo and they took
Speaker 3: me around in an arm and Range rover with it's
Speaker 3: the bulletpro windows.
Speaker 4: But it's not as safe as I would like it
Speaker 4: to be.
Speaker 7: Probably not that safe when I'm alone.
Speaker 2: I'm not too bad when I'm with friends and stuff,
Speaker 2: but it's probably kind of getting a bit worse over
Speaker 2: there is.
Speaker 6: Differently, when it gets past into dark, I do find
Speaker 6: it a wee bit kind of looking over my shoulder
Speaker 6: sometimes and there's always a few characters around, but I
Speaker 6: generally find it really safe.
Speaker 2: Lastly, I wanted just to do some quick fires with you, Mayor,
Speaker 2: just because I know that you need to get packing
Speaker 2: your bags first off.
Speaker 1: Just yes or nose or really quickly.
Speaker 2: When's the open air saltwater swimming pool opening at the viaduct?
Speaker 4: Well, if that doesn't open and the same role, be
Speaker 4: really annoyed.
Speaker 1: You'll be annoyed. When's I want to.
Speaker 4: Swimm and that by the time the water's warm.
Speaker 1: When is Auckland getting a bed tax?
Speaker 4: Asked Minister Doocey.
Speaker 1: Are you running in next year's local election?
Speaker 3: As distinct possibility but not saying this or no?
Speaker 4: Just it?
Speaker 1: And lastly is Wellington Council of shambles Well?
Speaker 3: I haven't been too willing to look at it, but
Speaker 3: everything and I'm here is that it leaves a lot
Speaker 3: to be desired from what I understand.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, Mayor.
Speaker 2: That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You
Speaker 2: can read more about today's stories and extensive news coverage
Speaker 2: at nzet Herald dot co dot nz. The Front Page
Speaker 2: is produced by Ethan Seles with sound engineer Paddy Fox.
Speaker 1: I'm Chelsea Daniels.
Speaker 2: Subscribe to the front page on iHeartRadio or wherever you
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